So…

…here I am and here you are. And they say coincidence doesn’t exist .

I promised some of you a story about a concert we went to, which was about the only blogworthy thing that happened in the past few months. Apart from me breaking my wrist that is of course. Perhaps I’ll tell you all the fun things surrounding that event later.

First the story about the concert. Not an exciting story mind you. I just want to share that wonderful evening with you.

One Friday evening a friend telephoned: ‘we’re going to a concert on the lake tomorrow. We’re sailing the boat to the lake tomorrow morning, will moor it in the harbour near the yacht club and then at around 6 in the evening we’re sailing towards the podium they’ve built on the other side of the lake. Like to join us?’

‘Yeaheah, of course we’re joining you. Thanks for inviting us. Who else is coming?’ She mentioned a couple of people we (hubs and I) knew too. It promised to be an evening to remember.

So well before 6 o’clock that Saturday evening we were at the harbour, found the boat and were greeted by our friends. Everybody had brought a couple of bottles of wine, except for one guy who had brought 4 cases of 6 bottles; 2 cases of red and 2 cases of white wine. He must have been thirsty. It promised to be an evening we wouldn’t remember.

So we set off to the other side of the lake, where a floating podium had been built on the lake and where the Haydn Youth Orchestra would give a concert with guest appearances of students of the local conservatory and singer Izaline Calister (she sings a jazzy kind of South American style of music).

Can’t tell you how lovely that evening was. We drank wine (not the entire shipload mind you), ate quiches, French cheeses and bread, Turkish bread and hummus, salads…

I hadn’t brought my camera because of my physical incapability to shoot photos anyway, but fortunately hubs has an i-Phone (research has been done to find out what people use their phones for and amazingly actually phoning someone was only 5th on the list) and he took some photos I can show you. 

The podium was built on a part of the lake that is surrounded on three sides by apartment buildings and some of the balconies had small groups of conservatory students on them who gave their own mini-concerts, woven into the main musical event.

 

All kinds of small boats (big ones don’t have access to this lake) were still arriving…

The concert was wonderful, the youth orchestra played some really beautiful classical pieces, Izaline sang and had everyone dancing (who knew Dutch hips could swing like that), a really fat bloke who had one drink too many fell from the boat next to us (not in one of the photos sadly) into the fortunately shallow water and kept swinging, hands in the air, up to his armpits in the lake, as if nothing had happened.

It was such a pleasant evening and when the concert ended late that night it was still exceptionally warm and we sailed back to the harbour, looking back to where the concert was…

A late summer’s evening on the water near Zoutkamp

Here’s some great advice. Again. For free. You can thank me in the comments section.

So, here it is:

If you don’t own a boat, make sure you have friends who do.

As you perhaps know (I’ve posted photos of boat trips before) we have friends who do. And on one of the last beautiful summer’s evenings (although technically it was already autumn, but it felt like summer) in September, we were invited to join them again on said boat. You’ll realize how great my advice was if you see the photos of that trip:

 

Check out some other great shots of this trip on my photoblog.

Joepie de Poepie!!!

Sorry for letting you know a little late, but hubs is doing fine *collective sigh of relief*
The operation was yesterday morning. Keyhole surgery was successful and he doesn’t have a stoma. So everything went according to plan A.
And that’s why I’m yelling: JOEPIE DE POEPIE. For the very few Dutch readers perhaps a well-known yell from their childhood, made famous by children’s entertainer Ome Willem (Uncle Willem), and of course Mel knows all about Joepie de Poepie too, eh Mel?
Hans and I would like to thank all of you for thinking of us and praying, sending good vibes, caring, all your nice words. Very much appreciated and it really helps to have such a great bunch of people standing right behind you, wherever they are in the world. You are all very special people and I truly love you all. If only I could hug you for real, but I have to do it virtually ((((((you))))))
Yesterday was a bit of a mad day, hence my late post. Because, as if we didn’t have enough going on yet, we also have the builders in. Yup. A case of planning things before one knows one is ill. They started Wednesday a week ago and if all goes well, plan A again, they will finish the whole thing tomorrow.

This is our kitchen before the builders came (the kitchen isn’t on this crooked angle in real life. It’s just me again, incapable of taking a decent photo):






















Then the builders came:





















































This is the end result. Well, almost. The electrician has yet to install spotlights in the ceiling and above the windows in the coves. The plaster is still drying. The windows are Velux and can be opened, using a remote control, which also can be used to turn on and dim the lights in the window coves (eventually, when the electrician has been here and done his thing). We are amazed by the amount of light these windows have brought into our home. Should have done it years ago.
And the floor covers have yet to be removed. In case you were wondering what the hell these people have on their floor.


But this isn’t all the builders have been (and still are) doing.









This is the dining space before:








Again, Velux windows, but four of them. Unfortunately they weren’t spaced out correctly, so the outside blinds didn’t fit and the bottom two windows had to be lowered. But hey, when did building work ever go according to plan anyway. It has been resolved already. The windows are now in the correct place and today the plasterers are plastering this part, and the opposite part of the ceiling.





And then I can start cleaning. I’ve never looked forward to cleaning the house as much as now. But hopefully, when hubs returns home next week (still plan A), everything will be ready and clean and cosy again.
And now I’m off to muck out the stables, give the plasterers coffee, mow the lawn, visit hubs, ride the horses, send someone else to visit hubs, handle all the telephone calls and everything else that needs to be doing.
Love you all!

Sunday Selections

 

♥ ♥ a love story ♥ ♥

 

Biggles and Holle are watching something very interesting. What could it be?

 

Well…

these two lovebirds ladybirds were doing it

one of them must have been a manbird

in the heat of the moment they fell off the wood rail

but they just carried on (sand everywhere)

and carried on

and carried on

If you’re interested:

he wiggles about a lot (assuming the one on top is the ‘he’) and she just patiently undergoes it all.
And it takes a while.

 

This smouldering love story was brought to you courtesy of Kim at Frogpondsrock, who gives us the opportunity to post those photos that have been hanging around on our computers, waiting for an opportunity to be seen. These particular shots have been hanging around on my laptop since June last year. So we should all be very grateful to Kim, for who knows if I would ever have come around to posting them otherwise.
Hop over to the rocking frog ponds if you want to see more interesting photos or if you want to join in.

In order to achieve the magic number of 100 followers (which list magically disappears from and reappears at the top of my blog without any reason known to me; Blogger’s ways are mysterious) I need only two more people to sign up.

I’m just saying… no pressure…

Two in a tandem #9

 

the cool morning breeze
played with the curtains

made them dance
in summer’s sunrise colours

promising another golden day
to spend at the beach

she lay in her bed
just for one more minute

or maybe two

thinking
that the windows needed cleaning

 

The ever brilliant Jinksy provided yet another work of art to inspire us.

Sunday Selections

Kim, over at Frogpondsrock, has provided us with a place to put those photos that would otherwise be hanging around aimlessly in some folders on our computers. Sunday Selections it is called, and this is my selection for this Sunday. After the shitty (pardon my French) news of this past week, I thought we could use something nice, calm and relaxing. So take a deep breath and enjoy:

 

 

 

 

I love these lights. They are solar powered led lights. So, even though they are black, they are green. Talking about green: how many different shades of green are there anyway?

And breathe out.

Feeling all relaxed now?

Good.

Now hop over to the rocking frog ponds to see more Sunday Selections.

Have a great week everyone!

Milk?

Years ago we went camping in the Lake District, Great Britain. Hubs and me and our tent. We found a campsite near Lake Windermere that took tents.We put up our tent in the pouring rain. We cooked something unbelievably tasteful on our small Campingaz stove and crawled into our sleeping bag. The sheep on the hill above the campsite were complaining loudly about whatever it was, probably the weather, all night long. Baaaaaaaa. Baaahaaaahaaaahaaaaahaaaa. Since then, every time we hear sheep, we think of camping out in the rain in the Lake District. That’s how memories work.

The next day we visited the Steam Boat Museum in Windermere and were given the opportunity to take a cruise on a beautiful steam launcher called Osprey. “We have to bring her up to steam first”, the two elderly man who volunteered in the museum said, lovingly referring to their gorgeous lady friend Osprey . “It will take a while, we have to treat her carefully. But it’s worth waiting for.”

While we were waiting until ‘she’ was ready, a British man and an elderly British couple joined us. We were all looking forward to our cruise on Lake Windermere with dotted around its beautiful shoreline many grand mansions, built by wealthy businessmen in the late 19th century.  It wasn’t raining anymore, the sun had come out and the weather was actually quite nice. About 15 or 20 minutes later, Osprey was ready to take us out on the lake. If you follow the link to steam launcher Osprey, you’ll see that she is beautiful and has a cabin, but we all sat in the front of the boat, enjoying the sun and the stunning views.

When we were in the middle of the lake, one of the gentlemen came out of the cabin, holding a tray with a teapot, mugs, sugar, milk and a tin of biscuits. And using a cunning device (I’ve forgotten what it was, but I remember that hubs was impressed) and the steam of the engine to heat the water, he made us a real British cup of tea. So there we were, in the middle of Lake Windermere, on a gorgeous wooden steam launcher lady called Osprey, enjoying a cup of tea. Could it be more idyllic?

“Milk?”, the tea-maker asked hubs. Hubs shook his head. “No milk for me, thank you.” The gentleman looked shocked. “Milk?”, he asked me. I shook my head too. “No, thank you. No milk for me either.” He nearly fell overboard from sheer shock. No milk in your tea??? How utterly barbaric. “You must be from the continent”, his conclusion was. “If you were British, you’d have taken milk in your tea!”

So, if you aren’t British, but if you, at some point in your life, have to pretend that you are, take this little tip from me; take milk in your tea.

Sunday Selections

 

Just some random, quite nice and calming shots from June 2009 in these Sunday Selections. Nothing spectacular, not worth stealing, but I’ve thought about copyrighting them. Something I often forget and that can be important to do in case someone wants to pay me an astonishing amount of money for nice and calming shots of Umbellatus. Yeah, I know, fat chance.

Sunday Selections is hosted by the lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock, so hop over to the rocking frog ponds if you want to see more or join in yourself.

Sunday Selections

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim over at Frogpondsrock. It is the perfect excuse for posting those shots that have been hanging around aimlessly in folders on your computer, waiting to be seen. Hop over to the Rocking Frog Ponds and see what others have posted or dig up some photos yourself and join in.

I just love the smiley faces on those horses. (And yes, that’s my shadow. Oops.)

 

This German guy (I know he’s German, because we said ‘hallo’ and he replied with ‘guten Abend’) was enjoying his ‘patatje’, which is Dutch for chips, on a Summer’s evening in Appingedam last year.

 

You probably wouldn’t have noticed, but the people living behind this rather lovely front door are selling hony. Yep, not honey, but hony. Or hone. Or hoey. Because honey in Dutch is ‘honing’ and they left out the n. But I’m sure it will still be delicious.

 

This lady has managed to bring a little bit of France into the North of the Netherlands, with her little shop in an old wooden caravan, parked under a cherry tree.

Cute, n’est-ce pas?

Sunday Selections

I thought it was time (at least for us in the Northern hemisphere) to have a taste of Summer. Just to wet our appetites. So, this week my Sunday Selections post (hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock) consists of photos that aren’t my best flower shots, so they don’t deserve a place at my photo blog, but they were good enough to survive the elimination round. Which left them hanging around in a folder on my computer, doing nothing. Up to now that is.

And just for Kim I’ve kept a purple theme

      

      

I know, not the most exciting post of the year.