‘Mushrooms were the roses in the garden of that unseen world, because the real mushroom plant was underground. The parts you could see - what most people called a mushroom - was just a brief apparition. A cloud flower.’ ―Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood

If you've ever travelled to East Africa, you've most probably tried mandazi (fried donuts) with bharazi often found in smaller restaurants or sold by street vendors. We loved it! Traditionally bharazi is made with pigeon peas.

We have a huge harvest of leeks. Great, of course, but how do you process all these members of the Allium family? At that moment in autumn, I always open the book 'De Geur van Witte Rijst' (‘the fragrance of white rice’) , and cook my aunt Bep's 'sambal goreng leek'.

Anouk, a midwife and masseur from Belgium, asked me to design a very simple website where 'greens' and 'earth tones' would predominate. Her logo had to depict hands and a reference to India.

HER Film Festival is een geheel Corona-proof online filmfestival van 14 tot en met 23 oktober, gratis toegankelijk voor heel Nederland. Het filmfestival wordt aangeboden door Simavi in samenwerking met Cinetree. Door te investeren in meisjes en vrouwen, investeert Simavi in gezondere maatschappijen

UGANDA ~ Ever since we visited Uganda, we enjoy making mandazi now and then: light fluffy doughnuts. They are a great snack on their own but we love them paired with bharazi, an East African dish of pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk.

The others did appreciate this goodbye to their buddy. They held a memorial gathering at the chicken feed later that evening. Nine pairs of fists feasting on grains left over.

And all over the country, women as well as men are taking to the streets demanding freedom and justice. The Iranian regime brutally crushes the protests. Hundreds of people have been killed, hundreds injured, and thousands arrested. What can you do?

One morning a few days ago I saw several dragonflies, in different positions against the remains of what were blooming flowers a few weeks ago. They looked dead, with drops of dew on their wings and faces. Not a single movement, not even when I got closer. What was going on here?