July

A lot has happened in July, still I didn't post on my blog. Why, you ask? Lots of reasons, all nonsense, all excuses... So better late than never, here's July in retrospective...

Ron and I went to Heartbonds Festival, a small-scale spiritual festival. Ron is part of the organizing team; he did practical things like first aid, electricity, technical stuff, etc. We arrived at Wednesday with the dogs and our new tent. Well, second-hand but new to us. ;-) Unfortunately Ron made a wrong move while lifting a table and he hurt his forearm muscles. He is right-handed and it was his left arm, but still he was very inconvenienced the rest of the festival. He still is now unfortunately...
Nevertheless we had a wonderful time with lots of old and new friends. The weather was great, sometimes a bit too hot for me but good for the festival. I attended several workshops, there was a labyrinth, an archery-range, market-stalls with great stuff, live music in the evening, great food and sooo much more. If you want to get an impression, just take a look at our pictures of the festival.

Of course we supported the Dutch national soccer team in the WorldChampionship 2014 in Brazil. A lot of people were very pessimistic, but our team did great! Louis van Gaal made great decisions and the team won a lot. My favourite was Arjen Robben, but of course Robin van Persie made the most beautiful goal of the tournament (see pic). We ended up 3rd. I think the team deserved more, but I may be biased...


And then there is the incident with Flight MH17, that was 'supposedly' shot down by a missile that was launched by Ukranian pro-Russia separatists. All people and animals aboard died; 195 of the 298 people were Dutch, so our nation is mourning... A lot has been written about it and I have my own thoughts about it... I think our government did its best to get the bodies over here to be identified and returned to their loved ones. A lot of coffins with remains arrived over a series of days. the victims and their next of kin were honoured in moving ceremonies that I watched in silence. On Wednesday July 23rd we had an official national day of mourning for the first time in decades.  Still, not all remains are recovered,  identification and investigations will probably take months. I sincerely hope investigators get the access they need and as much as possible can be recovered and investigated thoroughly. The next of kin need closure, and so does the rest of the world. My heart is sinking, but I can only hope for the best....

A sentence from a book

click to read
more KIOS

Kickin'It Old Skool, Day 14
Yesterday I was too busy, but I decided that's okay. It has to be fun, not something to stress out about, right?
Today's prompt: "We're making it easy today! Share one sentence from a book. Okay not quite that easy. Grab the third book in on your top shelf of books. Share the first sentence."

~*~*~*~

"Op een grijze, winderige dag in oktober 2010 stonden we aan de rand van een vijver, op de plek waar ooit een heidense offerpoel lag."
Yes, sorry... Dutch book! It's called "Heilge bronnen in de Lage Landen" (Holy wells in the LowLands). I opened it on a random page. The translation of the sentence is: "On a grey and windy day in October 2010 we stood on the edge of a pond, where once was a heathen offering pool".

This particular chapter is about a place nearby (Heemskerk), where they were building new houses and encountered archaeological finds going back to the Bronze Age. After the archaeologists did what they could, the place was still treated with respect. They covered the excavation site to protect it for future research. A park was built in which you can still recognize what is underneath, for example a pond where the offering pools were, bushes point out certain lines in the landscape, etc. No big trees were planted because the roots could damage what is underneath.
I visited the site with a group, guided by the author of the above chapter. You can see my pictures here. If you are really interested, you can read and/or download the full report of the excavation here.

Hot

This week the weather in The Netherlands changed from variable and unstable (rain, storm, too cold for this time of year) to very hot and muggy. I'm not very fond of high temperatures (to put it mildly...), but a sudden overturn makes it even worse... Bleh! It isn't a heatwave yet (over here that's 5 days in a row more than 25°C), but because of the high humidity it was quite uncomfortable.

 

10°C=50°F --- 20°C=68°F --- 30°C=86°F

Don't get me wrong, I love sunny weather! Although I have sun allergy and a very sensitive skin, I enjoy the sun. Nature is beautiful, walking around in a t-shirt... I like it! However, above 22-24°C it's too much for me. I can stand cold much much better than heat. Therefore summer is my least favourite season. I know, I'm weird. :)
These are my two best friends in surviving these days: 

It's not unbearable and of course I'll survive, haha! In a few days the temperatures are expected to decrease again. I don't mind, but I hope we'll have a better summer than last year (more like autumn with lots of rain, storm and very low temperatures). The appeal of my country is the tangible difference between the seasons and I like that a lot. The national hobby of the Dutch people is complaining about the weather no matter how it is. Well, I just did. :) End rant!

Landvættir walk

Yesterday Ron and I went for a walk with a little group of people in a part of the "Noordhollands Duinreservaat", one of the largest national parks in The Netherlands (7000+ hectare). It stretches along the coast of North Holland from Wijk aan Zee to Bergen aan Zee (see map). We started in Castricum.

Organiser Michiel guided us through the beautiful landscape. He first told us about the 'landvættir', literally 'land wights' or spirits of the land (Genius Loci). They protect and promote the flourishing of the specific places where they live, which can be as small as a rock or a corner of a field, or as large as a section of a country.

To honour them we did a little ritual at the beginning of our walk. Michiel led us into a visualisation to meet the spirits of the land. I met some of the tree spirits, rowan and oak. It felt very powerful and warm.

The weather forecast wasn't great beforehand, but we had great walking weather. Just a little rain, a bit of sunshine and very nice temperature. We have walked for more than 4 hours with some stops along the way.

Although this national park is not very far from my 'own' dunes in IJmuiden, the landscape was very different. Or perhaps it just felt different, I can't really explain it. But beautiful it was!

Oops...

Oops, I did it again... I haven't posted anything new for ages. I still read all your blogs in my Google reader, leave a comment from time to time, but somehow didn't post much myself. There are reasons, personal and other. Someone (don't remember who, when or where) blamed Facebook for being a blog-killer. I don't agree fully, but I must admit it takes time away from blogging. I still think a blog has another and/or added value, so I want to breathe new life into mine! I'll just start anew. :) If you have any questions, suggestions or requests about me, my blog or anything else... just let me know!

For now I'd like to share some pics with you... Click on the pic above the story to visit the album.


Last month Ron and I got tickets for a Re-enactment Weekend on Forteiland, a fortified island at the mouth of the harbour in IJmuiden. Lots of re-enactors were portraying German troops, French resistance, Dutch soldiers  etc. from (mainly) WWII. We enjoyed ourselves very much and made a lot of pictures.



Just like last year we took Arwen (& Foofur) to the Berner Sennen Beach Meeting in Noordwijk. This time 79 Bernese Mountain-dogs, 5 other dogs and 146 people came together and walked along the beach. Such a magnificent sight! Again we made lots of pics and 2 short video's.

Passport

Today we finally applied for new passports. They expired in September 2009, but first we didn't have the money (2x €50,90) and then we couldn't find them... They have a fixed place, but somehow weren't there anymore. We searched the house several times, but alas... This week we decided to report them missing. That would have meant extra costs, but we really didn't know where else to look. Before we did inform the police we decided to search one more time. And o wonder... we found them, in Ron's photography bag! At first we wondered why, but suddenly we knew. Ah well, they have been found.

Of course we needed passport photo's. I never like pictures of myself, but the requirements for a passport made it even worse: ears visible, 100% front view, no smile. Ron had to take his glasses off. The photographer made an extra set of 'normal' pictures. Mine are both horrible, on the 'normal' pic I have slit-eyes because he made me laugh. At least Ron's pics are nice. :-)
Since a short time there are fingerprints on the Dutch passports. I thought about ink, the old-fashioned way, but none of that! It worked with a scanner, nice and clean. Next Friday we can pick up our new passports!

Winter Olympics closed

Wow, what a two weeks we had! I really need to kick the habit. I especially followed the speedskating, which was mostly at an unearthly time for me. Perhaps it's not the wisest thing to go to bed around 2-3AM and later almost every day when you're chronicly fatigued, but it was worth it.
The Netherlands didn't do bad; we are 10th in the medal count:

• GOLD Nicolien Sauerbreij - Snowboard - Ladies' Parallel Giant Slalom
• GOLD Ireen Wust - Speed Skating - Ladies' 1500 m
• GOLD Mark Tuitert - Speed Skating - Men's 1500 m
• GOLD Sven Kramer - Speed Skating - Men's 5000 m
• SILVER Annette Gerritsen - Speed Skating - Ladies' 1000 m
• BRONZE Bob de Jong - Speed Skating - Men's 10000 m
• BRONZE Laurine van Riessen - Speed Skating - Ladies' 1000 m
• BRONZE Speed Skating - Men's Team Pursuit

The Dutch men's bobsleigh turned out to be a disappointment; the 4-men sleigh didn't even start. The 10000 m men's speedskating should have been gold for Sven Kramer, but the much-discussed wrong lane-switch caused a disqualification. He didn't take his revenge on the Men's Team Pursuit. Bad communication cost the men the final. Although they are the best by far (note the olympic record in the bronze final), they failed to prove it.

Nevertheless there was a lot to cheer about and party in the Holland Heineken House, where all the medallists were honoured. The double gold on the 1500m (men and ladies) was a surprise. The gold by snowboarder Nicolien Sauerbreij was the onehundredth gold medal for The Netherlands in olympic history. The first one was for the men's sailing in Antwerp 1920. :-)

I know I have neglected blogging during the olympics. I'll post about some "old" things in the coming days.

Windmills

My country is a land of windmills. Of course you all know the old-fashioned beautiful windmills, but we also have a lot of the modern wind turbines. And there will be more to give us more energy in an enviromentally friendly way.
Last Friday I participated in a citizen's panel, that looked into locations to place a lot of new windmills (and replace old ones) on request of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. It is an ongoing project which started early 2009. The project manager gave an introductory talk about the plans and what was expected of us. Then we split up in groups to discuss four of the possible locations from a citizen's prospective. Several experts were present and available for questions. Wind energy is a good thing, but of course there are pros and cons. Our country isn't very big and when you rule out areas of dense population, nature reserves, airports and flight routes there isn't that much left. It was a very interesting afternoon and it feels good to be a part of all this. Nothing is decided yet, but we and our suggestions were taken very seriously.