Late post because of Christmas

 Goodevening everybody!

How was your Christmas? Surely quiet and probably not with a lot of people around. For sure here not, because of the lockdown. But nevertheless Jan and I had a quiet, but wonderful Christmas. I was only sad to know, that my friend overseas didn;t yet receive her Christmasbox. And I didn't yet receive the one she sent me. I don;t know what is wrong with the post nowadays, i really did sent it really early, already in the last week of November. So I hope it still will show up next week at it's destination.

Apart from this it was a lovely Christmas, really relaxed and nice. I made us a geat dinner for Christmasday, which didn;t took very much time, several things I could make in advance a bit, so there was no stress whatever finishing the last bits. The menu was: 

Duck breast fillet, with some orange juice and a few slices of mandarins freid in the juice and fat of the duckbreasts, haricots verts(French thin green beans) and Hasselback potatoes with a bit of garlic butter over it. 

All succeeded well and it was very tasty and as dessert we had some tiramisu. 

During the day and also evening we watched several wonderful shows and films, we had a great time I can say. 

For today I made it a bit easier for myself so we had a potatoesalad with slices of smoked salmon, and as dessert I made apples, filled with raisins and some sugar, and butter, from the oven dressed with a bit of butter/orange juice with a few thin cut orange peels and some whipped cream and some ice at the side. Pffffff, it was quite a meal but so yummie!

Now Jan is taking a little nap, so I have time to make this small post, later we will have a good cup of coffee and watch some tv, we have a lot recorded, so more than enough to fill the evening.

It is cold here at the moment, well, it was the last few days, this morning we had -3C here, but temperatures will go up again next week and you can belive it or not, we might reach around 13-14C during daytime and nights might have 7C, which is really high for this time of the year. 

Let's see how next week will go, I hope to receive soon a letter to make an appointment for the booster shot( but I am not too hopefull, and if it will show, I hope I can make that appointment by phone or if not otherwise, try it online. Much trouble all the time to get through by phone and even online at times. ) 

Fridaynight will already be the change of Old Year to New Year. 

I think I will make us a soup for dinner and then later on the evening some yummie snacks. You all take care and stayf safe and i wish you awonderful New Year's Eve. Till next year😊

Christmas week should be a happy one.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

It is grey, not so cold, with some drops of rain here and there. Temperature at the moment is around 7C. And best there is almost no wind. But later this week it will get somewhat colder, here on the coast perhaps we will reach at night some little frost(0 or -1 or so) and daytime will not very high, may be 3-4C. It is not my fab=vourite weather but if could have been worse.

It was a quiet week and at the same time busy. I tried to do some grocerie shopping every day, to get me all I wanted/need for Christmas. I almost have it all, which is great. I also had to get a prescription for some of Jan;s medicins from the family doctor. I went there myself, it is onlt two minutes from our house, to explain all to his secretary. well, i think all is settled now. Once the pharmacy has the prescription they can do there thing. I just have to keep an eye on the stock here and see that the repeat service is on time. But it will be must less strssfull, I hope.

Mupeet showed uup again, she comes every now and then for a visit and sometimes spents a few hours on my lap or with me in the kitchen. I don;t give her food anymore(well, sometimes a little scrap of meat or cheese every now and then as a treat, LOL), but in the evenings it seems she is home. It is nice to have her around every now and then.

Bad news is that from today on our country is again in a hard lockdown, so almost everything is closed(very hard times for shopowners and small businesses and horeca, also thaters and musicians)), only supermarkets and other food stores like baker, etc. are open till 8 in the evening and of course pharmacies and such. It is so sad that it is necessary, still because of Covid. There seems to be a new variant, that spreads twice a fast(which is about all they know about it now) and government has taken this decision, to be sure hospitals still can cope.

I am ashamed to say that our The Nehterlands are way behind in giving the booster vaccination, so they are nnow trying to speed it up as fast as they can, but to make an appointment for it by phone is almost impossible at the moment, lines are too occupied. So they ask to do it online, but also that gives much trouble. So now they say people of above 60 will also get very soon a letter of invitation, but if it is as last time, you still have to call(in cases you want to go with your partner at the same time). Well, I hope Jan and I will have our booster before the end of January! I will try next week every now and then to call( I hate it to make an appointment online in this case), may be I get lucky. They could have started this booster vaccination already much earlier, and I don;t understand why they didn;t and why they don't use the help of everybody who is volunteering to give vaccinations, like family doctors. They could do that at their practice, which would be easier to go for a lot of people. No, they want those doctors to first have a class on location and there are waitinglist for that of several weeks. Can you understand that?????? I don't!  I can get very upset and angry about those kind of things. All could be going so much more easier and fluently and for all faster! 

Gosh it already is late, I almost have to make our dinner. Well, I only have to boil some patatoes, the rest is ready, has to be warmed up only. Do you all are almost ready for Christmas? It il be again for a lot of people a strange Christmas, like we had already last year too and I hope next year we will all be able to celebrate Christmas the old fashioned way again(meaning if you want to, you can have company, cleberate it with family or friends, just as we did in better times).

So next time I will post it already will be Boxing day, so I think I shall wish you already now a Merry Christmas, in good health and safety. Till next Sunday.

Christmas comes nearer

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is a bit gloomy like weather, cloudy, it rains every now and then, but temperatures are around 10C. Unbelievable in December. But already for a longer time, wether is behaving otherwise as we were used to. 

On the news yesterday we saw the devistation the hurrincanes/tornados did to Kentucky. Oh my God, how aweful that has must been. And also other states are hit severe too. My heart is with all those people who in  a blurr of a moment lost all they have. 

We had a more active week this time. On Monday we started with the Christmas decoration, and as always the first is the tree. Well been busy for a few hours, we decided to do the rest the next day and my be even a third one was needed. And so it was. Good thing to do it in kind of shifts, it made us a little bit less tired this way and also the body didn't ache too much, hahahaha. 

It was worth it, our sitting room looks all cosy and full of lights again. I have made a photo, it is not very good, but you got an idea of the tree.

It may not look like much work, but you all know it all takes time and it is a tree of around 1,80 mtr. high. I also started to write enveloppes for the Christmascards I have to post, I couldn;t wait much longer to do that.Still have to buy a few more, well, I can do that tomorrow.

Then I had to settle something in the pharmacy. Jan is now in a pharmacy repeat service for his medicins. But at the moment all medicins don;t run out at the same time, they must re arraneg it a bit. So I had to get him one that will not last till next batch delivery(end of December). It was no problem, but I will have to get them a prescription for some of them by the family doctor, because his specialist in hospital cannpt give out prescriptions anymre for those. So he has a year prescription by his specialist, okay, but now I will have to call or go next week to the family doctor for the other ones. Once they have had that one time, they can call for repitition of the medicins to the family doctor themselves. It is a bit complicated, but once all settled I hope it will go smoothly. It will save me a few walks to the pharmacy, I can even let them delivered at home. Nevertheless I will keep an eye on the stock, just in case.

Do you know what? I don;t follow very much auto racing, formula 1, but nowadays it is a little bit more interesting because we have  Dutch driver there. And guess what? Today our Max Verstappen became Woldchampion, by beating Lewis Hamilton! And it is something special because Max Verstappen now is the first Dutch Worldchampion in Formula 1 in the history of the racing. And although I am not very much fan of autoracing I am a little bit prod now, LOL. It is quite an achievement for such a little country. Here is a photo of Max just after his win:

This was about all I think I have to tell. next week I will have to think thouroughly about our Christmasdinner, I want to try not to be for too long in the kitchen, but still have soething really yummie. I am sure I can figure out something. 

Good, I wish you all a wonderful week to come and please stay safe.

Many kids will have nerves today!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is getting a bit colder here, we have some rain, it differs how much in every region, temperatures are around 5-6C at day, so still not really bad. It depends how much wind we have and from which direction.

Today is a great day for kids, despite the Covid. Today Saint Nicolas is visiting and if not in person, for sure with a lot presents. It always is an exciting time for kids and it is a fantastic gholiday, it is a bit like Father Christmas in other part of the world. This is our Sinterklaas and his assistant.

For us it was a pretty quiet week, I tried to stay home as much as possible for a change, and most of the time I was in the kitchen( I like spending time on dinner and trying out sometimes new recipees), or at the computer, browsing a bit and playing some games. Normally I don;t download a lot of games from Microstore but I like match-3 games and they have some very nice ones at the moment Of course there are always in-app stuff to buy, but you can play very well without spending money, it probably takes a bit longer go through a game, so what? I like Jewels of Egypt and Jewels of Rome. Once you start with a game time seems to fly, gosh!

Oh I have some news about Muppet. Remember perhaps we missed her for several days? Well a neighbour who has pets himself, also was wondering what happened, he came to us to ask if we knew something As we didn;t he went to the lady who owns the cat to ask if all was okay. Well, that was the case. She tries now to keep her inside as much as possible, and she asked if we wouldn;t give the cat any food anymore. She said that she liked the cat slender and now it was getting a bit too fat. Hmmmmm, I am not happy with it but I will stay strong and not give any food anymore. Lucky, I didn;t see Muppet the whole week, but our neighbour still does. And bad news, Yesterday morning she was in front of our kitchen door. What to do now? Well, I didn;t let her in, and perhaps she will not come back anymore. But my heart ached, you can believe that! I have a feeling the lady who owns Muppet isn;t really womeone who cherishes a pet and takes real good care. Well, perhaps I am wrong. Nevertheless it is strangee that the cat still comes here and I don;t think it is just for food. Might also be for some attention, and cuddling etc. But okay, no more Muppet inside, that will be the best, unless I see that she still comes around and doesn;t look good. Then perhaps I should go and talk to the lady, but I hope it will not be necessary.

Good, after today, which is a relax day, tomorrow will be a busy day. We will start decorating for Christmas. We always wait till after Sinterklaas, although I rather would have started already this past week. It gives a bit more time and possibility to do it in bits and pieces. But Jan is completely against it, LOL!

So next two days I guess we will be decorating, I will try however not to to too much, but manger and tree will be there and some extra lights too on some garlands. And a few statues too, so still quite some work. 

But it will look so cosy again when all is ready and then it will be slowly time to think about dinner at Christmas. Seems far away, but if possible I want to get most of the stuff in advance, to avoid the big crowd in the few days before. It still will be a strange Christmas, with all that covid stuff still going on, but we will try to make the most of it.

If all works well in the schedules and plans of the government, we might get our boostershot somewhere in January. Not too soon, but at least they do it. Still there is still a to big part of the population without a vaccination and that is causing most of the prblems, for all in the hospitals. Bigger part of the patiensts with covid are the non vaccinated, so that tells something. In the big cities, like Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, vaccination coverage( or percentage if you want) is around 77%, while all over the country it is around 85%, which is not bad(that's all above 18 years old, but about the same if counted all above 12 years old too).It is however a shame that so many people are afraid to take the vaccination, because of non-information or dis-information. That should be changed somehow.

Oh, it is getting rather dark in the room already, so tim to lit a lamp, and then watch perhaps a bit tv and soon make our dinner, will be some chili beans(left over from yesterdays tortilla wraps), with some fish and some fries, yummie, It has been some time since we had French fries. It will taste good, with some mayonaise.

Good, I wish you all a lovely week, stay safe please.

More and more measures are taken in the country

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn't too nice, we have around 4-5C, yesterday it rained almost all day, today is looking grey too and I can tell you it isn't my kind of weather. But... some hope there is, later this week the temperatures go up a bit, still it will be rolloercoaster weather, with even some snowflurries here and there(most of them in the Eastern part of the country).

All together it was again a quiet week, and I did all the things as usual, some grocerie shopping, a little bit of house celaning and oh yes, I got to mail  a Christmasbox. I know, it is early but there could be some problems with the post so better too early. Sending to the USA is a little bit more difficult, we have to announce our postsending(either letter or parcel) on line and get us a customform printed. So I had a whole list of things for the Christmaspresents, with weight and discription, and started to fill in Okay, all good, till I reached item nr. 5 and wanted to go on with item nr.6. There was no option for it. HMMMMMM??????????So I called with some difficulty custormer service of the post and asked them how to do it and have n trouble with sending the box. After a while the guy on the phone  came back to m, he asked someone else. Well, they said I could combine some items and if that was really diffcult because of the diversity, I just could enter "Christmaspresent"then how many and the weight. Thanks a lot, I had a lot of time spent to make the list in advance and now it was all for almost nothing???? So I splitted it up in 3 items, Christmaspresents the amount and the weight of the combined items. Let's hope it is good enough.

Normally it takes not too much time you know, before I went to the post office, filled in a few items on the form, signed and ready it was. USA I am not really happy with your new rules!

Yesterday I was busy quite some time in the kitchen preparing for our dinner today. I tried my hand on an Indonesian meal, probably a true Indonesian cook or housewife wouldn;t be too impressed with it, but for us I think I did good enough. I made one stew meat in special sauce, on dish with some chicken, one dish with little meat balls in sauce too, green beans specially spiced, to that we will have some noodles and also some boiled and fried rice. I is rather time consuming, to prepare but on the other hand, I think I have enough for two days, so that's nice. I tasted a little bit of all, and think it is tasty. But I must say, this food isnt something ou make every week or so, first because then it isn;t something special anymore and second because it takes quite some time preparing. So this evening we will have a full table with lots of small dishes. We will take our time to enjoy it.

Strange thing happened again. Muppet the visiting cat suddenly disappeared somewhere. Friday evening she was visiting for a short time and then wanted to go outside, so I let her and since then we haven't seen her anymore. She did something alike some time ago too, and came back after a day or 2-3. So we will see what happens now. I just hope she has a good place to shelter with this bad and rather cold weather.

Oh, I started knitting again, I bought some red yarn and started on something that should be a kind of afghan, i think, for Christmas. It should cover an armchair or at least part of it, the Christmas blanket I use for it, is a bit small, so perhaps this will look better. Yeah, just one more week and then we will start decorating for Christmas already. Gosh, can you imagine??

Only the next few weeks will not be so nice,because there are taken more severe measures against covid. Now all shops, restaurants, cafe etc have to close from 5.00 p.m. till next morning at least 5.00 p.m. Only supermarkets and pharmacy's can be opened till 8.00 p.m., schools still open, but kids have to wear masks, at least when they move around. Well, lot more measures, it all takes a lot of commitment of everybody. Hospitals are still coping more or less, but there are not really necessary operations that will be persponed. Infections still rise, so something has to be done. I wonder if this all will help enough, at least they started giving the booster injections, but it isn't going too fast. And there are still people who will not take the injection, I cannot understand it.

Let's hope that some day not too far away we will have it under control, because everybody is a bit fed up with this. But of course I try to take care and stay safe and keep distance etc. It is a scary virus, don;t ou think?

With that in mind I better finish this post, wishing you nevertheless a fabulous week in safety and hope you still can get some Christmas feeling!

How soon it is almost December!!!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is still not bad for time of the year, today we even have some sun, but temperatures get stuck at around 10-11 C. Next week it will get a bit colder, also at night, daytime could be not more than ca. 6C, brrr. It looks as if we are heading to wintertemperatures, May be it will not go that fast and perhaps it will not freeze too much. Best is, not having snow and ice, cold isnt great either, but the slippery kind of winter on the streets I really hate.

Last week was again quiet, although filled with little jobs done, which always feels good. Jan and I di go for our flu shot last Wednesday and this time I didn;t have much bother of it. Just a day that the spot was a bit painful, that's all. On that Wednesday my friend Heidi had an operation on some veins, some spots in there had to be lasered so her blood and Flolan(her medicin) could pass without trouble. She told me it didnt take all that long but was rather painful, seems the surgeon had trouble finding a good spot to enter a vain. Poor girl. let's hope all went well. Now she has to take some rest but also needs to walk regularly, even if it hurts the first days. (they entered a vain from one of her legs). Next week she has an appointment with her lungdoctor in Amsterdam hospital, to talk it through and see if they can do something about her feeling so tired. Could be her ration of Flolan has to be raised a bit, and of course she has to cut down on some activities. That she knows well, but it is hard to do. However, she will have to do so.

I think I will try to get a Christmasbox send away next week, I first have to make the forms on the computer for the customs, so that will take some attention to do it all as needed, but I realize that next week is the last whole week of November already! Soon Jan and I will have to start decorating a bit our room for Christmas. I think I will try not to do as much as other years, still a tree and the manger will be there and some smaller decorations of course. It will be funny to see how Muppet will react on the tree and the Christmasballs. I think she will find it very interesting and it could be rather streesing for us LOL! We'll see and I will let you know. One thing I said to Jan already about the tree. Wel wil tie the tree on one or two spots to something, so that it will not fall(just in case Muppet gets really excited and should jump into the tree, you'll never know).

Good, that's it for this week, not much but nice to be able to say we are more or less okay, no disturbing things happened, and that's already wonderful to write. We still have that partial lockdown going on. We will have that for 2 weeks more and who knows what will be decided then. It is a difficult situation and I believe in many countries. No, that Covid isn't a nice thing. But we will survive it somehow, we just have to believe that.

In the mean time I wish you a lovely week to come, and stay safe.

We are back into kind of lockdown!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t really bad, not too good either, hahaha. Temperatures are around 11C, they will drop a bit in the next few days, but they say that later this week we will reach around 13C again and also night temperatures will go up a little bit. How wonderful. Now it is sometimes a little bit of sun, some rain, periods of clouds and grey looking. 

It was bad news on a press conference last Friday. Government (it is a caretaker government already for a long time, after election there still isn;t formed a new government, how terrible is that?????)decided that infections of covid are going too fast, so restrictions are here. No public at sport events, cafe. restaurants have to close at 20.00p.m., all not essential shops to close at 18.00 p.m., essential ones(like supermarkets) at 20.00 p.m. Masks in transport and in shops and lots of facilities, theaters, cinema's can have to 1250 persons, but have to be seated. To enter cafe, restaurants, you need a qr code that you are vaccinated or recovered from covid. If possible people has to work from home, on colleges and universities also restricted of numbers in roomsso all together is isn't funny at all. It will last for 3 weeks, and they hope that infections will go down. Most of the people that are hospitalized are people that didn;t have a vaccination, for all kind of reasons, and numbers are to fast growing, also a bit on IC. And hospitals are very busy already for a very long time and have to go on also with giving "normal"care to lots of people. I have my doubts, if these neasures will have a really big effect, but for now we are back to past times again. Porbably soon(we have a government that likes the words "perhaps"and "probably"and "if all goes as planned") they will start with a booster shot vaccination. In speed I know of our government we people of our age, around 68-70 years, might get one soonest in January, but as well might be March. 

It isn;t good news, we all know covid is still around and making life difficult, but very best thing to do is getting vaccinated, and now it looks as if the bigger part of population, that is vaccinated, is suffering under the not-vaccinated. I respect ones opinion an freedon of acting etc. but just sometimes this has to give way to public health of a country. Difficult decision, but benefit of all has to prevale sometimes I think.

Whatever this partial lockdown will bring, it is effecting everybody and it takes away a lot of the fun of life and it is taking a too long time now. I fear we will have to deal with it still for perhaps another  6 months or even a year. Let's hope I am far too pessimistic.

Apart from this we had a quiet week, with every day a long visit of Muppet the cat. Most of the times she spends the later evenings and nights with us. And in the morning(mostly a bit too early, hahaha) she comes walking to my face on the bed(yes, she sleeps most of the time at the footend, terrible hey) and tips softly with her paw on my nose, like saying: "hey, I was very quiet, now I am a bit hungry, could you give me something?"And well, afer a while I get up( it is then around 8.00 or 8.30 a.m.) and give her something to eat. One day she wants to go out after her breakfast, m=but other days she comes into the living room and jumps on the couch, snuggles herself agains me and takes another few hours of sleep. Life of a cat is pretty good, don;t you say?

Good , I will have to go into the kitchen to prepare a bit for out dinner. I will make a pie filled with ricotta, salmon and spinach. I never made it before so it is exciting to do and I am curious to taste it. I think it will taste rather good. It isn't too much work, also because I use ready made dough, which is at times very handy. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week, and remember, be careful and stay safe!

A week with some results, whoooo!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It isn;t too bad, our weather, of course it is autumn like, but not so wet, even periods sunshine, after today the wind should calm down again and we have temperatures around 11-12 C.

Even the garden is a little bit upset by the weather I think, there are even a few roses trying to bloom, we have also a Cosmea, which is still blooming as if it was summer. Still you see the garden comes to an end, such a pity. But all will be fine again next spring, we hope. we see some tits coming back, saw one or two robins, and of course the parakeets come as usual.

It was a week without big surprises(oh, I still love to write that, because "surprises"here are often not the best things LOL). I went out shopping on all places, some for groceries, but also found some Christmas presents, I am almost ready with that. Need one or two times to get me all. Jan found himself in rather good mood and washed the windows inside from the living room, the back and front). May be not sounding too exciting or much work, but for him it is, he did it in two days, otherwise it was too big an impact on his condition. Never mind, he was happy to be able to do it and accomplished something.

Best thing i can do is going out when he is doing jobs, otherwise he has no peace, neither have I, because I keep an eye on him all the time I know, I should not, but hey, that's in my system. So I was out and he could do his thing.

I was happy to hear, my little package arrived in the USA, and even on time. For me it was about the best news of the week. After all the trouble I went through to get that accomplished, it was nice to know all went well. And I know now how it works, so it will work a bit quicker for next package, a Christmas box. 

Had a phonecall with my friend Heidi, always nice and there is alsways some laugh too, but pity she wasn;t feeling too well. She had a very soar throat, (she tested, no Covid), but very unpleasant, so she got some antibiotics from her doctor. It was several days ago, so I hope she is feeling better now, I will call her perhaps tomorrow. We have a kind of agreement, not to call in the weekend, unless there is something really wrong. 

My back is still not really okay, so I think it might be an idea to call my doctor next week, to see if he can do something about it. It isn't really hurting too much, not all the time, just with certain movements, but it is very annoying. I need to be in as good as can be physical shape, and I cannot do all I need to with that back paying tricks with me. Hopefully next week i can tell you it has gone and all works again fine, hahaha.

I gave myself a kick in the butt yesterday and started wrapping some Christmas presents. Once you start it is okay, still it takes more time than you think. But I am happy I did it and I did almost all. Now just the last ones I need to find and I can send away the box real early, better too early arriving than otherwise. 

Time to spend a little bit of time in the kitchen, I have stewed pears to make to have as dessert. Yesterday I made a big pan of soup, and there is enough for today, so it is an easy cooking day, how nice.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe.

Strictly come Dancing is on and I do like it.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t all the best, during weekend lots of rain and wind, today it has been dry with even sunshine, but strong wind, so that mkes it not very nice to be outside(wind makes it colder). This weeks the temperatures will go down a bit more, it might be no more than 10-12C, here and there a rainshower. Yes, it is autumn and winter is slowly coming more to our area.

Last week I didn;t do a lot, because I still had my back playing games with me. Somehow I think I strained perhaps a muscle or so, it is bothering me, so I have to be careful in moving. It will go away finally(I hope) but for now I am a little bit handicapt. Glad Jan is there to lift things like laundry basket, or other things when needed.

Last monday we had a visit from Jan;s brother, nice for him, it breaks up the daily routine. And I was happy too, I could ask him about some thing on my smartphone(he is rather handy with those techinal things) and now my mail is synchronised with the one of my laptop, whoopee, so that works. Also the app for the post works now, and I am proud of myself, because I managed to get me a postage label and custom form for a birthday package(for some countries you need to make that online and pay in advance, and you cannot fill in a form at the poostoffice anymore), I payed it with my bank app(oh how exciting to try this out for the first time and scary too) and all worked and at the postoffice they could scan the label from my phone and now I hope it will arrive (and if possible on time).

But it was a good experience, for next time it will be easier to do.

Yesterday I first had a longer sleep in the morning and then I needed to be in the kitchen to finish all stuff for dinner. I started it already on Saturday, I made a kind of Indonesian kind of food, with two sorts of meat(one stew of beef in a tasty sauce and also chicken in peanut sauce. Tp that I made noodles with stuff in it and also fried rice and some green beans in a specail sauce. so all took some time and I wanted it to be all ready, so I only had to warm it up in the oven at dinner time. In between i also watched some speedskating. The saeson for it started with the Duch Championchip. You know by now that I love watching it, so the day was so filled up I had no peace and quiet to make a blogpost(and in the evenig I try to stay away from computering). So here I am for a change nce on a Monday. 

Oh, Saturday evening there was again Stricktly come Dancing on the BBC(it started already several weeks ago), this time they had a special Halloween one. I just love how every time again the costumes turn out and the the make-up. Amazing and that together with the scene setting it was a pleasure to watch. Halloween celebration is becoming more and more populair in Holland too, although it isn't yet as big as in America. I like it as long as it isn;t made too scary or bloody. 

Soon, just in about a month we will have to start decorating our house for Christmas again! I wonder if we will end up this year with a lot of broken Christmas balls, because I dont know how the visit-cat, Muppet, will react on the Christmas tree LOL. I am sure it will be quite an experience for her as well for us. First however I will have to finish the Christmas shopping, I think I have almost all, then the wrapping starts and package sending(and I will do that as soon as I can, they say there is some delay in sending and for sure that will be the case with Christmas).

Okay, now time to do some bloghopping and internet hopping, I have more time today because we have left overs from yesterday, will taste even better I think. I did some grocerie shpping too today, and Jan was nice to me and vacuum cleaned the house. 

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe and healthy.

Somehow time got away with me today

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Just a short notice, that I will post tomorrow, because time flew away today and I want to do my post not in a hurry, it is never good.

So don;t you worry, all is okay here, it's just a day with slow start and then busy with all and nothing LOL!

Till tomorrow, at some time

Stormy weather, not good for going out.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today it is nice weather, we have sunshine and temperature around 13-14C.Quite different from last week's weather. We had several days with very strong winds, even storm along the coast, rainshowers and most funy thing the temperatures weren;t so bad, something of 17 C.

But that very strong wind(6-7 Beaufort) isnlt something I like and no good for going out if you don;t really have to. So I spent a few days inside, which wasn't too bad, because I have a muscle in the right backside of my back that is acting up. It will be better again, I have it just every now and then, and it is annoying.

I did had an idea of going to my friend Heidi this week, but with this real bad weather, I didn;t go, it will have to be for another day.

All together it was a rather quiet week, and Jan had to go to hospital for and ultrasound scan and blood drawn as a half year check. He will be called by his doctor next week to hear if all is still well. Next time he will ask again for a personal visit to his specialist in hospital, He feels better with it, he doesn't like telephone calls as consultation, he says it is different and he always forgets some things to ask, even when he makes notes for it. I can understand him in this, but this time we were too late to change the phonecall into visit, it was far too busy. It was for him like an expedition, hahaha. He didn't go out for quite some time, but all in all it did go well he said, he could walk all the way from tramstation to hospital without taking a break, I was happy for him. Of course he had to walk slowly, but he managed. Naturally when he was back home, he was a bit exhausted from it, so later on he took a long nap.

Oh, some nice news. Muppet, the visiting cat is back again in town. After about a week of silence she suddenly stood in front of the kitchen door again and now she visits us again regularly and also spends some time inside (mostly all mornings, but every now and then also a few hours at night). She will never be all the time with us, but I like to take a bit care of her and it seems she feels safe with us. Jan says he thinks she has may be a love affair with a neighbour cat. Of course it sould be, I just hope the cat is treated so Muppet will not suddenly be pregnant. If so, I just hope she will give birth to her little ones at her regular home, I am not really keen on suddenly having a basket full of kittens who don;t really are for me to nurse, understand? But let's see first if Jan is right, LOL.

I just came from the kitchen where I prepaired our dinner. I had some ready made goulash from the supermarket, but I made some fresh paprika (fried) to it, with some spring onions and some mushrooms and made some rice. I will fry the rice a bit and then we have the extra filled goulash with it. I think it will taste really good.

Next week will be kind of a learning week for me concerning my mobile, some apps I need to use and the internet banking. I think I will go to the shop where I had my phone, they are very helpful and may be they can help me with those things, installing it and making accounts for it etc. It isn;t very difficult but I encounter problems with it, so I must be doing something wrong. Good, I hope by end next week I will be up to date and able to use all.

As Jan almost doesn;t go out I need to figure out things he can do. So at the moment I bought him 3 or 4 new houseplants, he likes to take care of the houseplants.(I am not so good at it, I am more for the garden plants, hahaha), now I only will have to buy some bigger decorative pots for them. I find those things quite expensive, you know! But I am sure I can find some for a not too big price, it just takes a bit of time. May be I can find some online(I can py now by internet, hey!). Of course it isn;t a day filling task, taking care of the plants, but it is something he has to think of and slowly he gets quite a collection, some just green ones and some also blooming ones. He also makes swedish crossword puzzles, the hardest ones there are (with 4-5 star). Sometimes he gives the house a vacuum cleaning (but he has to do that in parts, because of his breathing, you know).And thank God there is tv, without it he would be a bit lost, I think(but aren;t we all???????. We are sooo used to that thing, hard to remember a time we didn't have one yet).

Good, that's about all I can think of to tell. Best I wish you all a wonderful week, and keep safe!

I am almost into the 21th century hahahahaha

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is a bit gray today, but dry, later this week we will have a day or two with temperatures that may reach 18C, unbelievable. But it still is rather quiet autumn weather most of the time.

Last week I first had to make a call to my insurance company to ask if they might have forgotten to send me a bill? I receive one every 3 months, it is easier to pay in parts during the year. They had sent me one, but I didn;t receive it, neither the new policy. Perhaps the post didn't deliver or the postman put it into some elses mailbox. Anyway, they sent me again, so I could pay and wouldn;t have trouble later on.

Then Wednesday I went to the bank to have some instructions on how to do internet banking. Seems all pretty forward, so next week I think I will try it out. I had a very nice and patient lady there, and she also put the app on my phone. Wow, now I am bound to use that phone a bit more, because I also have put the QR corona check code on it, Yeah, you see, suddenly in big steps I moved into a new area of computing and such, LOL!

Now I will try to get a small package send by first filling in the form on internet, probably paying by internet banking and finally being able to send it away to the USA. I hope all will go smoothly. It is always a bit scary to try out new things, don;t you think?

Sad news to tell too. We don;t see our lease cat Muppet anymore. I have no idea if she is still around or not, but it is a bit strange she suddenly disappeared. Let's hope all is well with her.

Oh, last week Jan and I received a letter from our doctor to get our flu vaccination. Somewhere the 17th of November it will be. Of course we will go there, as we do every year. And I hope a lot of people will have this c=vaccination, as well still a lot of people should get the covid vaccin. Everybody might think it is almost done with, but be careful, the covid is still around and we will notice it this winter, I am sure.

Good time to finish this post, and have a look at my beef stew, that I have in the oven(this time). I never made it in the oven before so it is a try-out more or less. And I still have some fresh spinach left from last week, I will fry that with some garlic and onion and make us a few boiled potatoes. The spinach I used for  small lasagna I made earlier this week. And it tasted so well, even Jan did like it more than usual, (he isn;t very much for pasta stuff). I made it with some minced meat, the fried spinach, mushrooms, onion, bit of mozarella, that in two layers in between the lasagna sheets, with some tomatoe sauce in the minced meat and as last some bechamel and grated cheese on it. Yummie, and I will make it again some day.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe.

Experienced slightly better weeks than this one

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Our weather is getting somewhat colder, although we still have periods with some sunshine. But for now it is around 15C, later this week it might get to only 13C with some rain.

As I expected after the week with Jan being not too well, now it was my turn to have a bad day, or better said night. last Thursday evening already my stomach began to protest and during the night I had a annoying kind of feeling, not really pain, but uncomfoy and then it is best for me to get up and sit on the couch. It helped a bit, but a you can imagine I didnt get much or almost no sleep. And that is a bad thing for me. So Friday I was happy that the nasty stomach feeling slowly went away, but I was completely out of business. I did catch a nap in the afternoon, did me some good, and by yesterday all was almost normal again. 

Just before al this started I ould help Jan a bit with putting all waste outside and it was picked up all on Friday morning. Yes, that was a good thing.

But I had a unpleasant surprise this week when I went to the postoffice to mail a tiny little package to the Usa to my friend Edna and they said to me that they couldn;t accept it there. I first had to announce it online with the post, giving all content etc. Then had to pay online and then print a custom form and bring that with the package to the postoffice. Well, sounds not so difficult only there were a few obstacles:

I have (yes I know I am living in the Ice Age LOL)no internetbanking, so how can I pay for the package? And second I still have no printer(Ialmost have no use for it so I postponed that every time). Well, I was a bit in a bad mood. It isnlt something our post asks, it is ordered by the USA, they want to know all in advance. Before this I could go to the postoffice, fill in a small custom form, pay there and ready. Now I had to contact my bank to settle internet banking possibility, I had on the phone a nice lady that helped me well. Soon I will receive a call from them to make an appointment that they can visit me home and install and or explain all.Then I called the post(gosh to find a telephonenumber to have actually someone on the phone is hard work)and after I got someone I was told that it is possible to let the custom form print at the postoffice where I want to deliver the package. That was some result. But now all depends on the bank how quick they will react and if I will be able to send this package still on time and then there is the Christmas box too.What a mess, caused by customs of the USA. I am not pleased. But dear readers, soon this lady will be all modernised, with internet banking and all, and yes you are allowed to laugh about it.

It was a week of getting things done(planned or not hahahah) and I also called our plumber for an appointment to clean our central heating kettle. Has to be done every year, and gosh, he came several hours later after my call. Good, done also.

Oh, as cherry on the cake of misfortune suddenly we had trouble with our tv, specially when looking back the recorded stuff. Suddenly it seemed the internet connection necessary for it wasn't good enough, so every few minutes the image stood still or we got a kind of error code on the screen. I finally tried to call the customer service of the cable company, (also difficult to get hold of someone in person), and the guy gave a solution that for that moment was good enough. Seems they are uupdating or having maintenace of the modem, all okay by me, but every time they do so, there is something wrong with the connection, or media box or whatever. Very annoying and I don;t unerstand why. And by all, we pay quite some money for the monthly subscription. The most irritating thing is that first thing they always say, that it migh be caused by a bad cable. Well, the cables are fine and all replaced for new ones not too long ago, so that excuse doesn;t work anymore with me.

Well, folks, did I complained enough about all kind of things in this post? LOL. Forgive me, but sometimes there are those kind of days in a week, let's hope all will come in more quiet waters again next week.

Wishing you all a fantastic week, and stay safe.

As you can understand I had no idea of making some photosof things, so that has to wait for a moment. 

So

Our stash for waste collection is growing LOL

 Goodafternoon everybody!

The weather here is really Autumn like, we even had one or two nights with heavy rain, the temperatures are low, around 15C, some days even quite some wind, so not my kind of weather.

As the blogpost title says, the stuff we want to get rid of is growing, so I really need to call next week for a pick-up date. I am happy with the little free space it gives in the house, but we still need to get through a lot more. 

So a lot of time was spent with this cleaning out, also had to do some grocerie shopping, do some vacuum cleaning, mopping a floor or two etc. I also made time to go for a quick visit to town centre, where I found two lovely sweaters, fuzzy, warm, just good for this time of year. I didn;t make yet a photo of them, I will try to post it next week.

during that trip I also found a really good pair of slippers for Jan, His old pair where at the end, and this one is really sturdy, and warm, with good footshape. So this was a successful trip. Yesterday I had courage to make a quick trip to the market(had just the good weather, because when coming home it started to rain and hard too!), there were a few small things you almost only can find there, I found it found me a pair of cheap slippers, that will do for a couple of months I think, and had a good look around. Gosh it was nice to be able to walk there and see all the stalls and stands again. For a very long time there was almost nothing there, just vegetable stalls and all things for food. But I may be chicken, but on the market I did wear my mask, there was quite some crowd and for sure there were walking a lot of people that weren;t yet vaccinated for whatever reason. So better take no chances.

We still have a lot of visits of Muppet, the cat, sometimes for hours she will be inside(and I cannot resist letting here in, specially with the very bad weather). May be not the best to do, but softy I am and softy I will stay.

So next week I must do some calls and yes, not forget to take a few photos.

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe,

Hugs

Kyra

This week could have been better

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather has been rather nice, today it still is, there are temperatures around 21-25C, depending where you live, but next week temperatures could dropp quite a lot to around 16C, brrrr. Well that isn;t yet too bad for end September, but I am so used now to the 20-21C, that it will be difficult too get used to again, LOL. And there coud be more rain too.

No, we didn;t have a very good week this time. Jan had again trouble with the belly, more the intestines I think. Monday night and also uesday and even during the night he had a lot of trouble, specially those shooting pains. You know already the thinkg, I asked if he wanted the doctor, he said no, not yet, etc. From Wednesday it went slowly better with him, but apart from the pain he gets rather exhausted from it. Understandable, because with the pain and so it is diffcult to sleep a lot. Good, all seems to be okay again now, but of course it has it's repercussion on me too. One night slamost no sleep the worrie, etc. so I was quite under the weather too. Don;t you worry, all is normal and quiet now again.

Let's quickly forget about it and move on.

Later in the week, when I was feeling already a lot better, I did some shopping and found us some more tulip bulbs. I have two photos borrowed from the web of them. They should grow 45 cm. tall.

Aren't they beautiful? I hope they will grow well. If all goes well this spring we should have a lot of tulips in big pots in the garden. And it will be a happy sight on the patio.

Our "lease cat"Muppet, still is coming over a lot. She even comes in the house in the morning as I open the kitchen door and finds her a comfy place on the couch for several hours. Yesterday evening she also was inside and had a good sleep for a few hours. It is't that she has noo home, I know she has, but apparantly they don;t give a lot of attention to her I think. Yes, I am a softy, I know very well, but I care for animals. I know she also is often during the night here in her basket outside. It's difficult to know really what to do. We will keep an eye on her and see what she will do when temperatures will fall a lot and it will be windy and raining etc.

Friday I had to call the energy company, to ask where the bill of this month was dwelling. Normally I receive it around the 15th-20th of the month, but this time not. As I donlt want to wait till I get a reminder, I thought it better to call them. I had a very nice lady on the phone, she seemed rather surprised about the reason I called. I asked her: "you certainly aren;t used to get calls to send a bill, isn't it?". She had to laugh and acknowledge that. All should be settled now, she would send me a bill so I had time enough to pay without trouble. It only takes some time to get through with a phonecall. I had to wait about 8 minutes, that's long don;t you think? I probably could have done it online too, but I rather like to talk to a person with this kind of things.

Good, next week I will have to make an appointment to have cleaned and checked my cv-kettle. It's a yealy returning thing, and is good to do(also for insurance, if something might happen). Then next thing will be a call for waste pickup, we gathered quite some stuff, so better get rid of it now.

And all of the country is waiting to have a new government. Elections were in March, but there still is no coaltion formed which makes a government. It is horrible that it has to take such a long time and may be will need even more. In the meantime the country is more or less ungoverned, except for some urgent matters that need to be done. It could happen that we will have a government of minority, which isn;t really a good thing. It makes it more difficult to get things done, each time the government wants to make a new law, or do something important they will need to search in the parliament for support. That can be a tricky thing. But in case they even cannot come to some government in minority, perhaps then we could have new elections. I really have no idea at the moment what will be better. I am not very well into politics, although I have my opinions, but above all we need to have a new government and if possible a more or less reliable one. We'll just have to see what will happen in the next weeks. 

here they slowly diminish all measures for Covid, but I still will keep cautious and prudent because it isn;t yet over and I have to be careful for Jan of course. We are fully vaccinated, but we will have to see how all things will evolve during autumn and winter time. 

Now I think I have rambled more than enough and I feel it is time to have may be a cup of tea. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week and stay safe. 

Finally a few photo's

 Goodafternoon everybody.

We have still nice weather, although it will change during the week (snifff). Now it is about 20C, with quite some sun, but ater this week all could be different, with rain, cluds, more wind and much lower temperatures(could be something of 16C only). I am not ready for that yet, but I will have to get used to it soon, because autumn weather will be in store, I fear.

This morning I first had my cup of tea and my "quiet"moments in watching a detective, having a sandwich too and in company of...........our lease cat, which sat next to me on our couch, even sleeping happily. Yeah, she still is visiting us every day, and during the night from around 1 or 2 o'clock she is mostly lying in her little basket on the cupboard in the garden. We will see how we will can make it more sheltered for her during colder and wetter times(if she still will be there at night).

 I've tried to make a photo of her, here it finally is:

 

Isn;t it a beauty? As we don;t know a name, we call her "Muppet". 

Then I made a bit later some coffee for Jan and me and after that( you see, we took it all easy) I changed the duvet covers and sheets etc. on our bed. Then Jan started to look through a part of our dvd's and cd's, to see which ones we want to keep and which ones can go. I will have to go through them also perhaps. It all takes such a lot of room and a lot we don't watch or listen to anymore, so why keep it? After we will have cleared out a lot of cupboards and such, it will still looks as if almost nothing disappeared, hahahaha.  It is amazing what you collect over the years, and inherited from the parents etc.

It was a more or less quiet week. Jan did some clearing up, meaning he dismanteled a low cupboard that needs to go away, it was hard work, the shrews and stuff that held it together were tight and not easy to remove. Now it waits to be picked up one day by bulky waste collection service. Oh, we have already quite some stuff ready for it, so I think I will call them somewhere this week to make an appointment for it. Oh, it will feel so good to got rid of a lot of stuff that only takes in room and has no use anymore,

I also did some garden work, meaning I did cut a lot of the ivy, that always grows as mad and needs a lot ore control pruning than we do, but hey, it is hard work. Next week I should try to find some courage to do a next bit.

We still are very happy with our curtains, I have one photo, which isn't really doing them credit but perhaps you get an idea.

I am busy with trying to make me a sweater, if I will succeed I don't know, but I like the pattern that I use, which is very easy. It is called the Hurdle stitch.

Cast on multiples of 2 

Row 1(Right Side) Knit all

Row 2(Wrong Side) Knit all

Row 3: * Knit 1, Purl 1*

Row 4: * Knit 1, Purl 1*

It looks like this

Well, this is it for today.

I am sure i did forget to mention something, but cannot believe it is very important. Wishing you all a good week in safety and good health and if possible with a few laughs!

New curtains, looks partly a new house!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t bad, although at the moment somewhat cooler, but still here and there sunshine, temperature around 20-21C.  May be later this week a little bit of rain, but it looks as if Jan has to water the garden today or tomorrow. It has been too dry.

It was quite a busy week this one. Monday and Tuesday we were busy clearing up several spaces in the rooms so the "curtain-Man"could get everywhere without too much trouble. Doing that it was great time too to go through some stuff and put things in plastic bags or cartons to get rid of . it takes several hours in the day and it absobs some energy but it is satisfying too. Oh. Monday Jan and I also [ainted the outside of the garden doors,  pfffff, we aren;t used to those jobs anymore LOL.So on Wednesday the man came to get rid of all the old rails and curtians and put on new rails and curtains. It takes several hours and it was one of the warmest days too this week. Gosh, you don;t need to do fitness when you have his profession. It is up and down stairs all the time, replacing it, and again and again. 

He came around 9.30 in the morning and went away aroud 15.00 afternoon which gave us some time to put some tables and stuff back in it's place and give the rooms a good hoovering and oh my, it looks marvellous! I tried to make a picture of it, but it was not really good so I will try to make some new ones with some other lightfall perhaps. In a way the curtains make the sitting room a little bit darker, but the light that still comes in is very nice and we need to get used to it too. It really all lifts up all the rooms, pity only that one curtain wasn;t delivered, so that will be here in a day or 6-10 perhaps. The guy just will need to hang it on the rails, so that's done in a few minutes. It can happen, he was a bit cross on himself and blames himself for it, not having checked extra. But it was just before the holidays and it was a bit hectic in the shop. It is just the net-curtains for the bedroom, all the rest is done.

Can you imagine that after those 3 days we were a little bit pooped out? Jan also, but of course didn;t want to show, but i managed to let him sit down and take some rest, there wasn;t anything to do that couldn;t wait another day or may be two or even wait till next week. 

Today I will make us a rather easy meal, a spring roll from the oven. It will be a rather big spring roll, looking a bit like this

It will be filled with a lot of fresh veggies, fried quickly in a pan with a little bit of sunflower oil, also some fine noodles, rolled into some filo sheets, then in the oven for about 20 minutes and I hope they will turn out well. It doesnt look much but it is very stomach filling, and if you want you can add some chicken in it or prawns or whatever you want.

Good this was the news from this week, have a wonderful week and stay safe and till next week.

A really late summer time is on now.

Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, we have now fine weather with nice temperatures of around 21C much sun, and it will be even a little bit better during the week. It is more or less summertime starting late. Never mind if it will hold on till end november I would be happy.

It was a week that gave me a bit of stress and worry and because of that one or two nights of real bad sleep. Cause of this was Jan not feeling very well from Sunday evening on, he had again those cramps in the belly, not as bad as last time, thank God for that, but it is always something not to be happy with. It lasted for about two days, with on and off time, and it always comes with not too great stool. it comes difficult, although he has medication for it, and it takes a while before all is okay again. It's hard to explain how I feel duuring these periods, but not good. Jan isn;t the kind of calling a doctor very quick, he would ask me to do so if it was really really bad, but he is most of the time doing that at the last moment and I don;t feel happy about it. But now it is about "quiet"again, but it is never good for my sleep (neither for Jan's). 

I know I have to deal with it, it is something that will return every now and then, but knowing so and doing so are different things, LOL.

But..... yesterday I had a good telephone call. It was of the shop where we ordered our curtains, they are about ready and Wednesday the man will come to put all the the new rails on, take off all the old stuff etc. Oh my, when all will be hanging and installed, it will be looking already a lot better. 

As Jan was feeling more or less okay yesterday, he started to sand the outside of the gardendoors and the woodwork around. He has a machine for it so it isn;t that hard work. If all goes well he will start painting today. I started yesterday to really clean some woodwork insode the house, like the door or the sitting room and such. Not too much I must say, but it is a start. Slowly we will get there and soon I will be ready to at least paint a part.If all goes well, Jan will do a part too. It is really time to have a new coat of paint after all those years.

We still have visits of our "lease cat"(don;t know how to call her otherwise at the moment hahahah). She isn;t around all the time, but often she spents a lot of time in our garden, in her little basket(Jan made it for her, a small plastic basket with a nice thick fleece blanket folded up in it, so she will not be cold if she is there dring the night, which happens every now and then). So we still don;t know if she is at home somewhere, or is strolling around in several gardens, very strange. 

Oh, this morning Jan startled me with a remark that we needed to check the watermeter, because he wasn;t sure if there might be leaking something. I opened the shutter in the floor and I saw the meter moving very sloly, so somewhere there was used water. Hmmmmm, remember the last time when we had that terrible leak during several months without noticing? Good Lord, I was praying that it would be nothing. I went checking if all taps were shut, they were only not the one of the gardenhose, not really good. So I closed it till no more was possible and after a few minutes checked the meter again. Hoorray, it wasn;t moving anymore! Pfff, that was a great relief, can you imagine?

To end this post with a bit of a laugh, I have a remark of Jan he made yesterday. I was talking to him that it would be better for him if he went out for a short walk every now and then. I know it is difficult for him, because of his breathing. At that time we were watching some animal program on tv from a zoo where they were looking into turtle behaviour. Then Jan said it might be a good idea buying him a large turtle as pet, then he could give that a walk, because the   turtle walked about as slowly as he did, which was better than to walk with the little doggie from Heidi. It gave us a good laugh, and no I will not buy him a turtle. LOL.

It is good he still has his humor and sometimes self-mockery. Yeah, we know we are getting older and it comes sometimes with some imperfections of the health. We can feel bad about or make the most of it. Best is to try to make the most of it. 

Okay, time to ge something done here, and because of the nice looking and also nice feeling weather it all is more easy. As long as the sun shines you feel better, isn;t it?

Wishing you all a very lovely week, stay safe.

Today looks and feels like autumn

 Goodafternoon everybody!

yes, today is a dull day, cloudy, windy, sometimes a bit of rain, temperature around just 17C, it almost feels like a day in autumn. It should be somewhat better tomorrow, but the whole week we will not reach much more as top 21C. We could do with just a whee bit better weather, it still is August, but doesn;t really looks like it. May be we will have an excellent and warm fall, who knows?

It was a quiet week, although I went here and about to get us some things for a near by projec. we will do it in slow pace, but it has to be done. Firdt will be to paint the outisde of the garden doors,  the paint is starting to bladder here and there, so it will need a light sanding, perhaps a ground cover and then the paint. It isn't a very big project, can be done in may be two days(with drying etc). Every day a couple of hours may be. Jan can do a part, I have more in mind for the inside of the house. Some doors could do with a new coat of paint, so that will be a longer time needed. So I went to buy us some paint, some rollers and paint brushes, masking tape, all such things.

I really have no idea how long it will take, I just do a bit each time, take a few days rest in between, then a next small part and so on. Where are the times I had more than enouh energy to do those bigger jobs in a day or two three in a row???? But slowly and secure does the trick too, so hopefully before winter it will be done. Cross my fingers.

I did arrange some drawers in the kitchen and some re-arranging in the grocgerie stock room, all looks better again. So I am not completely lazy, there are things done LOL. 

Also some garden work done, mostly a bit of pruning, weed control, dead-heading, trying to keep it look still good. Oh, we have started to harvest a bit of our tiny cherry tomatoes, pity there is not much sun to let them ripe quicker, but all together we will have a nice small crop. Jan tasted one or two and says they do taste really good. Well, they should, after the long wait, hahaha.

Had a long telephone call with my friend Heidi, she missed a little bit her daughter who was on a short vacation trip with some girl friends. They were in a holiday cottage and lucky for them just had some good weather days. Séverine had a great time with those girls, made several small trips(all here in the Netherlands), they did cook once or twice themselves, of course also had some take away meals or something like it, it was a trip of four days. I am glad she had a good time, she had a bit of a tough year, so some fun and laughter and relax time was a good thing.

Okay, not much more there is, so better i finish my post, may be do some blog reading or web surfing and then prepare dinner.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe.

We might be kind of in between cat-siitting family, LOL

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, I am late, today, although I didnlt sleep that long. But I took it easy in the morning, slow start, then did some organizing with bills, bank account forms etc, all nice and as it should in their binders. Then I made a short stop in the garden, removed some weeds, cut off most of the leaves of the tomato plants( so they can ripe well, because they are starting to have color, but are not good to pick yet), dead headed some flowers.

It was nice just after we had some rainshowers, some of them quite heavy, but they didn;t last too long. And with a little bit of sunshine peeping around the clouds, it suddenly felt real nice in the garden for a moment.

The weather here is more or less a bit unpredictable, one day cloudy, with temps of just 19C, another day there is sunshine and some rain, a real rollercoaster type of weather. Could you call that real summerweather?? I don;t think so, but perhaps we will have those temperatures till far into autumn, who knows.

The visiting cat still is visiting us, and as the title of the blog already said, we feel like a baby sitter family or something. Yesterday night I saw him sitting outside too and just at that moment it was raining very hard, so we tried to let him have a dry spot in the house, but after a little sniffing around it seemed he wanted to go outside again So we let him go, he can find some small dry spots near our kitchen and he did sit there. So it is our idea he has a proper house, but the people perhaps work at day and let him out in the morning, or may be they work in shofts, so at night too. or he might have a cat door in his house and just likes to go around. But he is often to find in our garden near the kitchen door, on a little cabinet we have there. It is a rather dry and sheltered spot, so I put a small blanket for him there and he seems to like it. Well, we will keep an eye on him also when the weather will get worse and colder.

This week passed by rather quiet, although I even had almost two days with some extra energy, so I took advantage of that, cleaned some windows, cleaned some furniture, Jan did go through our stash of videotapes and dvd's, Not we only have a few left, the rest is in a box to put outside with a lot of other stuff we are gathering for the bulky waste collection service one day soon. It really is amazing to see how much stuff a person can collect over the years and has trouble parting with it, LOL.

This evening I will be frying two pieces of codfish, every now and then we like having some fish for dinner. Healthy it is too, and it makes a change. Just a few boiled potatoes to go with it and probably some green beans. Simple but still tasty I think.

I think I will go watching some tv, perhaps knit along during the watching and then soon it will be time to make that dinner.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, in safety.

Our sparrows are happy.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

We are having probably the last lovely day with around 23C, next week they expect a few days of much lower temperatures. like 17-18C with rain etc. May be next weekend it will get better again. 

It was a much better week this time, recovered on sleep, so a bit more energy was there. Between the usual things we had twice a pop-in visit of our neighbor. He is having vacation and is doing some DIY jobs. We could help him with some small tools and when returning them I invited him for a drink. It was nice to have someone on visit, specially for Jan it is good, while he doesn;t get out much and this way he speaks someone else. Our neighbor is a nice guy, sometimes we don't see eachother for longer time and then a few times a week. (We also take parcels from the post for him when he isnt at home).

Our birds specially the sparros, are very happy at the moment. I bought them a new type of birdseed container The old one was also good, but that one was always attacked and emptied almost by the crows and that costs a lot of birdseed.

Now I have this one and it is a pleasure to see the sparrows hope in and out, and make a lot of noise, hahaha.

During the week we had several visits of the neighboring cat, one day I was in the room in the morning watching some tv and suddenly saw something moving. You guessed right, it was the cat, looking around in the room. Well, I like him, but it is better he doesn;t come into the house, so I gently removed him.

Friday I seemed to be quite filled with some energy, so I changed the bedsheets, but also cleaned the whole bedroom, taking of the dust with a moist tissue of all that was in the room, removed a few small spider or dust webs in corners, and then went through with the vacuum cleaner. I felt quite happy with myself, LOL. Even did some gardening also, so it was a well spent day.

Yesterday I bought me a clematis plant, I was on the search for a long time for a new clematis, but couldn;t find it. Now I found one, even with discount, but this one was still looking good. So I will put it in a big container, together with something that will give some shadow on the roots, and we will try growing it near our sitting area. It's a clematis from the "So many purple flowers" it will grow not higher than about 3 mtr. and will grow not too wide either. I foud a picture of it on the web, I think it is the one I have, it has not so big flowers, but many smaller ones. Looks real nice.

I hope that tis one will survive, our other two clematis plants are completely disappeared. I think Jan pruned them too hard, and may be the roots drowned a bit when there was a period of much rain. Oh well, it is nice to have something new too.

Okay, time for me to finish now, my laundry is ready, so I have to hang it out to dry and then I will go to the garden to first remove a bad growing rose from the container and then plant in that the clematis. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe, 

A week of mostly trying to have some sleep recovery.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather still is a bit strange, it isn;t cold, but not summery temperatures either, here and there some rain, today it is very windy. I just returned from some work in the garden. Small jobs, like a bit of pruning or deadheading , a few plants needed repotting and that was about all.

This week hasnt been very busy, but not too good either. It had to do with Jan. soemhwere Tuesday he started to have some nasty pain in the belley, more or less as he had a few times before, but not as bad as then. You can imahine that Tuesday night he didnt get much sleep, but I neither. The pain didn;t become worse, thank God for that, and even Wednesday evening it became less. That was something to be happy about. So not yet need to call a doctor(and you just see, our doctor just was on vacation!), the only thing was that the stool didn;t work all too well and certainly with Jan we have to be careful with it. It still isn;t on "normal"behaviour, it's coming difficult and rather slow. Let's see how today will go, I hope better, because otherwise I don;t know what to do.(Jan isnt very much for calling in doctors if not really necessary, you know him). Now you  can understand a bit about the post title. Almost not sleeping Tuesday night, the Wednesday was a day of trying to get some sleep, sitting around and feeling tired. And even the day after I didn't feel still great, although much better after some recovery sleep. 

I planned to do some things this week, but as very often, they didnlt work out. Why don;t I learn from the past? I just know, that making plans isnt such a good thing for me, often it just works out very differently. Never mind that, I am for now glad that it wasn't necessary to call for doctor. Let's hope it only will go better with his stool and so in one or two days.

In between we did see some of the Olympics and I am very proud of our athletes, they did extremely well this time, they have 36 medals, which is amazing for such a small country as we are. And there were some of the medals that came as a surprise, because of amazing performances. So a deep bow for our sporters and for all of the participants. 

I made it easy for myself yesterday for dinner. I've made a big pan of soup and there is more than enough for today too. So a big bowl of soup, with perhaps a sandwich with dairy butter on it on the side will do perfectly well today too. And if we might feel a bit hungry later on we always can take a sandwich with a tasty topping. 

I hope you are all doing well, and I wish you a very lovely week to come and stay safe.

My hair looks better again.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Our weather is a bit up and down, but not really summer temperatures. We have around 19-21C in our area, which is a bit low for now. Here and there some rain, but also periods with sun, little windy too at times. Would be nice if it soon will get a little bit warmer, so we could enjoy our patio a bit more. 

It is very bad in Southern Europe and part of Turkey too with very big and fearce fires, and they have temperatures of 338-40C or even  bit higher. It is really sad too see all the nature destroyed.

Last Monday I finally went to my haridresser too have shortcut again. Oh my, how wonderful that feeling is and easy too comb in the morning. I did wait far too long to make that appointment, but now I am settled again for a month or two I think.

For tomorrow I already have something on the planner. This morning I wanted to make some coffe, I still have an "old-fashioned"coffeemaker with paper filter and a drip stop. All worked well for a long time, but this morning suddenly the dripstop fell off and I cannot get it fixed again. Well, it isn't such a big thing,I can put back the dripstop when I quickly also put back the coffecan under it. Only if I want to pour some coffee, yes, the dripstop fells off, hahaha. It will do for today. Tomorrow I will buy us a new one, but one for less cups of coffee, we can do with one for around 6 cups, no need to have one for 12 or 15.

What else did happen this week? Not too much, we watched quite  a lot of the Olympics, there are events also live during daytime (our time). It is nice that we can do it if we want too. But in between all, I did some of the usual stuff, not interesting too tell about. 

Our tomatoes are really becoming tomatoes. Still rather small, but they need a bit more warmth and also sunshine I guess. So it will take still some weeks before we can harvest a tomatoe. I noticed however that we will have a few beans. The plant flowered and I saw that already a few beans are shaling from it. I don;t expect to have a big harvest, I even wonder if it will be enough for us for one meal, LOL. But it was a try, and now that I now they grow rather well  in a big pot, I can plant a bit more next year. Usually I am rather animal friendly, I could say, but that doesn;t include slugs. They do well in this weather with some rain, some sun, they like it and it is visible early evening and also very late. It depends a bit on their mood I guess. Sometimes I am in the kitchen at around 8 p.m. to make some coffee, look into the garden and see them crawling all over the stones. And then I am a very bad person suddenly. I go out with a small plastic bag and an old pair of sugartongs and try to pick up as much as I see. sorry for them, but I hate it when they eat too much plants and I don;t want them to lay too many eggs. Sometimes I do it early evening and again much later(then I'll have to go out with a small flashlight). But I am convinced there are enough survivers left, it's almost impossible to find them all. It is however funny when I am slughunting, I very often meet with one or two toads, and this week I noticed even three, so they made a family, LOL. There are less frogs now in or garden, although we still have the tiny pond and it seems there still is at times a frogg living in it, but I didn;t see any young ones. Perhaps the spawn was eaten, who knows?

Well, thias is about all about our not so imteresting life at the moment. But you know by this post that we are still in more or less good order, hahaha, and perhaps next week there will be some more exciting news, you'll never know.

I will go and watch a little bit Olympics again(it is nice now because there is quite some athletics at the moment), and then soon I must start with dinner, we will have a small ham of the bone, have to put it in the oven, and I think I will put in some potatoes to roast with it and make fresh applesauce.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, till next time. 

We have guest visits from a cat.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, today very late, I slept a bit longer and then was busy with things, Our wether has been quite okay, yesterday there was some rain, it will rain possibly too in the evening again, temperature today is about 23-25C. Later this week it will drop to may be 20-21C, which is somewhat  low for July. 

I was later this morning because I slept longer than usual. All due to the Olympics. We have a time difference with Japa of about 7 hours, so a lot of events take place in our nights. There are of course summaries to see of tod enough for a medal, They start often at 02.00 night (our time). Not best for the sleep, I know, but ..................

We had again a quiet week, I love to say it, although sometimes it seems dull. However, we had a visit from Heidi and Séverine this week on Tuesday and it was ever so nice. Séverine explained us a few things on our phones, not all, but every time something is okay. we had a drink and a few laughs, sitting in the garden.

And we have a visitor lately from a beautiful young cat, at home somewhere in the neighbourhood. No, it doesn;t look astray, looking far too clean and well-fed, but it seems to like our garden and our chairs with the pillows in the garden, hahahha. It's a very friendly cat, grey with white and very light green-greyish eyes. I will try to make a photo and put it in my next blogpost. I only have to try to learn him/her( I didn;t check, LOL) that it can be in our garden and lay around but cannot harm the little birds. Will be hard, I know, but I can always try.

After I woke up this morning I first had a cup of tea and something to eat, watched a bit tv and then started to prepare for dinner. I still had some big shrimps in the freezer, so I thought I might use them up and they are in a simple marinade of sunflower oil, some pepper, salt and garlic. I also made a potatoe salad to go with it and I also have a few slices of smoked salmon with it. As dessert we will have some yogurt with fresh strawberries. I think it will be yummie. It's a bit luxurious dinner, I know, but we don't have that too often. During the week we also have sometimes just a hamburger with some salad or boiled veggies and potatoes.Another day perhaps just some pasta, or a Sheperd's Pie with some salad,  But every now and then we can make an exception, isn;t it?

Oh, I also turned on the washing machine to have the laundry done, it's hanging to dry now in the extension room we have. All together I think I filled my day well enough, so now it is about time to do a little game perhaps on the laptop, and later hang some food for the birds and then the afternoon will be gone already.

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe, take care of yourselves, and till next week.

In several weeks we will have all the curtains.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Weather is good again, We have around 22-24C, sunshine, little bit of wind, and it will stay like this probably all next week. So somewhere this week Jan has to water the garden again. This seems strange, if you know that in the south of our country, as well as in Germany and Belgium there was very much rain and there are terrible floods. It hurts your heart when you see the disaster and the dammage that it has done. Lots of people lost everything in their house, if not even their house too. There are also a lot of casualties, for all in Germany and Belgium. And there are still people missing.

There was also another really bad news item, on Friday the 8th of July a crime journalist was shot and badly too, they hit his head. He died of the attack last week after struggling for his life about a week. It is shocking that things like that happen and it seems if it happens more often. Journalists, lawyers, program makers etc, seem not to be safe anymore to do their job. If you want to know more details I have alink for you:

Peter R de Vries: Dutch crime reporter dies after shooting - BBC News

Thursday the man of the curtain-shop came by to measure everything to the detail, and during his visit we even changed a few things, and now all the house will be having new curtains, or blinds or net-curtains. It is really a lot of money we will spend, but it certainly will last for a longer time, because it is good quality and will be well-made. Of course it hurts a little bit in the wallet, LOL, but it will be worth it. I tried to find some examples of the curtains we will have, and i did find some, although it looks as if it isn't really the colour I have in mind. Nevertheless you will have a slight idea.

For the living room front and back we will have net curtains(of which I didn;t find a foto)and curtains.Here the curtains

I have the idea that there is a slightly more green in it, but you can see the kind of tissue, which is linen.

For the little bedroom Jan wanted a warmer colour which is about this one

Because of starting of holidays, we will have to wait somewhat longer on the curtains to be ready, we hope to have them mid-september.

My friend Heidi also returned from their vacation, they even came home one or two days earlier, because they didnlt have nice weather at all, or only two days of wonderful weather and the rest of the time cloudy, rather cold, even rain. Well, if this is the case, you better can be at home. If all comes right Heidi and Séverine will come by next week for a moment, which will be nice. The Séverine will also explain a bit about our phones, may be even install some small things or so. 

Returning for a moment to the flood disaster, even then there are happening kind of miracles. read the following article if  you want

 https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/07/cow-survives-100-kilometre-swim-downstream-in-river-flood-waters/

As long as it is nice weather i should spend some time outside, under the parasol as I already did earlier this morning with my coffee and the book. It is so nice in the morning, real quiet and peaceful.

Wishing you all a lovely week, stay safe!

New curtains, net curtains, blinds, all in short sight.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Weather report: Today looks quite nice, we have mostly sunshine, temperatures are around 20-22C, we've had a little rain, so all in all it is not bad. Next week will be of about the same weather.

Well, Friday was the day. Jan and I went for the new curtains(I will call them all just "curtains"is easier), not too far from our house, with a bit of effort and here and there a very short break, Jan did walk it. The shop where we went wasn;t the most cheapest, but it is one, that is doing business for years and years, it is a family business, and they have still time for their customers and good service. Time we took for our order, I think we stayed there about 3 hours, but the lady took her time, and that was very agreable. We ordered now net curtains for front and back of the living room and for the small bedroom, also curtains for there(in the bedroom a sort of blackout curtain), then blinds for the kitchen and lamets for the expansion. So we've done all the house. It's quite some money, but we have real good quality, that should do for some years ahead. Next Thursday the husband of the business will come to measure for all and when all will be ready, he will hang it all, with new rails etc. It will take a bit of time till it will be ready, because it is just start of holidays, so we hope to have it all hanging by end of August. Oh gosh, how wonderful it will look with all the new curtains, all fresh and well hung and sliding etc.

Next project will be to find us a new couch, which will probably will be two smaller ones. I already looked into some websites of furniture shops and I saw one or two that have a good selection for not too expensive and still an aoky quality. May be we will go there in a week or two, if Jan feels up to it. And then we should stop for a while , because we already will have spent a lot of money this year. But....... it will be worth it. For years we weren;t able to invest in new stuff, now we have the possibility and we should do it now. It will be a good feeling to have some new and fresh furniture and together with the curtains and the new windows we will be settled for while again. 

There are still some other projects that I would have done, but those will have to wait for a while till we can save some moeny for that again. I will be happy as a child when the first things will be accomplished in , say, 3 months time. 

Yesterday Jan told me, he called again Séverine, just to check if all was still okay. Wow, he did it without me asking for it, that's a news item, LOL! All seems to go allright with her, she told Jan she would go out for diner to a small restaurant with her grandparents. And some day last week she had some girlfriends visiting her and they played old fashion board games and they had great fun.

Already next weekend Heidi and Danny will be back from their vacation. Then we should pick a day to visit them, finally. 

I managed to take a few foto's in the garden so here they are. First is to show that my tomatoes really blossom, now it is waiting till they make tomatoes!

We have several plants, so who knows what harvest we might get??????

Next foto's are from a rose bush, that already bloomed with several roses, now it is busy with the second bloom. It is quite a large bush, about 1,50 mtr or may be even more. It has beautiful roses, in fact this foto isn;t really showing how beautiful and big they are. When new buds will open I will try to take better foto's. And the next foto is from lilies that bloom like mad. I had once a few from Heidi, but now I have a whoe bunch of them and they bloom for such a long time and hold also well in a vase.

I am still learning how to take the best pictures with my smartphone, so they will get better in time, hopefully. And I edit them with Paint(already in the windows 10). It will do for now, but perhaps one day I will buy me a new Photoshop Elements again. You can do much more with that, who knows, may be one day I'll pick up designing scrapbook kits again. Don't get too enthousiastic, I am not sure about that at all yet. We'll see what future will bring us. For now, I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe, take care of yourself and your loved ones.