How a bit of kindness is returned.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t bad, and isn't good, some days we had a bit of sunshine, also cloudy periods, temperature not too bad, but with a wind turning like mad all the time, every day can be different. But....... it seems next week we will have at least 3 days with really high temperatures for this time of year, it could rise to 17 and even 20C! It will last not really long, because end of the week the wind seems to turn again and will come from the Northm which always brings lower temperatures. Never mind, let's already enjoy those few days of real Spring time and be happy with it.

Again we had a rather quiet week, it all will stay still quiet with the lockdown. Although you now can call shops and book 10minutes or 20 minutes of shopping tim, or you can call for a certain item and pick that up at a certain time.. In that way the shops will not be crowded etc. Nice idea, perhaps but for me and for a lot of people it doesn;t work. It all depends on getting the vaccination on real speed, that's the best way to be able to open up slowly and return to more normal life.

This week at our neighbours there was some work done on the front of the house, and as I was curious(yeah, something was happening.....!) I asked the worker( he was a one - man company) what exactly he would be busy with. Seems that some of the brickwork needed to be repaired etc. Well, that was interesting to know, becaue at the side of our building/appartements there is a small crack too that one day needs to be repaired and so I asked the man if he had perhaps a little business card so I could contact him perhaps later this year. he had one, I got it, and during the week when I saw him we greeted eachother etc. One day he ringed at the door and asked for a bit of water. You should think that one of the owners of the appartments was home to give him opportunity for some current for his tools and give him some water for making some cement etc. He did ring there but was told he came too early and should come back an hour later. Well, sorry, I find it very unpolite, the more as it was known surely he came for the work, Good, he could tap a bucket water in our kitchen, he was happy to be able to continue the job. Day after I went out to do some grocerie shopping and saw in his van several sacs with fine sand. I wanted already for longer time some sand for mixing with soil(specially for sowing) and we have a few tiles on the terrace that need some lifting. But at the moment I cannot go to a DIY market, as they are closed, so I took my chance and asked the worker if I could have a small sac with some sand and said that of course I would pay him for it. No problem he said and no need to pay him for it. He was happy with me aloowing him to tap the water, and so on. When he finished the day's work he rang at the door with quite a big sac of sand. I was really happy with it(Jan already used some of it for sowing). So this long story telling only says, that with a bit of kindness always pays back and it doesnlt cost anything to greet someone, help someone out with a simpe thing or offer him a cup of coffee.

Some of the seeds Jan sow about 14 days ago are growing like mad already. I think they need repotting next week, which will be a good time with the warm days in it.

Oh, yesterday we had something delicious for dinner. Usually I don't cook on Saturdays, or only something real quick and easy(whoch can be at times some junkfood, hahaha)but I saw on tv a cooking program with a recipe that seemd rather easy to make. It was a deepfilled homety pie, with potatoe, onion, spinach and clotted cream. For some extra I added diced slices of bacon, but without it tastes delicious too, and of course you can make diffenrent variations. I'll give you the link to the recipe with the potatoe and spinach variant, I just reduced for us the quantities to make smaller pie. It really is rather easy and quickly made and it tasted yummie, and certainly will be made more often. Oh, if you cannot get clotted cream you can also take 2/3 of whipping cream and 1/3 of marscapone(that's what I used and works fine)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/deep-filled_homity_pie_48616

 I am curious if someone will try the recipe!

Yes, one thing of good news that came into our mailbox. I received tha papers of my accountant for the tax return, that he send to the tax office and gosh, it seems that we even might recive a little bit of money back. I never counted with that , I even had the idea I might have to pay extra, so this was really nice news. It aren't thousands of euros, but with that money we can buy our new curtains and who knows, may be something else we do need to replace.  

Good, this is about all, I wish you all a really wonderful week, and remember: still stay safe, not enough people are yet vaccinated! Thanks for the visit and till next week.

A week in which almst nothing happened LOL.

 Goodmorning everybody!

Weather isn't great at the moment, rather coldish, but it is dry and sometimes there is some sunshine(I fear only today it will be cloudy). But.... there is some hope this coming week, temperatures should rise again to around 12-13C. Wow, that's already something.

We have about 3 or 4 smallers containers in the gatden in which we planted tulips and they somehow seem to feel okay in this weather, they grow like mad at the moment. May be in a week or two some of them could flower ? Would be nice to have some color on the patio. It was however not really nice to do something in the garden, just a bit to cold at moments, but perhaps next week we can do some more cleaning. In the meantime Jan tackled some seedpackets and now we have 3 small containers in the room, hoping some of the seeds will grow into Lupines, Cosmea and some sunflowers. We still have some more seedpackets(from seeds I took of our flowers last autumn), so Jan still has to do some work. I better like to saw the seeds first into little pots, let them grow and put them outside in something like May(some may be already somewhere inApril). 

This week I even found some energy from somewhere and did some smaller cleaning jobs etc. Okay, it wasn't too much, but better some than nothing, isn't it. hahaha>

Oh yes, Wednesday we went voting for the parliament. The voting place wasn;t too far, but for Jan it already was quite an effort, but he managed to walk to it and back home too, with some waiting in a cue additional. Now you can see he has no condition of what so ever, he really has to go out for short walks very soon to build up some condition again. I am not completely happy with the outcome of the voting, but it could have been worse. Now it is waiting for the cabinet/government to be formed. It will take a bit of time and lots of talking between several parties. I hope they will not take months for it, we have a crisis to deal with and after it a recovery of economy etc. 

We still have quite a severe lockdown and I fear it will stay at least till the end of the month. Shops can open on special way. You will have an appointment and then you can or pick up your stuff or go into the shop for about 15 minutes, something like that. I think this isn;t working at all, but we'll see how this devellopes. You cannot shut down shops much longer, it will be a disaster for a lot of them to survive any longer, even with the financial support of the government(although a lot of money has to be paid out from the relief funds). And you cannot go on with that relief funds for ever neither, in the end in some time it comes on all our heads somehow.

It is kind of sad, but I don;t have much more news to tell you, I am already glad, that at the moment our health is okay(specially Jan, that's always the more or less unstable factor you could say). let's just say, so far, so good and hope for a long period without trouble. 

Oh yes, on a brighter note this week Jan and I had our "memorial"day, no, nothing really special but 29 years ago we came together, so netx year, if all goes well, we could have a 30 year "celebration". Married we will only be for 14 years, that's in August. But can you imagine we already are together for that long????? It went by as if it is only about 10 or at the most 15 years. A lot of things happened in those years, a lot of good, some sad or stressing, but we survived. And that's quite an accomplishment, I dare to say.  Hopefully we will add quite some more years to it.

It's about time to make some coffe and then perhaps wake up Jan and have us a cup of coffe, may be watching the first new episode of this year of Gardener's World. It's always nice to watch it and it also gives you ideas for the garden to try out.So I wish you all a very nice week, stay safe and till next Sunday!

All is well till now.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is a bit of a rollercoaster, last two days we had very stormy weather, with periods of hevay rain, in between the sun came out for a bit, but it wasn't the best weather I could wish for. In comparisoan with a week or two before there is a big difference. Seens that later this week the wind will turn to the North, meaning it will get somewhat colder again, but with less wind. May be after this period the weather will get better again, with nicer temperatures.

I am so glad Jan is home again. The first days in hospital I had no idea how things would go, but suddenly Sunday he could go home again and of course I was very on top of it, that all did work well(Jan sometimes becomes crayzy of me, because I ask lots of times how it goes, how he feels, etc. but I am concerned, and he isnlt the greatest of talkers, you know). He also had an additional medicin (he already takes lactulose)to help with the working of hte intestins etc That did it's job, but it wasn;t quite clear how long he had to take it. It surely helped, but after a day or two Jan didn;t feel quite well, so Thursday I called with the nurse of his internist specialist to ask some questions, and she said that if he didn't =feel weel with it, he better shouldn't take it anymore, but keep on top of the number of stools. If that went well, at least twice a day in his case, it was good. And after he stopped with that medicin he felt lots better. Now all hoping and crossing fingers it will go weel for a very long time.

The week he was in hospital I of course tried to sleep well, but I wasn't succesfull every day with it, one day okay, another day just a few hours etc. So it isn't strange that this week my energy was on a very low lever, hahaha. Slowly it is coming back again, it helps I in general sleep again better. Gosh, I hate myself for not being as active as I should and want, but okay, it is what it is. 

It "helped"a bit that we had two days or really bad weather, so that wasn;t very inviting to go out, but still, I could have done some more in the house, but nope..... I started with some housekeeping and such around Friday again, pffffff. The other days okay, I cooked, did some really small jobs, but nothing much. I was happy that I managed to do something on Friday, had some plans for Saturday, but then I didnlt sleep well that noght, because my stomach made some trouble. Not really surprising after the events, but I could do without it. So yesterday wasn;t a very active day, although i did something, and today I think it all is quiet again on the inner front, LOL, so I really hope to get in usual rythm and business tomorrow again.

It all shows how important a certain level of health can be for everything you do. 

In between all those things, life just goes on, although we are still in severe lockdown and I wonder if it isn;t a bit too much and for too long. People get tired of it, they still understand a lot of measures but not all anymore and it is very hard the most for the small enterprises, that still cannot open, and for all sort of artists that have almost no way of performing etc. And I wonder if this very severe lockdown couldn;t be eased up some more, for example when it is nice enough weather, that at least terraces could be open, and people could take a cup of coffee with someone, lots of shopes could open under certain restrictions, but life should get back to somewhat more normal standard. A lot depends on quick vaccinating and that isn;t yet on a very good speed. So after a year of Covid(and it still is all around us and in some countries it is asking very much lives every day) not so much has changed yet. Some things around production and v=certainly delivery of several vaccines is not very clear and also incomprehensable. For instance, we have developed a vaccine that works well, but it has to be put in the little bottles way over in America, and then transported back to us or over the world, while we have places and capacibilty here in our coutry to fill those bottles and deliver it quick to doctors and vaccination places etc. Yes, they say, we have certain contracts that we have to follow, but in the case of this epidemic we should forget about that kind of contracts and do as much production of vaccines at the shortest production line, it saves time, and the delivery to all countries could be quicker too. Forget for once about money and work together in this all over the world as they started to do in develloping a vaccine. Most important thing is to have one or more safe vaccines in large quantities spread over the world as quick as possible, vaccinate everybody and get rid of this Covid that keeps the world hostage!

But I think I am just thinking too idealistic, sometimes governments over the world do work together a it, but big money seems always win the battle and it shouldn't. Oh well, I fear it will never really change, or perhaps this will take still hundreds of years, hopeing mankind will still be on this earth in some kind of balance with nature.

Now next week we will have elections for a new government, and I have in fact no idea which party I will vote for, it is difficult, as it always is, but this time it is even harder, because we have so much parties that compete in this election. It is okay, to have several different parties, but I believe we have 37 listed on the election form. It is far too much in my believe. There are several ones that probably will not have enough votes to come into the parliament, still we already have 13 parties in our house of Parliament. Some big, some with one or two chairs. But with 37 parties listed on the voting form, it will be hard to choose. It isn;t said that all those parties will have enough votes to have a seat in our parliament, but somehow there should be a limit to it, don;t you think so? Well, I still have a few days to think about my vote, and we will see. But..... I DO go tovote, because it is a precious right, and perhaps lots of people don;t realise how precious it is, that we live in a country where we can go out to vote for a parliament, and at the end will form a government. That most of the times will be a coalition, so not always completely your choice, but that is more or less how our democracy works. And when there is a strong opposition in our parliament, sometimes it can make a difference on how things are done. Politics is a difficult thing to understand and to grasp, but I am still glad I live in a country where democracy rules( although you sometimes wonder whether it all is done so democratically, hahaha).

Good, enough rambling about everything and nothing, time to have a sandwich or so I think, later have a look at the feeders for the birds, our parakeets like to have parts of apple, and sometimes I hang out some peanuts too, which is also appreciated by the tits that come along. And of course there is some birdseed hanging and I also put some of it on the ground. Yeah, you have birds that feed themselves high and you have groundfeeders, that much i learned thourghout the years.

Before finishing i put on a link to a very short, but very comical videao about the landing of an albatros. I hope the site can be seen by all of you. It just takes a few seconds, but gives you a good laugh!

https://www.hln.be/het-leukste-van-het-web/knullige-landing-van-albatros-al-meer-dan-miljoen-keer-bekeken~ae6f115e/

Wishing you all a wonderful week, again in safety, and thanks for your prayers and thoughs for Jan, they did help, I am sure of it!

He's home again

 Hello,

 

Just about when i finished the post today and did some preparations for my dinner, I got the call from Jan, that I could come to take him home. It always takes some time to have the papers and so on, but he's happy to be home again. All seems to be working as it should again, now hoping it will stay that way.

He's taking a nap now, I will see what to give him for supper, will be something light i guess.

Have a lovely day everubody!

Not the best week

 Goodmorning everybody!

Weather is no really nice, we have moments with a bit sunshine, but most times it is cloudy, with cold wind, so we stick around 5-6C and at night at the moment there is some light frost. It could be next week we will have some rain, but also one or two days with stormy weather, and then it should calm down again. We'll see what comes.

Last week wasnlt the week I could wish for, because almost all week now Jan is in hospital. Monday morning I heard him make some funny noise, asked him what was the matter(he was still in bed), and he told me he had belly pains almost all night, already started the day before. I asked him if I should call the doctor, that was affirmative so I did. Doctor came around 12.30, checked and called for ambulance, he didn't want to take any risk( our doctor calls Jan a "fragile patient").

Jan was checked, all went rather quick and they said he should stay. He already didn't have some bowel movements which is no good sign for him at all. Somewhere it was blocked(although with the medicin he has that should work fine). Fortunately it wasn;t yet a colic, but action was needed of course. They placed a probe through his nose(poor Jan, that isn't a nice thing to experience), He got some medicine and also several clyster(or is it enema?), and they didn;t gave him any food, he only could drink a little bit. That for two days then they tried something with fluid food, like a little bit of soup, he could have some tea, that was all. The rest came in by After about two days he felt already much better, although at times he still had this pain inside, and nothing came out the ""natural way"yet. A bit difficult too, because he didnlt had almost any food.

Last Thursday during the day, the probe was removed, and that made already a big difference for him, concerning eating, which went down much easier of course. So in the evening they gave him a small protion of ground food, that went well, he did not get nauseous, already something to be happy with, yesterday morning a bit of prrodge, I think later even a sandwich, that all went well, only till yesterday at visit hour(once a day, at 3.30 p.m., all because of Covid)he didn't had any stools of any kind natural way. That of course isn't how it should go, so I hope that perhaps today something happened. If not they may be have to take another echo or CT scan or whatever to see what really is blocking it. He is all in all feeling quite okay, has no fever and such, walks himself to the toilet(the other thing is going well, without problems). Yes, it is problematic for now, not yet really disturbing, but not good either. I just have to see this afternoon how things are developping.

As you may be can imagine, nothing much came out of my hands this week. I did some small jobs, mostly figured out what to eat as easy and quick as possible(don't worry, I take care of myself, I do eat in the orning and evening, etc. ). I am a bit of upset and somehow restless, and I must say it is too quiet around here at the moment. We may sometimes wish for a bit of quiet and peace, but this is too long. I do hope it will not be necessary for Jan to stay much longer in hospital, but for now I just don't know. If I have some news, may be today or tomorrow, I will try to make a short post to update, okay?

Now it is about time for a cup of coffe and then I will prepare my dinner, and after that it will be almost time to visit Jan.

Wishing you all  quiet and wonderful week, and stay safe, take care even if you are vaccinated!