Zeeland, day 2, the beach

Next morning we ate a delicous breakfast, and of we went to the beach. It was still very quiet, it was not such a warm weather.

It was a lovely walk to the beach through the dunes.

Beautiful skies, and ofcourse, the sea.

You can see we were rather lonely.

Besides some jellyfish, which I really hate while swimming.

I was collecting shells and looking for other nice things.

After some time we left and went to Middelburg, I try to post some photo's tomorrow, I have a problem with it on the moment.
Have a nice weekend!

Zeeland, day 1

Last weekend youngest and me went to Zeeland. My youngest dearly wished to have visited all the 12 provinces of Holland before he was becomuing 16, and this one was left. I still had a voucher for a night in a Fletcher hotel, so I booked sunday night in Burgh Haamstede, op Schouwen Duiveland. And of we went.
First we went to Vlissingen, because it has an harbour. When my boy drives with me in the car, he talks a lot first, than he puts on his music, and he falls asleep. Doesn't matter what time it is.

In Vlissingen it was koopzondag (than many shops are open) and we walked around and went to the harbour.

I think this ship is going to Antwerp. We saw so many very big ships.

Not a clue what this ship was doing, it just went out the harbour and back in.

Almost ancient harbours walls, in the holes used to stand canons.

The old mill and the new ones. I don't like the sight of new mills, but ofcourse I do know we will need it more and more.

It was nice to sit there, the wind was blowing, the sea was smelling like it's supposed to.

Near the harbour.

Love those little houses, and surely love hollyhocks. Now is the time for them.

So inviting.

And than we left for our hotel. We tried to drive on the little roads, and we had beautiful vieuws.

It was rather impressing to drive on the Veersegat dam and the Oosterscheldedam, which were build in the early sixties to protect Zeeland against the water, after the Watersnoodramp van 1953.

This was the vieuw from our hotel.

And after dinner it went to rain, so we went rather early to our beds, and talked a lot. It feels good to take some time with one of my children.

Fietsweer

Our first week back from Italy was a rather warm one. I understood everybody in Holland was very happy with the sun, and ofcourse I don't want to complain, but I was happy with my cold house. It was hot outside, and for me that means not so many activities like walking and bike riding. So we only made some small tours and little walks in the late afternoons, and picknicks at the riverside. And we ofcourse had laundry to wash, house to clean and all that kind of things.
But yesterday it was a better day for making a bike ride, and so we did, about 70 km. I'm sad to say I forgot my camera, it was really beautiful outsight. The light!! My 2 boys had left for spending some time with their father, so we could do whatever we wanted.

Well, here some more photo's of Italy.

On a clear day this was the vieuw from our house, Monte Rosa, in the distance.

It's a rather strange feeling, watching snow in the distance when you sit in the shadow in your swimming clothes (I did enjoy the pool).

But in the first week we had rain too, and even a hailstorm!!

We were sitting in the clouds. The weather was impressing, rain and very loud thunder. It does sound loud in the mountains!! Locals told us it was over 30 years ago there was such a hailstorm in summer.

I was feeling so good being here again; the first time I was here in 1968, with my parents. And 7 years later they bought a little house here, which they rented in the summertime, but I went there some springs and autumns, with friends. In those days it took much longer to travel, students we were, and we went by train, and walked up the mountain. Once I was there with Christmas with 2 good friends, that was like a fairy tale. The churchs bells ringing on Christmas eve, we descending the mountain, magic. 

Villaggio di sunclass Bedero

Last month we went to Italy, celebrating our summer holiday! This was something I wanted for years, seeing the places were I spend many holidays in my youth, and stayed for months in autumns and springs. I long wanted to show  these familiar places to my boys, but life got in the way. I got divorced unexpected, had to learn to drive, worked very hard to earn a living and so on. So instead I bought a caravan and stayed the summers in Holland, this was easier, less stress.
It was a good decision, now my boys sometimes are talking about how they have enjoyed our holidays, the fun they had camping. We often took friends with us.
But last year I made the decision to get rid of the caravan and to go abroad in the next summer.  Our caravan was to big to drive it with our car, so...
On the 28th of june G and I went to Italy, my sons would come a week later by plane. I loved everything!! Allthough things had changed, and I was amazed by the small roads which I had to drive for the first time in my life, it a little scary. We do have an old car. We were in the north of Italy, near the Lago Maggiore. The climate there is mediterranean, which you can see at the sort of plants, palms, lots of hydragengeas, an abundance of all kinds of plants.
I will write some posts about Italy.
And now some photo's..

A  house with a vieuw...

Our very own palm.

Somewhere there is our house for 3 weeks....

A little walk around..

And around....

Those little streets......

A little insight....





And ofcourse some hooky time. I so loved it being out all day, from the moment I got up till the moment I went to bed. The atmosphere, the light, the temperature, the shadow....

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.