North Bend Farm Logging News

Joe the logger (on the right in the photo) is doing a great job thinning our woodlot. The forester, John Clark, of Bay State Forestry Service was just here to check it out. There are no deep ruts, the slash is cut small and flattened out. The path into the back lot will be cleared of any brush by the time they are done. Joe says he will be done by the end of December. He does not work when it is raining. He observed two coyotes, they were not afraid of the forwarder (photo below). I figured it is mating season and we can expect many more soon. We are amazed by efficiency of the logging. One man cuts the trees and "limbs", another man comes and picks the 20 foot long logs up with the forwarder. In the driveway (staging area) he sorts the wood into a pile of saw wood and firewood. See Peter and our grandson Daniel next to the wood stack below. From here the hardwood is picked up by a huge logging truck. Joe says the hardwood goes to a mill in New Hampshire because there are only a few sawmills left here in New England. The firewood is hauled off to Joe's backyard, where he will cut and split it.

Family Links

My brother in-law, Just Donker recently updated the address list for the Donker family clan. More than 90 names, addresses, telephone numbers etc. All descendents of my parents in-law, Adriaan and Anna Margaretha Donker- Vallenduuk.

While compiling this list Just realized how many family members have an "internet presence" and added the links to the address list.
I thought it a fun idea to list them all here… in no particular order:

My nephew and painter Gijs Donker:

Gijs's younger brother, Justus Donker:

Thier tradically young deceased youngest brother, Adriaan Donker:

These boys father, my brother in-law, Willem runs the publishing company founded in 1936 by his father Ad. Donker:











Willem's wife Jos Exler
has been making a name for herself in "colorful couture" for some years now.








My brother in-law Frans Donker has been working hard selling books since 1976. He now owns and operates five great stores in Toronto Canada. The famous "Book City" stores.


My niece, Annette van der Hoek Phd, offers training in Sanskriet, Hini, yoga for children and many other subjects. Annette has her website locked with "shockwave" so I can't get a picture or logo for display here. This site is dutch language only.
Another niece, Anne-Margreet Bakker, started her own foundation, Moeder India (Mother India) to improve the living standards of low-income (poor) women in India by offering them an honest wage for honest work and providing a market for their product. Anne has her site locked down as well. Enough to see but no-go on the "save image as". This site is dutch language only as well.
Anne-Margreet's brother, Onno Bakker is into "Web and Mobile Messeging" with his fast growing company E-Buddy.




Please keep in mind that although I "copied and pasted" the images above they are as far as I am concerned owned by the people from which the website they come.

How the Granddaughter works the Grandmother

I had Coert on the phone this afternoon.... He hadn't shown Dana her portrait. During our talk Dana asked to speak to me when Coert and I were done. It turns out she had seen my last post and knew the painting was finished..... she put the screws to me arguing that she had already seen part of the portrait and just could not wait to see the finished painting... and she is my oldest grandchild... and they were talking about art at school... and this would be just soooo perfect - and... and... and then the meltdown. I agreed to e-mail her a photo. In the meantime Dana had gotten Coert into action and he brought up the picture I had mailed to him. Dana was breathless.
I had lent my camera to J.D. Now that I see this post I see that we somehow changed the the time/date setting.... This photo was taken on the 21st of November.

Portrait of my granddaughter

I finished the portrait of Dana yesterday.... I think it came out well and Dana's parents, Dorri and Coert, are very pleased. However, because the painting turned out to be more than a portrait of the little girl I'll only post this preview of the finished painting until she has seen it herself for real.

So much To Paint

I have been wanting to get to painting "big trees" since the fall colors have hit New England. But somehow other projects just keep coming along my path. First I spent time on the commissioned portraits for Dianne and Sam. A few days ago my son Coert sent me photos of his children, Dana and Christiaan. I just had to do something with that picture of Dana. So here we go again! I had already given up on the foliage and figured on painting tall white pines... Looks like it might be with a snowy background.

Two Portraits and a Party:

Here a picture of Diana Day next to the painting she is giving to her husband Ken for their anniversary. She posed for the painting in Princeton at the paint-group. Diana bought the vintage dress especially for the sitting. Since she now has the dress we, her friends in the neighborhood, decided we are all going to get a vintage dress and have a vintage Chrismas party.
The second painting is Sam Lipson, a long time friend. We both took our lifeguard course together way back in 1975. Sam is going to give his painting as a Christmas gift.
We had a nice cocktail party yesterday.... It turned into more of a suprise dinner party. I had baked a leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, gravy and peas. Linda Rochford made two pies, apple and cherry. It was a surprise for everyone that came. There were ten of us. Kind of a good thing that some of the regulars didn't show because we barely fit around the tables (I had a little table pushed up against the big dining room table). We all had a good time. While the women washed the dishes they all tried my quince liqueur. It should be ripe by Thanksgiving but it's pretty much gone now.

Pines and Foliage... the time of the season

Here are a couple of typical New England landscapes... A photograph taken a few days ago over at the pond accross from our house:

Then a painting (oil on canvas 90x40cm) I made for my son Coert a few years ago because this is one of his favorite places:
And another he "just had to have" from my studio.... this one is egg tempra on panel 30x15cm:
Have another look at my first Pines and Foliage post if you'd like to refresh your memory. You can also locate the pond on Google Earth via Coert's "Panoramio" site.

My favorite tree..... the Sweet Chestnut

Here is one of my favorite paintings, "the Chestnuts". I have turned down a couple of offers to sell it wanting to save it for the "small painting" exhibit coming up..... Maybe I'll just keep it. Chestnut trees, as you might know, used to be abundant in New England. Around the turn of the century there was a "blight" and all the majestic tall trees died. My barn was built out of chestnut timbers and boards because of that. When I was a girl in the Netherlands my brothers and I would go chestnut picking all through the neigborhood. My brother climbed into the trees to beat the nuts out of them so I could harvest from the ground with my other brother. Now my brothers get together every year and have a chestnut feast together. Potroast, chestnuts, pears, brusselssprouts etc. Once, about 10 years ago I was in the Netherlands around that time and I joined for the festive meal.
My son Coert has named a part of the forest he manages "Elisabeth's wood" because there are so many sweet chestnuts growing there.
Grotere kaart weergevenThats where he harvests with his family. They roast them in their fireplace. Every year at the end of October I think of the chestnuts, and you can understand my surprise when driving in Princeton one day I saw these chestnut trees, small, about the size of apple trees. They tured out to be Chineese chestnuts. They are in the yard of the Mirick family, on Mirick road. John Mirick is very active in the organization to grow blightfree chestnuts for New England. The American Chestnut Foundation.
Have a look and hopefully you too will appreciate the beauty of these majestic delicious fruit-bearing trees.

Egg tempera, getting back to business

Here are some some small paintings (approx. 5x9 inch) I did with egg tempera... a really different way to paint. Usually I work in oil paint. Egg tempera is mixing powder pigments with eggyolk. I particulary like it because we have chickens in the backyard, so fresh eggs are close at hand. I bought my pigments at the "Paintmill" "de Kat" on the Zaanse Schans they have been grinding pigments there since around 1782. At de Kat the pigments are ground from natural minerals. Pigements are easily obtainable in U.S. as well. Painting with egg tempera is tedious, not big brush work. If anyone is more interested, please get in touch with me and I will get them started on the nitty gritty. You can als take a look at what Wikipedia has to say on the subject with a click here.
Anyway, below are a birch-wood, a pair of Shagbark Hickorys and a Maple leaf. Up top, how could you paint anything in egg tempera without considering a basket of eggs?

the Last Hoorah of the Season

The sheep are running loose, it is the end of the season and they cannot do much harm to my garden anymore. My garden was breathtaking this year.
The asters and dahlia's are still blooming and in the morning the blue morninng glories. To see them in the morning sun! In the foto with the geese you can see some and also the tall yellow flowers. The last hoorah of the blooming season.
Click on the photo for an enlargement.