Bourtange

In the beginning of april we were for a few days in the north of Holland, in Drente. One day we visited the little fortified city of Bourtange. This was build in 1593, and it stayed an important fortress till about 1850. Than it just became a little village, most farms. In about 1960 the municipality of Vlagtwedde took the initiative to rebuild it again, and citywalls were made, city canals were digged. Allthough it's not original, it's nice to walk around and to look at all those beautiful restored buildings, and to try to imagine how people lived in the days of the original fortified city.



It was a very cold day for the time of the year, as you can see the sky was gray. The good side was that there were very few people visiting, an opprtunity to see everything in a quiet way. We visisted some buildings inside, like the synagogue, but there we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Till I was 9 years I lived in the province Groningen.  I've mixed feelings about the landscape. It's terribly flat, but that gives also a sense of much space. Mmm.

Have a nice week!!!

Summer blanket

I believe that everybody in Holland is looking at football now, the game in the European Cup between Holland and Germany, archrivals, consider football anyway. Oh, my boy yelled, it's now 0-1. No good at all. Well, I couldn't care less, which makes me a bad dutch woman, according  to my son.
Anyway, I finished my summer blanket.

I used all kinds of colours, all catania cotton and roco, and some scheepjes. And good old durable, which I loved so much (I knitted many baby clothes with it, often fair isle) but what you can't buy anymore.
I like it how all the colours come together. The white gives some rest. I made one concession, the last row on the border is in THE dutch colour (which is, by accident, a favorite of mine), namely orange.

A little to my surprise the blanket feels very soft, and warm enough.

here is my sons little kitten Loesje hiding under the blanket. She loves to dig in it, especially when I was crocheting. I started this blanket in the first week of april, when G and I were in Germany for  some days. I just looked at the photo's we made, we had a good time and beautiful weather, and we walked a lot. We stayed near Winterberg, in Sauerland. It sure was beautiful there.
Now I will leave you,  I will join my son. Otherwise he thinks I'm not only a bad dutch woman, but also a bad mother.





Tulips from Amsterdam.

Some weekend snaps

The first week of June is always a busy one, at least one birthday each day, in my family and in the family of my ex husband. Though we separated almost 16 years ago, I still see his sisters and his parents. They are dear to my heart. In the early times after our divorce we had to find a way to see each other, and sometimes it was weird, because my place changed, I no longer was the daughter or sister in law, the new way had to grow. And some things I still miss, when the family meets as a family, I am not there. My boys are ofcourse.
It's such a nice family, and so much humour.
I love my own family too, it was nice to see them all on the combined birthday party of my brother and his daughter. My eldest wasn't there, he was sailing with friends. The wind was blowing, and it was raining. Well, he had a wet but good time.

The roses are doing well in this kind of weather, and they smel so nicely.

It wasn't raining all week, these kinds of sky I love.
And we went to a brocante in a little village nearby, where I bougt some old and wobbly things. I like when things are a little bit broken, looking used.

My great-uncle used to make such a kind of pewter sugar bowls, and other things of pewter. Most things I lost in the years I wasn't interested.
And ofcourse we played board games, and this time carriere, a game which my grandmother bought for us, her grandchildren, about 50 years ago. We played this when we stayed with her. I went to stay at both of my grandmothers in the summer hollidays, and I kept doing this till I was 18 years old. In my teens I went with a friend, and we went by bike, about 130 km. from my parents house. Those were always fantastic weeks with my grandmothers. Strange, I was the only grandchild who did this.

We played it so many times, my youngest and me. It brought back some nice memories of me playing it with my brothers.

Weekend

Last week it was beautiful weather, so warm I often sat in the shadow. But this weekend it was raining, and raining.....



I suppose the plants do like this rain, thye are growing very hard. The white roses are smelling nicely.



Y. was at home for the weekend, love it. I miss him a lot now he's living in Amsterdam. But he's happy, he likes his study and the university, (were I was studying too, 35 years ago) and has the opportunity to meet new people. He lives in a student house, enjoys it very much. He has lots of fun and laughter.
But this weekend he came home with loads of laundry (mama....) and hungry.
Sunday morning my boys made brunch, delicious. I'm on a kind of diet, but neglected this. They set the table nicely, because I like that. They would be very happy to get something in the kitchen and eat it out of their hands.

And as we always love to do we playd board games, they grew up with this. We often play, all kinds of board plays, and they use to do this with friends too.

And ofcourse there was hooky time, I'm making a kind of summer blanket, with catania cotton and hook number 3. So this will not become to warm; most times I'm making my blankets out of wool, and I mean 100% natural yarn like wool, alpaca and so. I don't care for acrylic very much, allthough last year I did make some blankets out of Stylecraft yarn, inspired by the amazing Lucy of attic24. They are for use in the caravan, (which we sold this spring) or outside.

While I was taking the photo above I saw I was wearing some self knitted socks. It surely is cold, I often walk barefoots. Some years ago I've made loads of socks. They were wearable projects, and I did knit mostly in those years, and I worked lots of night shifts, so sometimes there was time to knit during my work time. Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Those years I didn't crochet, I began to crochet when I discovered Lucy's blog some 4 years ago. And now I mainly crochet, although I do have some knitting plans, which involve knitting lace.
Oh, I was feeling good this weekend, my eldest at home. Time to relax with each other....Good times.

A beautiful garden

Monday we took a bikeride, and we visited a beautiful garden. It is the garden of Klein Knoevenoord, a landscape garden, if I translate it correctly. We started near the house.

And on we went...



Back home we sat in our little patio, sipped some wine and enjoyed the sounds of the blackbird and his youg ones in our garden. Each year we have a blackbird nesting in our hydrangea. G always want to pick one up, but we don't let him!

I so hope we will have many of these days this year. It feels so good it's getting warmer, and it's such a new feeling that I have the time to enjoy this weather. And not being tired is such a blessing, I believe it will be more than 20 years that I didn't feel tired. Not having a job anymore has some good sides.

A bag

I always have some WIP's, and always some of them are blankets. I crochet  blankets, I knit blankets. Most of the time they are becoming quite big. But on the moment it is to hot for a blanket on my lap, so I'm crocheting grannies. And because of the weather I'm using cotton. I like to work with wool, but now it's to warm.  And than I thought about what to do with it, and voila, it will become a bag. My choice of colours was inspired by the blouse I was wearing, and by the beautiful weather now. I surely love how the colours work together.

It's not my normal choice of colours, but I like it.

It was pleasant crocheting in the patio, while G. was visiting his eldest son and my youngest was playing the music for me he thought I would like. Most times he knows very well what I will like.

Today I was busy crocheting all the grannies together. It amazed me how manygrannies I needed. Ofcourse I knew it, (I did the math)  but seeeing it grow was different. I love how they all look together.



I hope I will be able to finish the bag tomorrow. And I will look in my stash for a matching fabric to line it with. It looks very summery, I  think. Most of the cotton I use is Catania, I like it that this not to thick, and I love the feeling of this. Sometimes I use Rico, or Phildar, but I prefer Catania. I used to use Durable 8, but I can't find this anymore.



First post!!

So this is my first post on my very own blog, something I wanted to do for a long time, but life came in the way. Late this afternoon we picked up our bikes and went for a ride. It's such a beautiful weather here in Holland.

This is the view from our backyard, wel, backyard, it's more a kind of patio, but we are very content with it. First we went into town, our beautful city, look........

I love to see those old buildings, they are standing here for hundreds of years. And the shade of green in the trees. It's such a beautiful, very green colour in the month of may.

And we went on......

I really do love to live in this city of mine. For 20 years I lived in Amsterdam which is a beautiful town too, but it's big. And here I get my bike, and in a few minutes I'm in the countryside. And still I live in a city.

Those city walls are remains of the city walls which were build around 1300.

And on we went, through the city to the river. The sun was shining bright, the wind was blowing nicely.

There we saw this "platbodem", a traditional Dutch sailing boat. 30 years ago I used to sail, and sometimes on this kind of boats.

We sat for a while, and enjoyed the view.

On our way back we passed a stork on his nest, with young ones. I'm still amazed when I see these birds,

some 30 years ago they were almost extinct here in Holland.

I so love these bikerides in the countryside.