Valerie Poore's Blog, page 10

A break in tradition

What tradition is that? I hear you ask. Well, it’s my habit of writing blog posts that are always much longer than I intend. This week, and maybe for a few weeks hence (unless I find a way to type at speed single-handed), my blog will probably be shorter – the reason being another kind of break.

Last Thursday, we were walking Zoe in our nearby nature reserve when I slipped on a muddy patch, fell, and broke my wrist. Contrary to what everyone thought, the only connection it had to Zoe was the fact we were walking her at the time, but it could have happened anyway. I’ve always walked a lot. Since our old Sindy died, I’ve put myself on my imaginary lead and taken myself off for a constitutional every day, so it’s lovely now to have the extra reason to go. Anyway, Zoe wasn’t pulling at all; it was my own silly slip of the foot, or off the foot, in this case.

Now, of course, I’m learning how many things are difficult with one hand, but I’m finding the challenge of workarounds quite fun. Shove a jar in the crook of your arm and you can unscrew the top, or put tubes between your knees to do the same. I haven’t found a way to chop carrots yet without having the pieces shoot across the kitchen and disappear under the fridge, but I will. On the other hand, I’m having to chop sleeves off tee shirts to get them over the cast, but at least I can dress myself. In the end, it could be worse as it’s my left hand, and being very right-handed, I can manage quite well.

So, before I give myself RSI as well, I’ll love you and leave you with a photo of my jaunty red appendage.

Till next time allemaal. Have a good week!

The new family member

Our life has changed radically since my last post and I didn't even know it was going to happen. We have a new dog. 
After eight long years, we've taken the plunge and acquired a little American cocker spaniel. In the last few of those eight years, I'll admit that barely a week or even day has gone by without my looking  at dogs for adoption, but I've hesitated time and again over what kind of dog I wanted and whether to do it at all. The main criteria were that our dog had to be small enough for me to carry (on and off boats), a female, and of an 'easy-going' breed. As everyone who's read my blog over the years knows, I loved our old Sindy without reserve and missed her terribly when she died, but she was big and heavy for one thing, and the complete antithesis of easy-going for another.
But then one of those things happened that put paid to all my procrastination. Two weeks ago, an ad popped up on the internet asking for someone to give this beautiful little lady (see pics below) a home. The ad said she was a year old (I didn't want a puppy), female and very sweet-natured. It also said that no breeders should apply because she had an allergy. Well, having had Sindy who rattled with pills every time she shook, a mere allergy wasn't enough to put me off. 
The ad had been placed the evening before, so I wrote immediately, hoping that for once I wouldn't be too late. Sadly, the owner wrote back and told me someone had already reserved her. We had a bit of a chat online and I must have convinced her how disappointed I was because she asked if I'd like to know if the people who wanted her didn't show up. 'Yes please,' I wrote, but in all honesty, I'd given up and was almost (but not quite) relieved ... I could postpone making a decision; in fact, I didn't even tell Koos anything more about her.
Well, imagine my surprise when at the weekend, the advertisesr sent me a message to ask if I could still give little Zoe (as she was called) a home. I panicked for a moment. Now I'd really have to make a commitment, which was something I'd been avoiding, if I'm truthful, for several years. After chatting to Koos, though, we decided to throw caution out the window for once and go for it. 
So it was that with my heart in my mouth, we set off last Tuesday to go and collect her. To cut the story short, we stayed overnight in Valkenswaard, a town near the address where we had to fetch Zoe. Being over in the east of the country, it would have been a very long journey to go there and back in a day. Anyway, we collected this little bundle of nerves on Wednesday morning, popped her in the car and drove home in one shot. 

She was as good as gold as a passenger, a huge plus in her favour (Sindy had always been a dreadful car traveller). But, the poor little thing had clearly been very neglected, not well cared for at all and was very scared to begin with, although she was very happy with her cosy donut bed when we got home.

To be fair to the people we got her from, we don't think she'd been with them long either. They had a houseful of male poodles and were hoping to breed cockerpoos, but when they saw her skin problem, decided they'd better not and put her straight up for adoption. The neglect and poor care probably came from where she'd been earlier after being imported from Slovakia. It doesn't bear thinking about too much, does it?

Anyway, it didn't take long for things to change. She soon discovered we didn't mind her being on the sofa and neither did her 'Aunty Jo' who looked after her for a day when we had to go and see to the Vereeniging. Jo took some gorgeous photos of her, as you can see below.

It's now a week since she arrived and I'm delighted to report she's already a different pup. The tail is up and wagging, she's become playful and cheeky and she's loving the attention of all our friends and neighbours who, predictably, melt when they see her sweet face. The vet has confirmed her skin is improving, and that the allergy may have been stress-related. She has an eye infection that we hope will clear up soon, but otherwise her coat is already shinier and she's a happy, delightful doglet. 

As for her bed, she rarely sits in it anymore. Being next to one of us is much more to her taste :)

Have a good week allemaal  and all the best till next week from the three of us: Koos, Zoe and me. 

Branching out from Seville

I promised to write a second post about our week in Seville, and as it’s now Sunday again, I realise I’d best get on with it. 
A week in one place is generally more than I can cope with, especially if it’s a city. My wander lust is much more geared to seeking out other more rural places, and since Seville has a pretty good public transport system, we extended our reach beyond the end of the metro line by taking buses to Gines and Sand Lúcar la Mayor and the train to Huelva on the coast.
Buses in the Seville urban area are amazingly cheap the further you go. We were very fortunate in that the main bus station was very close to our shabby digs, so we wandered across the road one day, picked a name from the board, and waited for the bus to arrive. Okay, it wasn’t quite as random as that; I’d seen where Gines was on the map and thought it might be a nice place to aim for as a destination. Only 15kms from the city, I thought it would be easy to return if we didn’t like it. As it happened we were completely charmed. It cost us the grand total of €1,40 each to get there, exactly the same as it would have cost to do a trip across town in Seville. What we realised was that it doesn’t matter how far you go, the price is the same for any trip inside the urban area of Seville.
Gines, however, is very much its own place and very pretty. Our bus took us through other towns we’d have liked to see as well, but we had to decide on a goal and were very happy with our choice. It is a small town where people live, congregate and lead their lives without apparently needing to go to the city. The main street was lively with locals chatting to each other, the architecture of the houses and buildings was as charming as it can get, and we enjoyed a refreshing cup of coffee on an expansive outside terrace where families were eating and a group of men were clearly having a regular gathering of the (older) lads. We bought a few groceries in the local Spar shop, where the grocer himself was more than welcoming and friendly, and Koos even felt relaxed enough to have a kip in the town square.Here are a few snaps I took of the town.








I loved this staircase with it tiles and garden courtyard in Gines

Our second outing was to Huelva, a town on the coast. I'd read quite a bit about it before we went to Spain and was told it wasn't favoured by tourists, which somehow made it more appealing. We took the train from Seville's Santa Justa station on Monday the 15th and arrived in Huelva at a little after 11:30 following a journey of an hour and a half. The scenery on the way was gentle, rolling hills without much to distinguish them  but we enjoyed both the trip and seeing a little more of what was probably the coastal plain.
The weather was somewhat grey in Huelva, but we liked it all the same. It's a place where people live, like Gines, and it doesn't put on any airs. Two things appealed to us no end: one was the discovery of its industrial history as represented in the restored pier: now a pedestrian walkway, but once the loading quay for ships transporting copper from the nearby open cast mines.  If you watch the brief video, it  gives you a glimpse of the scale of the mining in the area. They only stopped operating about 25 years ago. 
In addition, if you dig into the history of the mines and the pier (apologies for the pun), you will find the latter was designed and built by the British who had interests in Huelva’s developments. 
Huelva was also the place where Christopher Columbus (Christobel Colon in Spanish) was said to have embarked on his travels to the New World. There's a statue of him in the centre of town, and an even bigger sculpture of him outside town which we didn't actually see.
Cranes next to the pier and riverside
The amazingly well restored pier as a monument to Huelva’s mining past

 
Christoper Columbus…Go west, my sons…
More pretty Spanish tiles

What made our visit even more special, though, was a meeting with dear friend and renowned author, Stephen Powell. We met him at a bus stop in Estoi in the Algarve three years ago and have kept in touch ever since. It was really lovely to see him again and we spent a few very enjoyable hours catching up at a very pleasant restaurant, followed by a walk along the pier. I should mention that Stephen is the author of two excellent travel books: one about Portugal and the other about the Caucasus, both of which focus on the marathon walks he made in these countries. You can find his fascinating accounts here on Amazon. Given that he was a Reuters correspondent for around 27 years, the quality of his writing speaks for itself.
A Happy meeting

There's a lot more I could say about Huelva, but I think it would need its own post. Suffice to say we enjoyed our visit very much and can recommend it, not so much for its eye candy as for its history and its wonderful rivers.
Our last excursion was again by bus to the beautiful, and probably touristy, town of Sanlúcar la Mayor, which is roughly twenty-five kilometres from Seville. Again, the bus ride was incredibly cheap and cost less than €4 return for the two of us. It was quite a walk from the bus stop down to the town centre, and since it was a bit drizzly we first had coffee at a café on the main through road. This proved to be a feast in itself. Just for something extra, we ordered a piece of chocolate cake, which eventually appeared smothered in chocolate sauce and with a large scoop of ice cream. It was quite a creation, and utterly delicious.





Luckily for us, the skies cleared and it turned into a beautiful day. We first walked to the station, another of the region's classic Moorish designs, and then we strolled to the church square, which was quite captivating. I wouldn't be surprised if it's heaving with tourists in the summer. During our visit, it was quiet and peaceful in the sunshine; the station was deserted; and the cafés in the square were empty. Nevertheless, we loved it. It was only later we discovered how much more we could have seen there had we done a bit of research beforehand, rather than just picking a name on the bus timetable. There's a bit more about it on this website.
There’s heaps more I could mention about Seville and all the the beautiful sights we’ve seen, but that would fill a small book. On our last day, we finally visited the cathedral, which is apparently the third largest church in the world, after St Peter’s in Rome and St Paul’s in London. The immensity was something to behold, but like the curate’s eggs, I only liked parts of it. Impressive, yes, opulent, yes, but beautiful? Not inside so much. I felt it lacked coherence and had an overdose of medieval bling. The exterior is, however, stunning and quite magnificent.
Here are a few of my photos of the interior areas:










So that’s about wrapped up Seville. Apologies to Tom Williams – there are absolutely no barges in this post, but I hope the cranes, the pier and the river at Huelva make up for it a little.
Enjoy your week, allemaal and I’ll fill you in with news on the home front next week.

A sojourn in Seville

As some of you may know from my postings elsewhere, Koos and I went to Spain on January the 10th and have only been back a few days. We had a really lovely time, the weather was beautiful (although not hot at all), and we were met with more kindness and friendliness than I could have imagined.
We flew to Seville and made the city our base for the full week we were there. The first and last days were spent travelling - always a complete day, however we do it - so we had eight days to explore Seville and its environs.
The only downside to the whole trip was the room we'd booked. We wanted to be quite central and not too far from the bus and trains, so to keep costs to a reasonable level, we opted to stay in a cheap hotel/hostel in one of the narrow backstreets of the old town. While it was a fantastic location, our room was at the back of the building with no window onto the street. In fact, the only window it had was onto one of those typically Spanish shafts that provide an opening for houses that back onto each other. Being high and narrow, virtually no light gets in and our room was simply dark the whole time. I couldn't wait to get out into the light every day. 
In addition, the city sewage system in that area has clearly seen better days, so the smell of dirty drains pervaded everything. Other than that, though, we were in a very good position and were able to walk to the heart of Seville within ten minutes or so, which was great!

Most readers here probably know that Seville is Deep in Andalucia and flamenco is everywhere. Even the little corner shop in our street had these delightful little dresses for small girls. Interestingly, this shop, like hundreds of others we found in Seville, was run by Chinese people, all of whom speak Spanish, but with the standard confusion between L and R, which made me smile. It reminded me of so many of my students who have the same problem.

The rather grand Moorish building in the photo above used to be the city's railway station but is now a kind of enclosed market with small kiosk-type shops inside. (We won't mention the McDonald's, which seems to be everywhere). This kind of building design seems to have been quite common for train stations as we saw others with similar arches and decorative detail.

Of course, the first place Koos and I always go is to the waterside (eerst naar de waterkant, as they say in Dutch), and we were much impressed by this amazing old tree leaning over the banks of the Guadalquivir. On the subject of the river, the stretch that runs through the city is actually still water. Its main tidal course was re-routed to the west of the city in the 20th century to prevent flooding, and continues on to Cordoba and beyond. Apparently, however, navigation is only possible up to Seville, and only when the tide is coming in. The port of Seville is in the reach of the river that runs through the city, and is behind a large lock. From what I've read, though, flooding can still be an issue as in both 2006 and 2010, the city suffered from severe floods, and it was even worse in 1963.

For those interested, there's an interesting article about Seville and the Guadalquivir here.

We had a lovely walk along the riverside, which is very popular with the locals. I liked the sculpture above; it was created for some very philanthropic purposes that I'm afraid I've forgotten now. I completely failed to make a note of the plaque that told us who the sculptor was and what it was for. Maybe one of the readers here knows what it commemorates? 

My apologies for the slightly skew photos below. I normally straighten my snaps as it drives me nuts if things aren't level or properly vertical, but my usual laptop has crashed and I don't know how to use the photo editor on this machine yet. Anyway, these were some of the sights from the river I captured when we went on a passenger cruise on our second day there.

Traditional Spanish galleon moored on the riverside
The Golden Tower, first built by the Moors
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_d...) 
This bridge was designed by Santiago Calatrava. 
It reminded me of our own Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam

One thing that surprised me was the extent of the very good public transport system. We tried it all. The tram is just one line, but it's modern, electric and very good. The buses were excellent, and there was even a metro, which we travelled from one end to the other, right out into the furthest suburbs. I'll tell you about some of our trips the next time.

Like many cities focused on tourism, there was the possibility to do a tour of the sights from the comfort of an open carriage. I couldn't help feeling sorry for the horses. They seem to spend hours just standing there with no water or food and, in the summer, no shade either. I hope I'm wrong and that they’re relieved or at least given water at regular intervals. They’re very lovely, though, so I had to take some photos of them.

Beautiful, patient horses. 
The photos below are of Seville cathedral. It is apparently the third largest church in the world and the biggest gothic church in Europe. We managed to visit it on our last day and were really impressed by its immense size. I also liked the mix of styles. It was an add-on (if you like) to an Arabic mosque and I loved the simplicity of those early parts of the building. The opulence of the ornate nave and sanctuary were less to my taste, partly because of the extreme demonstration of affluence they represented, but also because it was bordering on overkill. I took dozens of photos but it's hard to decide what's worth including.

One of the many elaborate screens
Unbelievably ornate and opulent
I preferred this
The simplicity of the earlier structures
was more to my taste

It isn't possible to talk about Seville without mentioning the oranges. They’re a real feature of the city streets, and if you are wondering what happens to them, they’re collected and cleared now and then by the city council. Apart from the fact they're far too bitter to eat, it isn't permitted to pick them as they belong to the local authorities. From what I've read, they're used for a number of purposes, including medicinal and culinary. I remember my mother buying Seville oranges to make marmalade when I was a child, but we never ate them raw. It was lovely to see them on virtually every tree in the city streets, though.

And the last thing to mention about Seville itself in this week's post is the music. We saw and heard music everywhere from day one, even being serenaded while we had our meal the first evening. Koos was also given the chance to play by one kindly busker, which made his day. 

The man in the photo below was playing flamenco guitar with great skill in a passage.

These three were busking next to the tram stop and were doing an excellent job of covering great rock songs. The guitarist, in particular, did a very professional and convincing performance of Brian May's guitar solo on Bohemian Rhapsody. I have to say it was a very pleasant way to wait for the tram.

We also saw some wonderful impromptu flamenco dancing at the Plaza de Espana (more on that amazing place next time). I find flamenco very inspiring and soul stirring, and loved seeing this young group performing in public.

Well, I think that's enough for this time. I'll write more about some of the other places we went and the people we met in my next blog, but for now, I hope you've enjoyed this snippet of our experiences in Seville, allemaal. 

Have a good week and all the best from a very cold and frosty Netherlands. That Spanish sunshine is already becoming a distant memory.

Photos I have enjoyed taking

The Netherlands isn't known as much for its scenery as it is for its beautiful towns, but there is much about this country to love in terms of its open vistas, numerous canals and reed-lined waterways. This week, I'm just posting a few of my favourite scenes of the last year. I'm a bit busy, so I hope you'll forgive the lack of news this week.
A frosty walk along the creek

The great sea canal near our harbour

Horses in a nearby nature reserve
Stunning light before a storm
Nature reserve horses again
Smallholdings abound in this area
Springtime baby
I love poppies and we have them in profusion

Till soon allemaal and have a good week!


 

What's new in our year

🎉HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!🎉

The past week has sped by and here we are at the 1st of January, 2023. Incredible! Actually, this is the first time I've written the new year as the date, so I hope I'll get used to it soon. There's nearly always an overlap period when I mistakenly write the old year on invoices and letters, but we've been looking forward to leaving 2022 behind so much, I have a feeling 2023 won't take long to embed itself in my writing mind. 

So what's new so far? Well, we had a lovely time with the new grandpup over Christmas. He is such a sweetheart it's impossible not to be soppy about him (sorry, if you're not a dog person, feel free to skip this part!). He's already settled in and is enjoying family life with my daughter and her boyfriend. Much to our pleasure and surprise, he's getting on very well with Mini, their little cat who was so ill. She's now recovered so well she's twice the size she used to be and seems completely unafraid of puppy Mack, even encouraging him to play with her. 

This, if you remember, is Mini
Mack, chewing Grandpa's toes

Here's Mack fast asleep under the table while we were having Christmas lunch.

And here he is sleeping over the toy bone my daughter crocheted for him. It was so sweet the way he'd play and then suddenly just fall asleep.

In other news, which my readers here are the first to know, we are moving the Vereeniging again. Suprised? Yes! So are we! 

To explain, the mooring in Oudensbosch has been lovely and we've enjoyed being there, but I'm working less and less in Rotterdam and am increasingly working online. As a result, I have only occasional need of an overnight stop on the way to the city, and it is still quite a journey to reach her from the Crumbly Cottage, where I have my office set up. With fuel prices being so unpredictable and train travel costs escalating, keeping her there is becoming a financial burden I could do without. But what to do and where to take her has involved some intensive investigation.

As luck would have it, the answer lay much closer than I ever imagined. We have a historic harbour in Sas van Gent, and after quite a search to find the right person to approach, I applied for a mooring and the Vereeniging has been approved. I am delighted because it will be much more convenient for me (only a short run from the cottage) and it will allow me to spend time on her more easily. She will fit in very nicely, I think, as there are several very lovely sailing barges in the harbour already. Here's a photo of the probable mooring. I love the super safe gangway!

And here are a couple more photos of the resident barges in the harbour. I may have posted them before, but I think they're worth repeating.



So when are we going to be moving? Well, that will depend on the weather to a large degree. My contract at Oudenbosch expires at the end of March, so we'll need to have left by then. It's a trip of around 170 kilometres (I think), so it'll take us a few days. From Rotterdam to Oudenbosch was 85 Kilometres and it took us two full days, so that'll be four given good conditions. The days will also be a little longer in March, which will give us a bit more advantage, but whatever the case, we'll be looking for a good weather window to make the trip. 
As you can imagine, these are exciting times for us as we plan the journey. However, there are also other journeys coming up this year, which I'll write more about later, so for now, allemaal, I'll wish you all a wonderful start to 2023. I sincerely hope this year brings peace (especially in the troubled and war-torn regions of the world) and positive fulfilment for you all. Until next time, have a great week!

Wrapping it up for the year

Here we are again. It's my Christmas post and it's time to wrap up the year as well as the gifts. I won't be sorry to see the back of 2022 (where have I heard that before? Oh yes, here, last year), but then again, the upside is that we've all seen it through and are still here to bravely go where none have gone before...into 2023.

So what has this year seen?

Well, in January, we were still enjoying the novelty of having the Vereeniging in a new location. I wrote posts about the town of Oudenbosch, where she is moored and also about our visit to Roosendaal, a nearby city with an interesting waterways development. We enjoyed our explorations despite the winter weather, although we weren't able to go by boat even though we'd really hoped to do so.

An interesting feature in the waterside
at Roosendaal

Locally, February brought us a triple whammy of dreadful storms. In quick succession, we had Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, all of which inflicted considerable damage in the flatlands and had us haring around trying to prevent damage to the Vereeniging when flooding increased the levels in the river to (rope) stretching point. I've never had to paddle to my barge before, but on that occasion, we had to wade through the water to reach her and release the over-taut ropes that were causing her to list alarmingly. On an international level, it was, as we all know, the beginning of the tragedy that is the Ukraine war. I'm sure we all believed in February that it would be over by now. As usual, our optimism that peace would prevail was misplaced. 

High water on the river

March was a most peculiar month. Not only did we have our first severe frost, but we were also plagued by dust storms from the Sahara. The year was throwing more than a few weatherly tantrums. I think everyone in Europe was complaining about the red skies and sandy dust that found its way into every nook, cranny and crack, as well as onto every surface. The Vereeniging and the Hennie H both changed colour over night. And it wasn't just a one-off incident either. We had repeat performances of the Sahara sensation over the whole week. I wrote a blog about it here.

In April, I finally managed to visit my family for the first time since Covid struck us. I hadn't been to the UK since December 2019, so it was a real joy to fly to England without being subjected to restrictions. Although I stayed with my sister, our family reunion took place at the beautiful village of Lechlade on Thames where we had lunch overlooking the river and enjoyed a glorious walk along the narrowboat-lined banks. The trip was definitely one of the highlights of my year. Later in the month, we had the Hennie H lifted out and inspected; much to our relief, she passed with flying colours.

The following month of May was one of mixed blessings, or should I say curses? On the upside, the weather was beautiful and I had the pleasure of exploring the gorgeous city of Middelburg with my daughter in hot sunshine. The city was at its best with the trees in full leaf and bloom. The downside was  our increasing awareness that we had a serious problem with the Hennie H's engine, a problem that reared its head when we came back from our inspection and that was to persist until July.

Middelburg
Middelburg
Looking back through my blogs, I notice I didn't post much in June, mainly because I was very busy with work, but the first post I wrote focused on the fun we experienced when the bridge over the canal at Sas van Gent was closed for maintenance, the fun part being that we had to take a ferry across. For more than a week, I made a point of going to Sas every day just so I could enjoy a daily boat trip while we were stuck in harbour with the engine problem. 

The ferry with cyclists boarding
During June, Koos also took a break to make a trip to Hungary, a short and much needed holiday. Then, following his return, most of July was spent testing the Hennie H's engine, which continued to give us problems until eventually, the company that sold it to us supplied us with an electric fuel pump, which, thankfully, solved the problem. However, as they say, when one door opens, another closes. We approached the end of the month full of optimism that we would be off on holiday within a week, but the fates had other ideas for us.
In the last week of July, Koos started getting pain in his arms, an alarming signal we both knew well. This meant his heart was acting up, or at least the blood wasn't circulating through his heart properly. He'd had two previous attacks like this, both of which resulted in surgery to insert stents. Sadly, this was a repeat performance, but it took some time and three ambulance calls to persuade the medics that it was serious. This was the post I wrote about it after a week of constant to'ing and fro'ing to doctors and hospitals.
Eventually, though, he and we were fit to go and go we did. We had the most wonderful month faring  through Belgium and northern France making magical memories again. I wasn't able to blog while we were away, so all my travel blogs were written in September and October. You can find them here, here, here and here.
The most peaceful of French canals at Tupigny
Going through the Historic lifts at La Louvière
We were back in our home port of Sas van Gent on September the 10th, however. This urgency was because we had another lift out organised; this time with the Vereeniging, which was also being inspected. Again, much to our relief, she passed and we enjoyed a lovely short cruise to and from the yard. I blogged about this in October as well.

October itself saw my return to work and routine life. We cat sat for a week for my daughter and enjoyed having furry friends in the house again. I also spent time doing up some old kists (blanket chests), which is something I have always enjoyed. Both cats and kists are in this post.

So that brings me up to November, a special month that had me taking a trip to Leiden to see the older of my two daughters graduate, an event that resulted in two blog posts: one about the graduation ceremony and the other about the city of Leiden, a beautiful and ancient seat of learning.

And now, here we are in December. To even the balance, my last post was about my other daughter's achievements as a karter, a sport she has embraced since being here in the Netherlands. However, something I haven't written about this year has been the two very sad losses we've had in the family. Both girls lost their beloved dogs to sudden and fatal illnesses, neither of which can be explained. They were devastated and I too was deeply saddened about losing my beloved grandpups, Charlie and Luna. They were such important members of our family.

But now Mo has a new spaniel puppy who is doing his best to fill the space. The delightful Mack has joined their household, and last weekend, Koos and I puppy-sat for Mo and her boyfriend while they attended a previously arranged commitment. He was an absolute delight; so sweet and so affectionate. An adorable bundle of wiggling, piddling joy 😊

Needless to say, he will also be joining us this weekend at the crumbly cottage and will be very welcome. It seems fitting that the new year will begin with such a charming addition to our lives.

Welcome to little Mack
So to end this endless post, allemaal, here's wishing you all a lovely festive season, a blessed Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a peaceful and positive new year. Look after yourselves and I'll see you in 2023.

A great track record

Apologies for my recent absence here. It's the time of year, I'm afraid, and work has kept me from my blogging, reading and writing activities just recently. However, this is a blog I've been wanting to write for a long time so since it's the festive season, this would seem to be the time to celebrate another success. Be warned, though; it's another mother's pride post. 😊
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about my elder daughter's graduation for her Master's degree in Historical Linguistics. My younger daughter has also gained a title this year, but in quite a different area. I should say up front that she has academic qualifications aplenty, but I am so proud of her for what she has achieved as a kart racer.
Until she took up the sport, I really knew nothing about karting, other than taking both girls to the sandy outdoor track near Krugersdorp in SA, where karts were of the pedalling variety and bore little resemblance to the sport as it is really done. Correction, I did know that most of the current Formula 1 drivers started out as karters, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to name two. But that was all I knew, so when Mo and her boyfriend Stephan started getting involved, I became quite interested and even did it once myself with them on an indoor track.
What I didn't anticipate was how seriously they would get into the sport and to what lengths Mo would go to set up her own kart, do all the mechanics for it herself and even outstrip many other male karters with her knowledge and technical skills. Not only that, she soon proved to be an excellent racer, giving many boys half her age a run their money, as evidenced by the photo below.

Back in May, I went to an outdoor circuit to watch her race seriously for the first time and I was so impressed. To my surprise, I found it tremendous fun despite the awful weather. I'll admit to being a long-time F1 fan (since childhood when my father used to listen to the racing on the radio), but I can honestly say going in person opened my eyes to the skill needed to drive these little rockets on wheels successfully on a wet, outdoor track. Mo had been karting for several years already, but this was real racing.
The day was extremely wet, and it was a real watery baptism for my daughter. We watched while she prepared her kart for the conditions and, with Stephan, wheeled it out to the track ready for her laps. 

Family support in place
Preparing the kart for racing

Almost ready to go

Her race was fast and exciting and she came in third place out of (around) ten participants, a couple of whom didn't finish. The track was horrendous: rain-soaked and covered in debris from the various mishaps.
Taking the inside of the bend away from 
the debris
It really was quite something to be there and to watch my girl screaming around the circuit in hot pursuit of the much more experienced male participants. The spray flew off the surface, but she held her corners and only lost a place by spinning off once. It was a thrilling experience with, for me, all the nail-biting excitement of a mini Formula 1.
Chasing the front runner
And here she is on the podium after coming third in her race

Mo and Stephan are also part of a team, all of whom are friends they have made while karting. Earlier in the year, they took part in an endurance event that involved each member of the team driving some mind-boggling number of laps over several hours. I forget how long theirs was, but endurance races can be anything between 4 and 24 hours and I think this one was closer to the upper end of the time scale.

The endurance champions
And then the moment when she came third in the Club Championship. Who says women cannot compete against men successfully? I was so chuffed for her. She started karting some years ago now, but most of the men have been doing it since they were kids. She's also said goodbye to her thirties; a terrific achievement, don't you think?


A proud and happy moment
And lastly, I'm very touched to know that her kart is called 'The flying V' after me, but also inspired by Stephan's mother, Vera, and the Dutch word vrouwen (women). 
The Flying Vs


Mo with Stephan (on the right) and a team mate
So, bragging aside, I hope you've enjoyed the story of Mo's speedy hobby. When I think that Max Verstappen's mother was a top karter and Susie Wolff (the wife of F1 Mercedes boss) was a karter and racing driver, I know it's not unheard of, but they both stopped before Mo even started. It just goes to show it's never to late to give it a go ;)
Enjoy the last weeks before the festive season, allemaal, and I hope I can fit in a blog or two before the end of the year.

 

More of a picture post

I thought I'd catch up with a few photos I've taken lately that I haven't used in other posts. Firstly, though, I thought readers here might like to see the finished kist (blanket chest) I started working on some weeks back. It's been much more work than I anticipated and it's still not as good as I'd like it to be, but I can't afford to spend more time on it now. The scratches on the top were already there and try as I might, I cannot smooth them out, so I'm just calling it character. Here it is ready to be hauled into my bedroom.

Apart from the kist, I've also been assisting Koos with a project to enlarge our loo on the Hennie H. It's been an annoyance for years because it was so small, there wasn't even room to swing a mouse in it, let alone a cat, so Koos took the initiative, bit all sorts of bullets and started dismantling the part that needed expanding. We don't have much room on the HH as it is, but the extra thirty odd centimetres will give us significantly more standing room.

The photo above was stage one with the back and side walls removed. That was a phenomenal job in itself as the construction was fit for a load-bearing wall in a house. Seeing as this is the smallest room on a boat, it seemed a bit extreme. The back wall had not one, but three layers, two of which were on each side of a frame sturdy enough to hold the entire roof up. Luckily, it didn't or we might have had second thoughts. The tongue-and-groove ceiling also had to come out and we found two layers there as well. Rest assured, the new model will be far less complicated, and I'll post some photos of the new construction soon. It's halfway there.
In other news, I went for a real grey November walk the other day and came across this delightful sight.




It's a row of little bee and insect hotels built by the locals along the edge of a field where they're trying to encourage wild flowers to grow as well. Apologies for the dreary skies, but aren't the tiny houses delightful? Seeing them there made my day and I'm so pleased to see our village folk getting involved in projects to nurture insect life. 

Talking of insects, I saw my first giant Asian hornet the other day. It flew into the room where I was working on the kist, landed on my sander and then flew out again. It seemed very dopey, and I should probably have despatched it but I was so shocked it didn't occur to me. In truth, I didn't know what it was but when I looked it up, I realised they are definitely undesirable here. I hope we're not going to have a plague of them next year.

And then last Friday, we did a bit of a diversion on our way to spend a few days on Vereeniging. I'd been nosing around to see if there's somewhere new to take her and had read about a small historic harbour at Kamperland off the Veersemeer in Zeeland. It's probably too far off the beaten track there for practical purposes, but we enjoyed our visit very much. The barges were gorgeously graceful and the environs were lovely. It could be tempting. Some of my readers here have seen the photos below on Facebook and a couple on Twitter, but I wanted to add them here as well.

The first three are of tjalks, the most commonly seen Dutch sailing barges here in the Netherlands. The last one is of motor barge. Lovely, aren't they? I never get tired of seeing these beautiful craft.

And my last photo offerings for this week are of my beautiful old lady. We had to fill up the water tanks and turn her around, which of course was the perfect excuse for a short 'spuddle' to the end of the river arm and back.

There's only one photo left on my phone that I haven't shared, but I'll save that one for next time because it will mark a rather special event for our family. For now, though, I'll say have a great week allemaal. Keep warm if you're in the north; stay cool for all you down south :)

Lovely Leiden

Well, another week has sped by and I find it's Monday already. Where all this time goes, I have no idea, but it seems to disappear down a hole called  'the week that was'. I can't remember for the life of me what I've done, other than work, do chores and try to fit in some writing or some other creative (or at least constructive) pursuit.
Anyway, mini moan over, I promised you a blog post about our visit to Leiden for my daughter's graduation. I've been to the city a few times and on each occasion, I've been struck by what a beautiful place it is: elegant, charming, lively and as typically Dutch as you can get.  I didn't take all that many photos of it this time as we were side-tracked by our visit to the Timmerwerf  but I'll add some photos of a previous visit at the end so you can see more than the historic harbour area, which is what we focused on this time.
An overview of where we were in the historic harbour
Thanks to George Lezenby for the photo found on Flickr

As all my readers here know, I am drawn to the water wherever I go, and if there are old, traditional barges to see, all the better. Leiden has its own historic harbour, which despite being small is home to around a dozen beautiful old sailing barges. My daughter knew I'd want to see them so on our way back to the station she indulged her mum and I was able to take a few photos. The light wasn't the best, but I think you'll agree there are some lovely classic craft to be seen.

The harbour is also home to the beautiful Stadstimmerwerf building. It used to be one of a pair that enclosed a complete yard for not only carpentry (timmerwerk) but also other crafts such as a forge for steelwork. According to the guide who lured us into the remaining building with promises of history (always irresistible), the city carpenter lived in the house and worked in the yard. It looks a beautiful place to reside, but I'm guessing that in those days (the early 17th century), it probably had little in the way of luxury. What we see now as a gracious and gorgeous house in a highly desirable location would just have been an ordinary home combined with a work place for the man in that position. The other identical building that used to form the frontage of the yard was apparently used for storage purposes. However, that has long gone.

What the interior had, though, was some beautiful original tiling on the walls and floors, some of which remains to this day as can be seen in the photos below. The tiles have themes, and on the wall  in the picture below, those up at the end by the stairs were all of horses and riders in different poses. Towards this end, they are people, all in pairs, involved in various activities, such as playing games, pushing each other on swings and even just talking. I found them quite delightful and was impressed they'd survived so long.

The tiles on the wall by these old and original stairs were very sweet. They were rather primitive depictions of what looked like Cupid in numerous different poses. I couldn't help thinking 'if only the walls could talk'. What history they have seen!

Stairs to the upper floor
Steps down to the cellar, also with tiled walls 
and an apparently original floor

These days, the rooms in the building are used as exhibition space for local artists. In some ways, I found their work a little incongruous with the surroundings, but then it is also a rather special place in which to exhibit. I think most artists would love the opportunity to hang their paintings on these venerable old walls.
Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, Leiden is a lovely, gracious city that exudes a traditional Dutch atmosphere and is very much a seat of learning. To finish, then, here are the promised pics of an earlier visit when time wasn't an issue.


Like all Dutch cities, Leiden has canals and boats
And lifting bridges too
Not to mention bikes; 
it's a university city, after all
The wedding cake church: de Hartebrugkerk
Typical Dutch high street: elegant old houses, bikes and people

The 'Burcht' in Leiden, an ancient keep, originally built in 1060
View of Leiden from the Burcht
View of the 14th century Hooglandse Kerk from the Burcht
If you'd like to know more about Leiden and its history, Wikipedia always comes to the rescue, so here is the link for the Burcht, and here is a general link for Leiden itself.
Enjoy the rest of the week allemaal. I have more DIY news to come next week, so if that doesn't float your boat (so to speak), just watch this space for further explorations of our environs.