Baby blanket

After living for 20 years in Amsterdam I moved in may 1997 to a little city nearby, just me and my 2 boys; eldest was 5 and youngest was 6 months. We went to live in a collective housing project. The houses were build around a big garden, a beautiful place for children to play in, parties to celebrate, swimming in the summer, telling stories while sitting round the bonfire...I have good memories.
One of my neighbours was a girl of 12 years old, fond of eldest, and she adored youngest. She became my babysitter. When she grew up she went to live alone in one of the little apartments, build for one person. And when I left 5 years ago she, pregnant of her first child, came to live in my house. Next weekend I'm going to visit some friends, and I will pay her a visit too. She is pregnant of her third child now. I made a blanket for the new baby.
First I made a plan, yes, I sometimes do. My overall plan for this year is to knit and crochet only from my stash. I wanted to crochet granny squares of one colour. So I selected colours of cotton from which I was sure I had enough balls left....

These would be the main colours. And from other colours, selected at random, I would knit one square in each row, or something like that....

It was nice to crochet, I joined on the go, although I only crocheted the squares while it was so hot, and finished the blanket last weekend..

Zorro, our black cat, loved it too, see his feet...

And finished. This is the first time I made a kind of lacy border, and I love it. Most times I make solid ones.

I'm rather content with the result, I think my friend will love it too.

Groetjes, Gerda

Limburg

What's on a boys mind when we have the hottest days since 1994? Yes, ofcourse, winter, snow, snowboards. Eldest was, after doing a lot of research on the net,  searching on marktplaats (a second hand marketplace on internet, here in the Netherlands) for a secondhand snowboard and shoes. He had found one set in Limburg, but there would be a change the boats wouldn't fit, to small. And then he came across the sale section of a well known shop, also in Limburg near the indoor snowboarding place. So he had an idea, and presented it to me; the second hand snowboard would be perfect for youngest, who's going on winter sports camp with school in the end of december, the same time as eldest is going with his study friends.
And of we went, friday, for a 2 1/2 ours drive to the south of Limburg. My condition was that we had to go for a walk and picnic. We were lucky that it wasn't so hot yet.
First we went to Landgraaf, and when we arrived it was rather warm, so we fell out of the car and on the terrace of a pub. The most amazing sight was 6 boys sitting all packed up in their snowboard clothes. Okay, in the shadow, but still... It was almost 30 degrees outside. I know, on the snowboard arena it's cold.
Eldest was very happy with the board he bought, 50% cheaper because it was of last season.

And than we went to Epen, a little village were I stayed with G for some days 4 years ago.
Those typical timbered houses of Limburg...

And the most hilly landscape of the Netherlands...

We found little paths to walk..

We saw the typical cows of Limburg, and the usual black and white ones. Standing in the river....

Or looking for shadow...

And we walked besides the little river the Geul, which was flowing rather fast..

We found the most perfect place for a picnic, if only we did bring more than water...

When we arrived in Epen again we went looking for a picnic place, drove around a little bit, and found one under the trees....I had made some salads, it tasted delicious out in the woods.
And after a little visit to Slenaken we left for Roermond, were we bought the snowboard for youngest. The shoes fitted him very good. The man sold his equipment because he had a knee injury and couldn't go snowboarding anymore. He also had some clothes left, pants, jacket, cloves, and the boys could use that too. Last year they didn't go snowboarding at the same time, so they could use some things which belonged to the other. And now I had 2 very content kids, the man had a very good  equipment.

Later that evening, when we were home again, youngest came to sit besides me, and sad he had had a lovely day, and was very happy with the purchases.........

The weekend I made a effort to stay inside, it was to hot for me. On sunday I had to go to a birthday party, a half brother of my boys got 13.  I went early, and so did my ex parents in law;  it was nice to see them again. When I drove home it was HOT....even with the windows of the car opened it didn't cool down, the wind was hot too. I'm very happy the temperature is much better now, I can do things again....

Bridges

When we visited Valle Verzasca we came also in Lavertezzo, a little village halfway the valley. Just outside Lavertezzo is the Ponte dei Salti, which is often referred to as the Roman bridge. It only dates back to the 17th century, but it's a beautiful double-arched stone bridge.

It was the perfect place to have our picnic. And if you like to you can also go swimming or diving in the emerald green  (a gorgeous colour) water of the Verzasca river.  We only saw one boy who actually did jump.

One of the other days we went by boat to the other side of the Lago Maggiore, to the quaint little town of Cannobio. We took a boat like this....

And passed Maccagno... (were we went a few times to swim, and stay on the beach)...

Cannobio, a typical little town at the coast of the Lago Maggiore...

And we went up in the mountains again...

And down...

And we arrived at this cosy little beach, ofcourse without our swimming suits..

And this is the Roman bridge we were looking for, a real ancient one...

I so enjoy looking back and thinking again about our vacation in Italy. It such a beautiful environment, it felt so good being there. The mountains, the plants, the flowers, the villages. And when we were in Italy it wasn't such a good weather in Holland,  since we're back it's rather nice.  It feels as if we have such a long summer!! I really enjoy it.

Valle Verzasca

In Italy we spend a day in Valle Verzasca, well, actually we spend that day in Switzerland. It's a beautiful glen known for the enormous rocks and little characteristic villages with houses build of slate. When we went in the mountains we first saw a 220 m. high weir. (which was used in the James Bond movie Goldeneye, it really is huge!) One can go to Bungee Jump, eldest son was considering it. Frightning.

Standing up there one is so little.

And the lake behind the weir..

People live in these houses..

We saw the village Corippo, the littlest village of Switzerland. It wasn't till 1883 that one could reach this village by a road. There used to live about 300 people, who's main income came out of weaving linen. As often people left the village, not being able to earn a living . On the moment there are living 20 people.

And those enormous rocks and the power of the water were quite impressing.....

And so are my kids......

We loved walking around here, it was a pleasent temperature, and the surrounding was amazing.

A  rainy day well spend, we loved it...

Carboothsale and Middelburg

Yesterday we had a rather tiring day, we were taking part in a carboothsale in Apeldoorn. It's organised by the WHOE, a foundation which organises transports from things like hospital beds, things for schools, and all kind of other things for eastern Europe.
We were present at 7 o"clock, but that was rather late. Luckily we got a spot.
We were lucky with the beautiful weather, sunyy most time of the day. And lots of visitors. I forgot my camera, but here are some photo's of last weekend.

It looked like this. I had restricted myself to look only for coloured little candle lights, and found only red ones, from which I do have enough. It was rather crowded, nice.

And now, the last part of last monday in Zeeland. After the beach we went to Middelburg. youngest had got his shoes totally wet on the beach, so he was walking on some kind of slippers, which weren't quite comfortable. So he didn't want to climb the church tower, a pity.

And I do love hollyhocks.

And little streets...

And bikes......

And colourful houses......

And old walls......

This is the Isabellagang...

And a really beautiful town hall......

There is ofcourse a lot to tell about Middelburg, but we do have websites.

It was lovely to spend 2 days with youngest, to walk around in those lovely towns, and the sea......