People who want to enjoy a little citybreak in Netherlands and at the same time see something else than just Amsterdam I would reccomend Maastricht.

It´s a 2.5 hours away from Amsterdam and the train ticket is about 30€. Maastricht has lot to offer, many shops and restaurant. The best part of the city is, that it´s quite small so you wont get lost and while you are shopping you can enjoy the old town it self. There are many cathedrals, fortresses and old buildings all around the city so you don´t have to go elsewhere to search them.

Adorable town with great surroundings and friendly people. If you’re into history or architecture at all, this is the place to be! The high-speed train Thalys from Paris to Cologne operates via Aachen, so if you’re on your way to one of those cities, make sure to step out of the train in Aachen before you continue any further. The border of Belgium and Holland is just a short bus ride away too and because of all the commuters, the connections to places like Vaals are really good.

My boyfriend happen to be on business trip in Maastricht, and very lucky of him to be visiting this amazing city.

Maastricht is the sunniest city in Holland. It is a splendid fortified city of Roman origin set on the river Maas. With its location in the most southern part of Holland it is the perfect hub for excursions to Belgium, France, and Germany.

Maastricht is known as the oldest town in Holland and its history stretches back to 50 BC when the Romans set up camp on the banks of the Maas river. Fortification walls still partly surround the city and are part of a magnificent city walk. One monumental hallmark of its wealthy history is the Basilica of Saint Servatius, a medieval cruciform basilica, the core of which dates from 1000 BC! Crypts from the 11th and 12th century have graves of Saint Servatius, the first bishop of Holland. The cathedral was considerably enlarged in the 14th and 15th century and currently hosts an important collection of religious art objects.

I bought my iPod nano 4th generation last saturday for an impulse. I have an apple mini 3 years ago, and its battery is not working, since I got this apple complex, so I choose it again for a price that I could accept. “Apple touch” have more functions that is more suitable for western users, not very practical in China, where you can not even have an itune store account for download anything.

Now, after two days playing with it, I got my own thoughts about it for anyone who want to learn something about this new edition of Apple nano:

Love it for:

1. Its industrial design, no best words could descibe its excellence in this point.

2. Its material said to be recyclable and green, so a nice choice for green life followers.

3. So thin and so portable to bring it with you anywhere, anytime.

4. Simple design with powerful functions, I quite like the cover flow function, and each song going with amazing album covers which could easily got from the itune account.Free and very fun doing this.

5. Just a little shake around, it could change a song for you, surprise

6. Genuis funcition, more practical for those with thousands of songs in the computer but too lazy to got them all listened. It may pick songs according to your flavor.

Even though in China, one can not register for an itune account, but I manage to get one, there is always solution.

Hate it for:

Earphone quality and Music quality just being so-so, can’t please to those picky ears, and those who are real music geeks. But to me, maybe change a earphone would be better enough.

Above it all, apple nano is incomplete but unique. With apple, you may feel very happy playing with music, not just listening to them.

If the surrounding and geography both meet our demand, the house got green environment, fresh air, low noise and the geography is also very fine, then it can’t be better. But the reality is “fish and bear paw” can’t be gained at the same time.

If you happen to find a house like this, then its price would be freek you out, unless you are one of very rich peoples who spend money like paper.

So, for the sake of my health, I choose surroundings and the green area, others, I bear. I could bear spending more time on the road to work, or shopping less and less since I live too far away from the downtown. That’s no totally bad, it helps me save. Remember to pay attention to the property management since you do want the plants the landscaping been cared for in your neighborhoods.

Don’t rely too much on the subway. Believe me, a terribly jamed subway on the rush hours maybe more worse than you thought.

That’s a quite an pleasant feeling when you see your orang trees plants are ripe. Look at those cute orange fruits, with nice color. Those happy fruits also have good representation according to chinese culture. So a very nice decoration in your home desk as well as a great fruit snack, totally nature, free of any harmful pesticide.

It’s a great looking plants choice you would like to choose to grow in your home, and it’s also vey interesting and easy to grow.Those little orange fruits can bring you happiness smile

Global warming seems to be extending its evil claw to our daily life. Today I even heard the terrible news from newspaper that one polar bear is swimming to death since it can’t find a complete land after several hours trying. Sounds horrible.

Going green seems to be the only solution to the problem of Global warming. To go green we ” the Humans” need to change our habits. Using bicycle to commute instead of polluting through energy consuming vehicles along with growing as many plants as possible can make a great difference to save this planet!

Don’t just blame, do something. Using bicycles can also has the bonus effect of loosing weight and good to health. Growing plants also can make our living enviroment better and nicer. So why not?

Home decor does requires inspirations and artistic creation. Simply the display of green plants in some corner of your room is not as easily as you thought.

Play your green plants like  a piece of art, they may achieve the effect of bringing the painted dragon to life by putting in the pupils of its eyes. Your room would have much live spirits with them.

1, First care about the plant breed you are choosing. Not all kinds of plants got that artistic look you are looking for.

2, Fitting in the surrounding colors. Capture their beauty by taking shots of you with them.

3, Learn how to grow each of them well by seaching info on the net, you don’t want to lose them in short time.

Whether it’s at home or your office, keeping plants is fun.

I was fasinated by this red color composition here, it must be the red maple leave that only can be seen on deep autumn.  This reminds me of a classic old song performed by Hongkong singer called: 片片枫叶情 “Feelings of maple leaf” .

The lyric is quite beautiful, while no English version is found. Listening to the song, you must be lost in nostalgia, trying to image what those old love story in the last generation looks like. I was born the 80’s generation, and this song is most popular during the time we are just born, but time made it become classic.

Nanjing got a great spot to watch red maple leaf called “ZiXia mountain”. It’s my mistake, who are so lazy to miss the great moment of those moment. Plus, it got so many people at that time, you can’t barely take a complete photo with no other head inside.

Leave you a question, we all know tulip is flower of love, what about the maple leaf ?

I bet there must be very green grass in your city, public ones or private ones. Each of those grass area are unique and offers a great place for leisure.

In the city I live, the green grass spot I remembered the most would be in front of the famous North Building in  the Nanjing Univercity. The grass breed are pricy and carefully trimmed, any irresponsible tread is totally banned. So laying down on those grass is impossible, but you got to take few shots to capture them in your memory.

Whenever there is a sunny day, you would see pretty girls walking around along the grass, reading, chatting. The students of Nanjing university is so lucky to enjoy such a beautiful campus with old old trees everywhere to tell us how the history has passed around the campus quietly.

Anyway, I like the feeling of walking or lying in the green green grass. My eyes and mind would be filled with green impressions.

Troubles gone. Smile Returns.

This past Dragon boat festival has leaving me a lot of happy moments and impressions. Three days off work, off the pressure, to stay with mom and dad, nowhere to go, just focusing on food and drink and sleep well.

Life is simple and happy. The spreading H1N1 flu horror has made lots of people changed their mind to go travelling somewhere in this short 3 days holiday. The airlines to some countries abroad is nearly closed up, such as Japan or Mexica.

I see no time better than staying with my family, since I really don’t stay with them too often after graduating from university and work in a different city, not far from home, but meet mom and dad less and less in a year. I nearly forget how my moms recipe tastes like. I quite like the fish dish she made.

When I at home, I keep a close look at our vegetable garden and found it very interesting, plus, I taken a few shots through Micro Lens model, turns out quite nice pictures.

面朝大海，春暖花开

by Hai Zi 海子

From tomorrow, be a happy man
Feeding horses, chopping woods, traveling around the world
From tomorrow, care for food and vegetables
I have a house, facing to the ocean, flowers blossoming in spring

From tomorrow, write to every daring family member
Tell them my happiness
What the lightening of happiness have told me
I will tell everybody

Get a warm name for every river every mountain
Stranger, I bless you too
Bless you a great future
Bless you be with your lover
Bless you receive happiness in your mortal life

And me, I want to face to the ocean, with flowers blossoming in spring

Such a beatiful poem. Pity that Hai Zi is passed away. Have blessings in your mind, slow down your life rythem and spend more time with your beloved family members.

Get away from all those intrigues against each other in life and work. Escape from all life’s trouble. “I have a house, facing to the ocean, flowers blossoming in spring”

Day by day, the summer heat would be more and more harder to endure, added there are many annoying insects, with mosquitos  to bear the brunt. Good news is that, some insect expects said earlier that, this 2009 summer year, mosquitos would be less than previous years. Reasons?

1, The weather acts like a naughty child, warm air, cold air comes by turns in March and Appril that even leaving temperature difference often up to 10 degrees………..Humans can barely endure, let alone the mosquitos.

2, Our city has been more clean and people pay more attention to hygiene matters.

Whatever, that’s the general case. What if you have a green garden near your home, will those plants and flowers attracts more mosquitos than elsewhere ? I believe so, that’s why people use insect killer in the garden.

That’s kind of dispointing, but the advantage of a green garden must exceeds these little unpleasant very greatly.