Almost Christmas

 Goodafternoon everybody!

After some rather cold days we now have much better temperatures, at the moment we have around 10C and there was even spme sunshine during the day.

So I took advantage of the better weather and decided to have a litle walk this afternoon, which was a good decision. I have been busy this week with some calls and paperwork and did little jobs in the house and did cook for myslef each evening for dinner. 

I brought a Christmas bag with a few presents and also some things to eat as a little "thank you"to two friends who were just there when I needed a bit of help with some paperwork and also a listening ear. Sadly they were both struck by Covid, one of them was quite ill, but they could stay home to fight it. It was nie to be able to do a small return gesture and they were happy with it.

As long as I am keeping busy in whatever way, it is going okay with me, but then of course I see something or think about something that has to do with Jan and then a tear or ten or so are shed. Well, that still will happen at the most strange moments sometimes, so I will have to get used to it and it will get less. But now it is just a few weeks ago he passed away and then it is a normal thing.

Don't feel too sorry for me, it is how it is and I will find a way to deal with it and pick up my life and make something good of it.

I had a word from my friend Edna, who is experiencing a hard time at the moment as I feel it and she told me also she still has Covid (she did a test again and it showed she is having it), she says it just feels like having a real bad cold with shivers. I really hope she will get over it soon, it could be a little bit tricky with her because she has breathing problems. Let's all send a little prayer that it will get better soon with her.

I grabe this occasion to, again, thank all of you who left me so many kind words and thoughts, blog people are kind of special people sometimes.

Also wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and 

make the best of it.

Holding on .

 Goodafternoon everybody!

You are all so nice and sweet. Thanks for that. 

We had some rather cold days here, even today it is still cold, with some temperatures below zero, or just around but at nighttime several degrees below zero, brrrrr. But... there is hope. Seems that starting next week temperatures will go up again and even could reach something like 9C at daytime.

What have I been doing this week? Well, trying to get a little bit into usual rythm again, and trying to keep busy with all kind of things. Some really necessary, like handling some paperwork and sening in forms etc, with that I am on good track. 

I treid to get out of the house almost every day, it is good to snif up some fresh air and walk a bit. Most difficult  I think is getting into good eating mode again. I am already not a "big " eater, so I have to take care of that, but...... slowly I do make myself little meals at dinnertime, and I have to keep up with that. Then there is of course some housekeeping to do(I wasn;t the best in it and now it is even less, hahaha), but every now and then I spend a short time on that. 

I have put up a little Christmas tree, because it will be Christmas, although different. My Jan loved to decorate and he would be happy that I made the room a look a little bit in Christmas mood. Last week I bought a new ormanet to hang in the tree, as kind of remembrance to Jan. I've made a photo of it so I can share it with you.

One thing I am greatful about is that on tv now there are Christmas films every day during the month. Perhaps funny that I watch them now, but most of them are not too bad and you don;t have to think a lot when watching them. I am not really in the ood for following detective series at the moment. I do watch them but not that often at the moment. 

It is still a strange situation for me. I cope rather well, I think with it, but at the most funny moments suddenly some tears appear. Like this morning. I did turn the washing machine, and when hanging it on the drying rack in the extension, I saw on the couch there lying two sweaters of Jan, which I wore a lot when at home, because they were comfy and warm. And then .... oops, I suddenly started to shed some tears. Jus for a few moments, then I was rather okay again, but those things happen every now and then. I supose I have to learn, that this might happen more in future, just every now and then. Well, it's okay. Lucky we aren;t machines and have our feelings.

Next week there are still a few administrative things to settle and still some in the new year, but not so much. Now my friend Heidi is on a little vacation and will be back around the 2nd of January. Then she will come over to help me with some paperwork, if still necessary and later will help with sorting out things from Jan, like his clothes and so on. At the moment it is still a bit too soon for me. That can wait.

Well, this is how I am going on at the moment, not much more to tell. 

I'll try to come back just before Christmas next week, okay?

Wishing you all a safe and wonderful week to come.

Goodbye to my hubby Jan

 Goodafternoon everybody!

First I want to thank agin all that left me a comment with so many kind words. It is heartwarming to know that there are still a lot of wonderful people around.

And yes, last Monday I said goodbye to my Jan.

This were the flowers I gave him on his last voyage.

texte was simple: Jan.... given with love, Kyra

This was the front of the card of the announcement

I think the foto of the flowers doesn;t do them completely justice, I think the color is a little bit different, but it gives the idea.

Texte of the card short;

"Sooner than I thought I'll have to let my buddy go"

and then the usual information.

The ceremony was held in a very small and intimate place, just enough for a real small company. I let them play some music Jan liked very much, like nr.1 Non ho l'eta from Gigliola Cinquetti, then I held a small speech, then there was played Words from the Bee Gees( he adored the Bee Gees!) en during that song they showed some lovely foto's of Jan), then my best firend spoke some words, then there was the last song Gute Nacht Freunde, from Reinhard May and then everone gathered around Jan's coffin and did a last toast as goodbye. It was really moving.

Afterwards we gathered for something to drink and talk a bit and then everybody went home.The lady who arranged all for the funeral service did a great job, she was a very nice and caring person. 

Yes, of course it was a sad day, but I had peace with it how it all was arranged.

Then this week I think I am still in a kind of "surviving mode", there are quite some things that one has to take care of, most the official paperwork and telefone calls. A lot of things are done, but in the coming weeks I will still receive letters with things to answer etc. 

It's a strange feeling I have now. I cope rather well till now(I think), I am talking a lot to his foto at the moment, not feeling too sad. Perhaps I already felt it coming when he was moved to hospital this last time. And cried my heart out the moment he passed away and perhaps that was good as it was.

Oh there will be certainly moments I suddenly will miss him terribly, and shed a little tear but that will be okay too.

There is such a sweet thing happened, which I found very moving and I would like to tell this before I really finish this post. A few days ago I did send a little app to our plunber to let him know my husband has passed away. I also (may be strange to do so but I didn;t know what to do at that moment)asked him if he knew a reliable carpenter or locksman who could help me with my front door. Suddenly I couldn't lock it with my keys. Probably caused by frost or humidity, but very akward of course.

And later that afternoon someone was ringing at the door, there he was, my plumber to bring his personal condolances, have a short chat and to fix my door! Now I close and open it with my keys without any problem(and that is a great reassurance for me). But isn;t that sweet??? I was very grateful to him.

Good, for now I will finish, certainly I could tell more things, but that will have to wait. 

I wish you all a wonderful week to come and please, stay as healthy as you can .

just a word

 The cremation  will be on Monday  5-12-2022 at 3.00 p.m.

Thanks to you all for your kind messages and all. It is very heartwarming.Till next post, don;t know when but I will be there again.

 

A sad day

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Just a sgort post to let you know that my hubby and soulmate Jan passed away this early morning around 6.30 a.m.

It went suddenly very quick, but he went away quite peacefully and without a lot of struggling. I am happy about that and glad to be at his side in his last moments.

It will be some very turbulant days, so it might take a while before I post again.

Thanks to all for their prayers.

Not a good week

 Goodmorning everybody!

No it wasn't a good week here. 

Since Friday Jan, my hubby, is again in hospital with (again) troulbe with his belly and intestins. This time however, doctors decided to operate him to see what to do. So he was operated already Friday evening late. Operation went well, but because of his total weak health conditions he is on IC. He still is now and probably will stay there for longer time. We all hope the doctors can pull him through, it is a very weak faible balance to medicate him at the moment.

It is hard to see him lying there on all kind of tubes and so on, every time he says something he has to take a rest to get his breath again and of course he is very tired. Let's pray and hope it will all come to a good end and that he can come home again. I really have no idea how things will go. I wanted you to know, but this is all for the moment no other chit chat.

Stay safe and healthy, this is such important,

Quick post

 Hello everybody.

I am a day early, I kniow but may be tomorrow I will have no time to post, or no more energy. We have to go to a birthday party from a kid from a friend, so no idea when tomorrow afterrnoon we will be back.

But I wanted to tell you that I've been able (with help from a blogfriend)  to get in touch with Edna at last. She had some health issues and seems she was feeling a bit low and without too much energy. But she told me she was okay and that sooner or later she would mke a little blogpost. She was touched by your comments and concern.

This was the most important I wanted to tell.

Have a lovely weekend stay safe.

Just to let you know I am still here LOL.

 Goodevening everybody!

Our weather has been quite good, but I am afraid next week it will change and temperatures will go down to around 11C and nights perhaps 4-5C. It is of course the temperature for this time of year, but I don;t have to be excited about it, isn;t it???

It was a quiet week, and although it could sound boring, I am glad that I can write, that it was quiet without any unwanted surprises. I spend some time in the kitchen, you know I normally like cooking(there are days, I am less motivated for it too) and I try to have some variety in the meals. I also try to make meals we can have also the other day, so I can spend time on other things.

I am more and more worried about my blog friend Edna, I didn;t hear anything from or about her, although I did send several emails to her. This week I sent a letter to her as well as to one of her tennants, who did every now and then a little job for her. I hope I will receive an answer from that. If not I am afraid that something really bad happened to her, but let us hope and pray she still is okay. If I don;t hear anything from my letters I don;t know what else I can do to get any imformation. Perhaps somebody reading this might know what I could do more?

Well, with this I think I finish now my post, and do perhaps a little game on the computer and then have a nice tv evening, we have quite some things recorded and also on live tv there are some good programs this evening.

Wishing you all a safe, healthy and wonderful week.

Oops, I skipped a week!

 Goodevening everybody!

Yes, I didn;t post last week Sunday, partly because I was lazy and also because there wasn't much to tell.

Starting with the weather here, today is rather bad, almost all day it is raining and temperature isn;t much either, around 10-11C. Not nice. Later this week it will be a bit better, temperature will be around 14-15 and less rain. We try not to put on the central heating too much, gas is very expensive at the moment, but in the evening we have it on for a bit. Pity that our house is rather "cold", despite the new double glazed windows. However, when we warm the room up it also stays quite long at agreable temperature, and that is because of the new windows too. 

The central heating kettle had a cleaning fro our plumber, so hopefully we will not see him for a long time now. Pffff, that leak did cost us quite some money, but good, we hope to be out of trouble now for longer time, LOL.

Last weekend I watched also the Strictly come dancing from the BBC and it was fabulous. It was the Halloween and there some so very good and funny dances! I hope yyou can watch this link, you can have an impression of it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001drgy/clips

Good, not more to tell so I better end this post and have a quiet evening on the couch.

Wishing you all a very good week, stay safe !

P.S. If nothing really worthwhile happens this week, I might skip again a week posting, but I will let you know if I do so.Just so you don;t worry if I am not posting okay?

LEaks re gone and hopefully for a long time!

 Goodevening everybody!

Ourweather is still mostly very mild, we have temperatures between 16 and 18C(next week might come to 19 or 20C), here and there a little bit of rain, so se cannot complain, specially with the high energy prizes at the moment, we don;t need to have put on the CV very often and that saves a lot of gas and so a lot of money, but we don;t know what the winter will bring us.

Last week Monday our plumber came to repair the leak and he fixed the leak with a new kind of pipe(a flexible one) and removed all lead pipes that still were under the floors, and replaced them for new ones, and then wentthat under our bedroom, the sand there  still was so very wet and not good smelling either and he discovered that there was a part of an old sewer pipe, going to the street that was broken! So you might be able to imagine what mess there was, yak. So he came next day to replce that part with new pvc ewer pipe, had to break open a part of the street to be able to attach the pvc pipe on the outer sewer pipe. Then he advised us to put some floor isolation under the floor of the bedroom, first it is good against cold, of course but also holds down the all the moist that was there and the smell too. And it would help to dry in time. So this also wasn;t and expected post, but now we have aout 50 cm. thick isolation material, it looks like small potatoe chips but then from styrofoam.Well, all together it was a big job but now we shouldn;t have any old waterpipes anymore and we should be safe for several years at the least. Pfffff, it did cost us quite some money, but I was glad he didn;t have to break open our shower room to be able to place the new pipes. Perhaps we will let him replace the shower room/toilet next year. It is all already rather old and could have a refreshing look. However, that will cost really quite some money, so we let that be for the moment, And ou plumber also didn;t had any time anymore this year for such a big job. After he was gone, we started to clean the house, specially at the places where the floor has been open for a part. Gosh, all around there was very fine dust or perhaps sand, it took us two days of hard labour to get it done , or at the least the most urgent of it.

Better not to think too much about the spent money, but is also is a good feeling that normally we will not have water trouble in the near future.

We did have our two vaccinations from our doctor, the one for flu and the one for pneumococci. Glad I didn;t have much trouble of them, just about one day that both arms had a bit of sensitive spot, that's all. Next thing will be to take the new covid vaccination for this winter, I guess. But I will wait a few weeks, I think.

That's about all folks! I hope you all had a fine week and I wish you a wonderful week to come, stay safe please!

Disaster struck again, yeah.

 Goodevening everybody.

Weather report: we've had a few days with rain, but today it was sunny again and next days it will be mostly dry too and still nice temperature, around 15-18C.

What happened? Well, I wanted to buy some stamps on line, so treid to do that (I did before and all worked well), but this time I got stuck in my bankaccount. Couldn;t advance in it, so I tried the app on my phone. There it said my card was out of date! Hmmmmmmm????? Normally the bank sends a new one well before the expiration date. I checked on my card and it said it was okay till octobre 2022. Oops, that was close.So just by mere coincidence I found out I had quickly get a new one. Phoned the bank, was helped really good and they would send me a new one, but in the mean time I coudn't use the old one anymore. Lucky Jan has his card and I had some cash money around. But it is very akward. Yesterday I got the new one in the post and it also works. 

Next think is we have another leak. Remeber I told you about the one several weeks ago? Well, the fixed it, but they said also it was for sure temporary, because the whole pipe was at the end and porous(that part is still a lead one). I noticed it Thursday, so shut the watermeter and called my plumber(in the evening, I normally don;t do that if possible). well, he knew about the pipe(this was the father, the sons came the other day to fix the 1st leak)He couldn;t come next day, so now Ihe will call me Monday morning to se when he can come over and has time to fix it. It will probably be quite some work and very good possible they have to break via the showerroom.If so, we might let him redo all the showerroom, so that will look fresh and sparky again and with good pipesetc. Will not be very cheap but better do it properly now and have no more trouble(we hope). So now we tap once ot twice a day quickly some water in buckets, but I will be happy when that will be over. It is sooo annoying not being abe to tap water as ou normally do. And you cannot do a lot of things. We have to shut down the watermeter, because there will leak soooo much water that we would have to pay again a large sum of money at the anual statement of the watercompany. Good, let's hope my plumber has time next week to do the job, and that the costs of all will not be enormous!

Some good news too. Jan went Thursday to the doctor to hear the results of all the scans and she told him they didn;t find anything at all to worry about, so she is a bit puzzled why Jan has from time to time these attacks in his intestines(let's be happy they don;t occur very often), but all looked good enough inside. So that was good news and I noticed Jan was relieved too.

I just have one thing I am worrying about and that is about Miss Edna. She isn;t posting for quite some time now, I did email her but didn;t received an answer(which isn;t like her at all). So I have this request: Anybody who is reading this and also reads Miss Edna's blog perhaps one of you has phone contact with her or knows something more, could ou be so kind to let me know something? You can mail me at the address on this blog(look at the right side). I would be very happy to know something.

And Edna, if you read this, please send me a little message. I do hope everything is okay with you!!!

So now I will end this post, have a quiet evening and on to next week! Wishing you all a wonderful week to come.

In dancing mood?

 Goodevening everybody!

Our weather is calm, not much rain, today was quite sunny, and temperatures are around 15-16C. And it will next week too, may at the end of the week a little bit more rain.

I am happy that the new season started of Strictly come dancing on the BBC. I record it on Saturday evening and during the week, or like today, on Sunday afternoon I watch the show. There are again some very good pairs, and some of the "stars"show a real improvement. But every time again I am in awe for the decors that are made and the costumes, it all looks so wonderful and it is a real pleasur to watch it.

For the rest of the week it was more or less quiet, did some things I wanted to do, so that's good.

Next week Jan will have his appointment with his doctor in hospital to talk through the Mri, and Ct scan adn hear if anything was found or not. 

Then it lso will be time to call my plumber, to have him clean our central heating kettle, so that during winter it will work without trouble.

At the moment our life is withtout too many waves, and if there are it are just low ones, LOL. 

That's about all I can write now, not much and quit boring too to read, but if there isn;t anything, well it just is as it is.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe and till next week.

Week without much.

 Goodevening everybody!

We had a not too bad day, it was dry, sometimes some sunshine, temperature arund 16-17C. Next week it will be even some days better, till perhaps 19=-20C with sunshine, somewhere in the week a little rainshower.

It was a quiet week with not much disturbance. I remember being quite busy wth all kind of things, but cannot really point them out, hahaha. 

I am just making this little post to let you know we are okay here, but there is not much to tell. Next week Jan will have a day with several scans, that will be on Wednesday, so he will be rather tires when he comes home that day. Well, let's wait and see what will come out of it. 

Oh we also had two letters from our family doctor that in two weeks we can have our flue vaccination and also another one pneumococci vaccination. Glad he can do them from the practise nearby, we just have to cross the street. We also had a letter from municipal health service that we can get a new covid vaccination. Now with the two we get from the doctor, I think I will wait a week or two after those, to may be get the covid rehersal vaccination. Otherwise it may be too much in too short time perhaps.

Yes, we might think covid is all over, but it is still around and we shouldn;t be to careless about it. So I think I will have the new vaccination, may be Jan will not go, but that 's his decision. As I am out and about a lot more then Jan, I think it is sensible to get the shot, also to protect him more. Covid will stay longer than we think, may be it will end up to be something like every year's flue, and then we will have vaccinations every year, like the one for flue is common already.

We still are happy with our new furniture, the couches are sitting great, quite a difference to the old one, believe me!

Oh, today I started already wrapping some Christmas presents, so that I will not have to do that at the last moment, just before sending away, and I could check, if I got already all I wanted. Well, I probably will have to look for two or three things more, but I have time for that. Nice to have it about ready so soon, yeah.

Good, that's it for now. wishing you all a wonderful week.

 

Lot more quiet and relaxed this week

 Goodevening everybody!

We've just finished our dinner and Jan is taking a little nap, so good time to make a small post. The weather is  bit less, although we still have moments with sunshine, but also some rainshowers and of course the temperature is letting us down, juust around 14-15C. That is below average for this time of year.

It was a rather quiet week with not much happening, so in fact I have about nothing to tell you LOL. Of course we did some things in and around the house, and I am glad we have found some energy for that.

Tomorrow Jan will have a phone appointment with the lung doctor, more to check how he is doing. well, not much air, of course but that will never come back, but as long as he does things in slow tempo and takes little brakes in between it is going not too bad.

My friend Heidi has been in hospital again because she had trouble with the infusion line that provides the medicin into the upper bloodvain near the hartchamber. She has PAH, which cannot yet be cured but lucky there is already longer time this medicin. So a new infusion line has bee placed, but it takes every time a longer time to settle itself and stay put. She also has to realize she is getting older and that this disease will more and more ask from her to take it easier than she does at the moment. But I am glad the operation went well and she is already home but has to take rest for at least two or three weeks. As you can guess, I worry about her, and I hope she will be around for many more years. It already is a kind of miracle she is still around, because it isn;t a disease that normally won;t let you reach old age. 

Okay, not so very uplifting post-writing, but sometimes it is good to write it down. What we will be doing next week? Probably the usual houskeeping stuff, which is also good to keep up as much as possible. Later this evening Jan and I will be watching some soccer and for sure also some detective serie. We have enough stuff recorded on tv to fill a lot of hours, hahaha.

Hope you all are doing okay, I wish you a wonderful week and till next time.

A much better week with still hard work.

 Goodevening everybody!

Yes, we've just had our dinner and I thought it a good momonet to make my post. Our weather has been very dull today and kind of sad, lots of rain, temperature just about 14C, so not my kind of weather. Seems that next week temperature will creep up a bit to 19 or 20C with a wind from the south, so it will feel much nicer.

Well, our week was for a poart still filled with clearing out and we started to put things outside already on Wednesday, so we didn;t have to put it out all in one evening, would have been too much.

Most work was the dismanteled wallunit, some shelves of it were quite heavy to lift, but we managed together with a little helping hand from a guy, who was at the street taking groundwater samples. It was a young man and I asked him if he could give a little helping hand and that was no problem for him. How nice, isn;t it? Yes there are still nice people on the world. Gosh, with all the shelves and other stuff out of the garden, we have lots of spac again there, hahaha. Then I had to go out to find some caster wheels for under our coffee table. We do have to move it (we do use it often as our "dinner table", because then we watch also some tv. I know, it isn;t the way you shuld have your meals, but it is so comfortabe and easy. But the table is quite heavy, so solution could be those wheels.

I did find them but now we had to fix them on the table. Probably we could manage, but to be honest, I didn;t want Jan to do it, it would be a bit straining on him, turning the table on the side and doing the job. And Heidi's husband Danny, offered to come and do it for us. So he came with Séverine on Saturday afternoon and did the job for us. So sweet of him to do this. I was gratefu and happy. Now we can ride the table almost with one finger, wonderful. Also handy when I have to vaccumclean.

What else happened. Oh yeah, we had a letter from the electricity company(also the gas deliverer) that our monthly sum to pay would more than double! Good heavens, that was not good news. It all seems to do with sudden"shortage"of gas delivery(due to partly the war in Ukrain. But to be honest, for this winter and spring we have enough in starage for the whole country. So the rise in price is far in advance, because the "market"has gone crazy with gasprices. For really much people it will be impossible to pay anymore, take an average hard working family with a bit more than basic earnings, and one or two kids. They cannot afford those gas/electric prices anymore. It will become , in fact already is, a huge problem in the coming months. Some help is given from the government, but it will not be enough. Now there are proposals from a lot of members of our parliament to use a special law we have, that will allow the government to set a ceiling for the gasprice, like it was around January this year, that would be mandatory for the energy suppliers(or companies). But our government is soooooo slow in taking decisions and action, I cannot understand why. NOW is the time to act and they cannot wait till somewhere next year to perhaps do something.

I think a lot of people will have very big trouble paying for energy, but also not being able to buy proper food anymore and soon will be in debts. It is really a hard time now, with prices rising for all food, now the energy(for all the gas) with exeptional high price, housing market going crazy. Coming months and probably all next year life will become very difficult. Let's hope our government for once will listen to the parliament and the ideas and act, very soon.

Now tomorrow will be the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in Great Britain. It will be broadcasted world wide I think and I will probably watch it too. Not all the time, but some moments, and I am sure it will be very impressive .

Oh, also something nice to look forward too is an invitation we received from and daughter of an acquaintance, for a birtday party of her sun who will have just one year! Isn;t that sweet? She asked it well in advance, because it will happen in November, but still, it is a nice thing to look forward to. Now I will have to go on the search for a little present, of course. I asked her what she would like and she said she would like some booklets. I think that is a nice thing, then the parents can read a little story when the little one goes to sleep, look at some pictures etc. Nice.

Okay, time to slowly put on the coffemachine and enjoy a quiet evening on the new couch, yippee. Have a wonderful week, stay safe in all ways.

About a new living room

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather still is nice, we had two days a bit less, but with some rain, and now we will have a few more days of around 22-23C and then at the end of the week temperature will drop to 17-18C. Still not bad, but it could have waited a little bit longer with that.

Good our new furniture is standing! Last Monday the guy who would put all together came on time and it took him about 3 hours(so you may iagine how long it woud have taken us and the trouble we for sure would have had!).

During the time this gu was busy in the room Jan and I could  "demolish"more or less the old wall unit, now we have the sitting area in the garden full of shelves and such and lots of carton too from the new furniture, but next Friday the bulky waste collection service will come, so now we just have to bring all to the street. We will do that in steps, but oh my, how happy I will be to see all that go! And as we were cleaning out the old wall unit and such, we also right away looked through all the stuff and we have a lot that will go too and it will bring a little bit of space. 

I have taken some photos of the new furniture. May be on the photo the color of the couches is a bit darker than in reality, but we are really very happy with them. They sit great and the color looks so warm in the room. And also the curtains we bought some time again do fit great with it.Now we still have to do some work there, first will be to paint the walls, but we will see when we start with that. I think we first have to "tank"agin some fresh energy.

So that was our week, getting the furniture in place and slowly we already filled the wall unit with things we want to keep, it is just every day do some things and we will get there. Here are now the photos":

Have a woderful week, stay safe!

 

Never again please like last 4 days or so!!!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

To start with the simple thing, we have warm weather around 26C, at the moment more cloudy, but still dry. May be tomorrow there could fall some rain, but also that might happen later in the week. Still going to warm around 26-28C and later in the week it will drop to may be 23-21C.

But what a week! You kow that last Friday we would have delivered the new furniture. Okay, that still stood. But Tuesday Jan said to me, that he already heard for a few days a strange sound when being on the WC, and it didn;t feel right. So we checked the water meter and the little wheel on it was turning, and that is no good sign when not using any water. Remembering the last time we had a leak and it did cost us a whole lot of money I called our plumber Wednesday morning. I had quickly contact and told him our problem, and the he said he was at that moment in the South of France, on the way to his holiday location, for 3 weeks. Oh boy, what to do? He told me he woud contact his son(also working in the familybusiness) and that they would contact me. And so they did in the afternoon. They would come to us the next day around noon. So they did, and to make it short, they spotted the leak under our pantry place. So as there is stuff atnding there we had to remove a part of course. They would come next day already in the morning to try to repair it. But also we had the furniture to be delivered in the afternoon!! Can you imagine the stres I had to go through? Well, perhaps another could stay very calm, but not me. All our living room was disorder, as well as our bedroom and extension, and during the week I already tried to find somebody who could disassemble our old wall unit, but nowhere a possibility(or it was probably when you payed a lot of money). And the bulk waiste collection service couldn;t pick up our wall nit and some other stuff still after at least one week! So we couldn;t put the unit on the street. Good, we decided that if the people who delivered the furniture would help us(as they promised already) they could put the unit in our garden and then Jan could disassemble it easier during the week. So was done, it is standing now already half disassebled in the garden. So far so good. Now the new furniture. All in good order, only one thing we didn;t know: The tv unit, display cabinet and coffe table were delivere in pieces and we had to assemble them ourselves! Why didn;t they tell us when we bought it? The guy said to us that it was written on the copy bill we had, but who is reading all the little letters on the back ? To say it mild: I told him I didn;t find it very nice of him(but to say the truth I said some very unpolite words, because I was at the end and completely done. Well, now there is coming a handyman from them on Monday to do the work, but I have to pay that. So now we have standing our new couch but not the rest. And after the old wallnit was removed, oh my God, I already feared it, but a part of the wall looked sooo dirty and still with partly old paint on it, we couldn;t leave it like that. So yesterday Jan painted the worst part of the wall, but we still have to do the whole wall and better would be the whole room! Not very nice days, and I and I am really exhausted!

The plumber also was unforseen and did cost a good sum of money(but I am happy they could fix it for now, when their father is back from holiday he will make an appointment to see what has to be done about the rest of the still lead waterp pipes, probably it will be quite some work and take real money too), then the furniture guy to pay extra, welll, I could imagine some other days with happier events!

For now we have a bit of rest, now tomorrow hopefully we will have standing our furniture as intended, then we can start to put all things in the display cabinet etc. and clean up the room( oh yeah we also gave our floor already a good clean up last Wednesday, so that was quite some work too). A small good thing is that the furniture guys took our old couches(we agreed on that when buying the new stuff).

What to do then next week? First Monday, then the day after or so starting to put all things back(one good thing is that we have a lot of things we put aside to give to the bulky trash pick up service, including the disassembled old wall unit, hoorray!!). The I have to make an appointment for the pick up service, then I have to come into hte "normal"rythm of life again, but that will take some days I fear.

After this perhaps a bit chaotic story about my week, you can understand I don;t yet have photos of the new furniture, LOL. I have to say that our couches look very nice, sit good, and the color is great and the curtains make a good color combination with it.

Is there any good news? Probably yes, because Séverine had a thorough test this week in hospital and i seems she doesn't suffer from the PH diseasy. Well, let's hope that stays so, now they only have to find out why she still is feeling quite miserable.

Reading back a bit what I wrote about the past days, it might not seem so terrible, but believe me, it was quite stressing. I hope this will never occur anymore!

Thanks anyway to visit and read my lament, I wish you all a wonderful week. Cross your fingers we will have some more luck this coming week?

All in preparation for new furniture, almost

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is still nice, we are having two days now of a bit lower temperatures, around 20-21C, but next week it will go up again to24-25C. It still is very dry, so this afternoon Jan will have to water the garden, to keep it happy. 

We did some work of clearing out the wall-unit, you know, every day something, and another little cupboard too, to be able to move it. Well, the waal-unit is almost cleared out. The last things we will do probably Thursday, and then the tv will have to be moved somewhere safe.

Oh, I do hope the furniture will really come this Friday and that there will be no delay in delivering. We've waited long enough now!

We did had a visit this week, from Heidi and Séverine, and it was so nic to see them again. We didn;t catch up on chatting, really, that's always difficult when other people are around, for that we will have to try to meet somewhere, perhaps soon we could have an appointment in town, to have a cup of coffee or so, would be nice.

But, Séverine helpd me, to install the printer. I could manage it, but it takes a lot of effort from me and she is so used to those things(the youth is handy to have around at times, LOL), so it was done rather quick. At first, after installing it all the printer didn;t want to print, but then Heidi checked all and came with the solution, and now I have a working printer again, and even we can print from Jan's laptop, because it is working on Wifi. Hopefully this one will last a bit longer as the former one, I have now a HP2600E, not very expensive, but also not the cheapest printer, so it should work for now. It is really wonderful to be able to print every now and then something important, like a bill or so.

I harvested our first tomato, I didn;t taste it yet, we are waiting for a few more to ripe completely and then we may be could try them out on a sandwich. I am curious how they will taste.

It will be a tensive week for Séverine, she will have more research to see if she is having a form of PH(pulmonary hypertension), like her mother has. She wasn't feeling well already for some months, so now they really want to know what causes it and the specialist thinks it might be that. It' will not be the nicest message she could have, but then at least she know what is bothering her and there are lots of medicins that can help. It isn;t curable, till now, but could be handled rather well, depending on which form of course. So I hope they will now soon after her test this Tuesday in the hospital of Amsterdam(there they have specialist doctors for that disease). 

But.... it also cold have another cause why she is feeling quite miserable. Let's wait and see and hope at least there will be an answer, whatever it will be, but hopefuly something that will not be so far reaching for her health.

Good, now I will retreat for a little moment in the kitchen to prepare a bit for our dinner. I already have made our meat, two porc shoulder chops, and we will have some boiled potatoes with it with some nice gravy and broad beans with some fried bacon mixed in, and a nice yoghurt as dessert. Quick, but tasty meal, I think.

I hope I will have made already some photos from the new furniture next Sunday, I don;t promise anything, hahaha.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

So far, so good I think.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today is a little bit less with the weather. Temperature is still okay, aorund 23C, but sometimes there are clouds and then again some sunshine, but all in all it still is great weather. Only missing some rainshowers every now and then.

Well, this week was a strange one. On Monday Jan had to cut eating from 2.00 pm and only had to take  special medicin and drink very very much in short time and the same on Tuesday when he had the colonoscopie late afternoon. I felt so sorry for him, it was no fun, but the laxative worked very well. Good, Tuesday we left the house at 230 p.m. to be in time to catch the righ tram. The ride to the hospital where he had to go this time took around half an hur and we arrived good on schedule so we could sit in the sun for about 15 minutes before going to the desk. There I left him in good hands and went to a Mall, a shopping centre newly built in the proximity of the hospital, just no more then a 5 minute walk. It was a good opportunity for me to check it out. I must say it looked beautiful, with all kind of shops(expensive ones but also more affordible ones), lots of little coffeeshops and other little places where yyou could drink or eat something. So I spend there about an hour or so and then I got the telephonecall from the hospital that I could pick up Jan again at 5.30. p.m. It was good I was there to bring him home, because he still was a little bit under influence of the anesthesia he had. But it was okay to go with the tram and slowly walked home from the station. Jan already had something to eat and drink in the hospital so when he came home he was really tired and only wanted to sleep. So he did, and he had a real good sleep almost all eveing through and during the night he also slept a lot more than usual. 

Him sleeping I took something to eat and was glad to sit down and also went to bed much earlier than usual and slept well. It is quite straining all together, mostly for Jan of course. They didn;t found anything unusual or worrying during the research, so that already is something. Now he has to have still a CT scan, and MRI scan and an Ultrasound scan. Yeah, his doctor wants to check it all! The only annoying thing was that she wanted it to happen as fast as possible and the soonest was a possibility in that g=far away hospital, although the doctor said it could be done also in his usual hospital. Good, next day I was on the phone to see if they could reschedule it to the other hospital. It took me some phonecalls and explaining, but finally he has an appointment for all 3 of them on one day, the 5th of October. Really glad that it is nearby and that he doesn;t have to travel so long, because it is for him really tiring. Great, I achived something, LOL.

That seems to have given me extra energy or so, because that Wednesday I did a lot of things. I did grocerie shopping, I cooked for two days and changed the bed sheets.I think it is a good portin of work for one day( in between those phonecalls too).

Next day I did the laundry, washing machine was quickly filled with the bedsheets and some big towels. And then a week is gone so fast, unbelievable. 

Out tomatoes are starting to get color, they will need some more warmth and sunshine, but next week they will get that, because we will have rising temperatures again and almost no rain at all. That lack of rain is slowly causing some trouble for transport over our rivers, the boats cannot load their full capacity so that isn;t a good thing. So many people are happy with the good weather but others are praying for a little bit of rain. You can notice that climate is changing, whatever the cause may be.

In the afternoons and evenings we watch tv, of course, and for now we like to watch the EUropean chaampionships ot athletics, swmming, sports on the track etc. I have great admiration for all those sporters who give their best and knowing the effort it needs to reach the top makes it even more special. 

Time to finish this post, almost time to go into the kitchen and warm up the oven. I've made Mac and Cheese for this evening, and I think we will have enough for tomorrow too(and it always tastes a bit better the next day. I added also a bit of minced meat into it, with some small diced paprika and tomatoes, mushrooms and onions( things that needed to be used out of the fridge). And as dessert we will have diced uo melon. 

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

More research for Jan in hospital

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Oh good hevanes, it is really warm today. Full sun and that's it. They say in general in our area it is around 30 C now , but in our garden it really is feeling uch warmer, more like 33-34C. Yesterday it was about the same, but it seems that next week it will cool off somewhat and may be even some rain. That would be nice. I like good weather, but as it is now it is also for me too much.

Last week Jan had his appointment with his doctor on hospital and she discussed the last hospitalization of him and the cause. She wants to do more research, to find out what is causing these attacks. So Jan will have a colonoscopy on Tuesday. That isn;t so bad, but the preparation for it takes two days, of which of tomorrow 2.00 p.m. he cannot eat anything anymore, has to take special medication as laxative and has to drink, specially when taking this medication 2 ltrs of water or something like that in really short time which is terrible and then not allowed to eat anything anymore till Tuesday late afternoon when he will have the colonoscopy. Poor husband of mine, it isn't really comfy at all next two days. And for sure he will spend a lot of time on the smallest room so to say. His doctor was thinking about a cause for the returning attacks in his intestines, but therefor is this research and later he also will have an MRI again.

Well, we'll just have to wait for a possible result and/or solution.

Then Friday I had to go to hospital for the eye control. Itt took some time, most because of waiting time, and the result was, that the oprated left eye still looked good and clear and that the right eye didn;t loose a lot of sight as compared to 2020. I have a bit of cataract but there is no real urge for surgery right now, the doctor told me that there will be another check in a year and I always could phone to have the eye operated sooner if I wanted. As I have now quite a few things on y mind, as Jan's situation, then also the new furniture that soon will be here(and we need to clear out the old display cabinet and such I rather wait bit with the eye.

Having the old wallunit removed also will let us see how the paint is behind it, LOL! It might show that we need to paint at least that wall. So suddenly we have a lot on our mind. 

This ia for now what I can tell you, not all good but also not too bad, it is how life can play with us, simple as that.

Time to finish this post, wishing you all a great week, please stay safe and healthy!

Visit to hairdresser and cleaningwork done!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today is nice but not all too great weather, yet. Sometimes some clouds, temperature could be 21-22C, which is of course already nice, but next week we will reach very high temperatures, could be 28-30C. Well, it is summer and then you should have some warm temperatures also.

I just watered the garden(it is still very dry, almost no rain), did give it a good soak, so it should be enough for the next two days, may three. But when it will be very sunny and even warmer, we need to water all the containers almost daily. 

Last Tuesday I went to the hairdresser, and now I have real short hair, which is wonderful. So easy to maintain, and I am happy with it.

Then Jan and I also worked hard on a day, we did wash the net curtains of the front and Jan washed the windows inside and I did it on the outside. Gosh, it all looks fresh and shining again.

I also went into town one afternoon to see if I could find another pair of pillows for the new couch. I bought two in sale, but it would be ever so nice to have another pair of them for the second couch. And yes, I was lucky, I found them in sale and even in extra sale so they only did cost me 5 euro the two!!! Isn;t that a good buy? You will see them when I make a photo of the new couches, which will be here on the 2nd of September. Yes end of this month Jan and I will have to clear out our old display cabinet, and put the stuff somewhere aside. Gives me perhaps opportunity to see what we will keep and what can be thrown away. 

Good news from my friend Heidi too, she phoned me last Monday and she sounded a lot better already. The flue almost was gone, she only had still a bit a soar throat. I was real glad to hear it.

Now next week Jan and I will have a hospital appointment, told you already last week. Both are in the morning, which is a good thing, because on Thursday and Friday we will have the highest temperatures! So best to have it done before noon. 

To give you a bit of a good feeling at the end of this post I have a few photos of the garden for you. The first is of one of our tomato plants, and you can see we will have tomatoes! (To really see them well you have to see the larger picture.)

Here one of our Verbena's, they do so well this year.

This clematis already flowered once and to my pleasure it flowers now again China Rose, I fell in love with the flowerof this one. You often see them in red or orange, but this I like even better.

I think it is time to have a cup of tea, nice and quiet in the garden.

I wish you all a wonderful week, with possibly some smiles during the week. Stay safe!

A fruitful week, finally again .

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today it is a bit cooler weather, we had some drops of rain, it is cloudy, perhaps at the end of the day some sun could appear. But from tomorrow the sun will come again and temperatures will rise, as it is today just around 20C, it then will become 5-28C, quite a difference.

It was a good week, all by all. First two days I did a lot of things, a little bit of shopping, bought us two new duvets, next day put them on our bed, with fresh covers, and got rid of the old ones(it was about time, I think they were more than 35 years old!!!). he new ones are great, it is a four seasons pair, in winter you can clip on a second if it becomes really cold. They are so light which is great and I tried to be a little bit environment conscioues, and bought them made from recycled plastics. And I can wash them in the washing machine.

In the mail I got a message from the cable company that my modem was due to change, it was becoming too old and i could order one new for free(wow!). So I did and after about a week it arrived I think on Tuesday. well, I first read a little bit the instruction booklet, it all didn;t seem to be so difficult to install, but hey..... I read that if I needed I could order a service man for FREE(normally it costs you at least 35,00 euro) and I thought why not? So I called and they could send one already the next day. He came, installed it, it was a nice guy, he even told me not to forget the wifi change on the smartphone(I wouldn;t have thought of that, really), and he did it for me, also on Jan's phone. Nice, isn;t it? So I was happy I called for the service man.

Then Jan and I washed one pair of our net curtains, the ones at the back. It isn;t a really great deal, but it is climbing up and off ladders and well, let's face it, we aren;t the very youngest anymore and Jan isn;t always standing steady on his legs, so I am not really happy when he climbes the ladder. But no discussion possible with him to let me do it. Okay, all went well and now they are clean and done with for a longer time again. Next week we will target the ones at the front. 

Then on Friday we went to the furniture shop where we bought our sofa's ato look for a new wall unit, and we found one .It is one display cabinet unit and a tv cabinet(but this is all open, simple but enough.) Our old display cabinet, where we have also our tv never really was totally our taste, but at the time good enough so with the new couches we though we should change that too. Well, when all will stand in our room it will look really different. Then here and there some stuff will need to go, may also some of the furniture, may be a new small carpet under the coffee table should be needed and then it is enough money spent for this year I think. Once all installed I will take a photo okay? But delivery date is still several weeks, it's a long waite LOL.

Last week I had Heidi on the phone and al three of them were ill, probably with a flu, Danny was the first to catch it, he tested himself for covid and was negative, hoorray, so you can assume that Heidi and Séverine also "just" had the flu. It seems that two of them are on their feet again but Heidi was just starting yesterday to feel a tiny bit better, poor soul. Let's hope that somewhere in next week she will feel all well again.

With all the commotion of doing a ot of stuff and so on I strained a bit my back which isn;t a nice feeling. It handicaps you in moving, specially bending, so this evening I think I will take a special tablet for it I once had from my doctor(that straining or something like it comes back every now and then, but thank God not too often) and probably by tomorrow or the day after I will feel perky again. 

Good that was about all news from this week, next week I think we need to take it a little bit more easy on ourselves, and the week after we have two hospital appointments, Jan for check p or such and me for eye control for the cataract. But.... I am not thinking too much about all that, first let's enjoy the good weather we have, and some of the nice things that also seem to happen once in a while, hahaha.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe, thanks for visiting!

How weeks can be different suddenly.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is good, Today we have qite a warm day, hre on the coast it is around 26C, with some wind, lots of sunshine. I believe tomorrow it will be cooler and also the day after, with possibility on some rain, hoorray. And then temperature will rise afgain and stay around 23C which is wonderful.

As you know, Jan came home again on last Monday and we really needed two days to get back on our feet a bit. Jan still needs to recover a bit, but it looks to be okay again. Hopefully it will go on for a long time again. He will have an appointment with his doctor on the 11th of August, we'll see what she has to tell. 

As you can figure out, we didn't do very much last week, it is aweful how such an event has impact on your sleep and all around condition. But I am already glad all seems to be allright with Jan again and whatever happens, health is the most important we have and have to cherish.

Séverine also had a day in hospital for all kind of tests, as she is feeling really tired for already a longer time and that isn;t a norma thing for a girl of 20 years old. They did test to see if they can figure out if she has the same disease of the lungs as her mother, they couldn;t tell yet out of these test, so end of August she has to have a heart catherization, and may be that will show more. This of course causes quite some stress with her, it is the uncertainty she is coping with now. So I really hope the doctors can give an answer so she will know more and whatever it will be, at least then the doctors can act and try out medication or whatever is needed. 

You know Jan and I are watching the Woman European soccer championship and there is sad news to tell. our Dutch team is out of the competition. To be honest, they weren;t as good as last time and there are at the moment much better teams. Okay, it is what it is, may be they will perform better next year with the World Championships. 

I donlt know much more to tell, so I think I will sit for a while in the garden(under the beach umbrella, cause in full sun it will be too warm. But how wonderful it is to be able to have the garden doors opened, and in the evenings the house is warm enough, so we don;t need the central heating on. I hope it will stay for a long time ike this, because the heating works on gas and we all know that gas prizes are tremendous high at the moment and they will stay that for much longer. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe and healthy, and have a laugh ebery now and then!😄😄😄

Much better day.

 Goodmorning.

Quick update. Just received a phonecall from hospital that I can pick up Jan today and bring him home. Whooopeeee!! I am happy and he certainly will. He will need some days to fully recover again but good news is that he comes home again.

Now i must assemble a few clothes for him and then I'll go and bring him back by taxi,

 

Not a very good week.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is fine, rather warm, next two days it will be tropical, way over 30C!Well, I like good weather and sunshine and warmth but this is a bit too much to my liking. But later in the week it will be more normal, around 23-25C.

It will be a rather short post, because I am not really in the mood for blogging today. Last Thursday evening Jan was brought to hospital by ambulance. He had already the evening before some stomach/intestine trouble, as he had before. having short cramps, which are very painfull, and during the Wednesday night he also had to vomit a lot, so Thursday morning I called the doctor, he came along late afternoon (he couldn;t come earlier because of his overcrowded office hours and right away decided Jan better had to go to hospital. He wouldn;t want to take any risk with him. So Thursday evening around 6 p.m. ambulance came, took him to emergency and all the examination circus began. It took all evening, then he was hospitalised. I came home at around 1.00 a.m., very late!

I went to him Friday and yesterday too(I go every day of course), but yesterday he was a little bit better, but the poor soul still wasn;t allowed to drink or eat, (just suck every now and then on a little sponge with some icewater), he gets food and fluid through a VI. They made already several scans, but see there is some kind of obstruction or something that isn;t letting through the stomach contains into the intestines as far as I understood. They gave him some kind of madecation for it and would make another scan yesterday and see if there was an improvement. We'll see how it is this afternoon. 

This isn;t a week I had in mind, you can imagine. And all went rather well lately with him, the last time he had to go with about the same was around a year ago, so it is strange that it comes back every now and then and I think also the doctors don;t have a clear idea what is the trigger to it. Let's hope he will get better soon and can come home again. 

This is what occupies me for now, as you can understand, but to end this post still with a nice thing:

Séverine, my friend Heidi's daughter, passed this week her driver license exam! It wasn;t easy for her to get it with still last year all covid restrictions etc, so we are very proud of her that she passed it the 1st time already. And as Jan said: Oh my God, another danger will be out on the streets, LOL! Well, for now she will not have her own car, but I guess that she sometimes will be allowed to drive in her father's car(perhaps, hahah).

Good time for me to have a sandwich and something to drink and then go to Jan a bit later in the afternoon. Hopefully I will have better news next week.

Have all a wonderful week and stay safe and healthy, that's a very important thing!

Update after visit today:

Jan was looking already much better, of course so very tired, but his eyes were better looking into the world, he even had a rusk this morning and something to drink, the nasogastric tube he had was gone, how wonderful. He even did sit for a few minutes on the edge of his bed .They would try to give him something light to eat this evening, I think he will have some fried or steamed  salmon with a bit of potatoe mash and some spinach. Tomorrow the gastrointestinal and liver doctor will look at a new scan they'll make tomorrow to see how things are looking then. All seems to go the right way again.

Summertime(weather) is coming again.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is a little bit cooler the last couple of days, around 20C, but not bad, in fact almost no rain and still a lot of sun. But in the next few days temperatures will rise and it will be towards 25-28C and in some parts of the country even warmer! 

It was a nice week, with not much commotion or events, still it rushed away and I must have done a lot of things, but what exactly?????? Our garden looks still lovely, some plants were at there end(like some pansies, so you can guess what I bought this week? Yes, a few new plants. I will make a photo of them next week, when they had a bit of time to settle and look more gorgeous LOL.

I got a letter from the hospital with an appointment for en eye function test. Gosh, that took them time! It should have be done a lot earlier, but with all the covid stuff all appointments like that were postponed when it was possible. Test will be in august. They will certainly see my cataract and I think they will operate now the other eye. It is a good thing they can do that, but it is a bit of a hassle. When a operation would be planned, a few weeks before I have to start dripping several eyedrops every day for quite some time, and afterwards it also is some hassle and then a new pair of glasses is needed also, so it costs money(quite some) too, because the old one will be no good anymore, But I can notice something has to be done, I have sometimes some trouble reading on the computer and textes too when they are written so small(as a lot of things are written in very tiny letters). Anyway, first hear what the test will bring and then worry about the rest.

This week the Eirpean Championship Women Soccer(or as we call it Football) have started. Yesterday our team played their first match against Sweden and it wasn;t very good, also not very bad, they ended in a 1-1. So it will be necessary for our team to win the next two matches and with preference with a lot of goals. 

I already prepared our dinner for today, as one match starts already a 6.00 p.m. I've made a simple meal, just macaroni with some minced meat(of course with a litle more, like a lot of onion in it, as well as small diced paprika and oh yes, I also had some mushrooms left so I added them too. That all mixed together with some grated cheese and tadaaaaa, ready. Just have to shove it in the oven and make a bit of salad. And I've made enough for tomorrow too, so that will be completely easy and I can spend time on other things. Have to do a laundry, so that the washing machine will be empty and then Jan and I will take off  our net curtains somewhere this week and wash them. It will be good weather for that, because with the warm weather expected we can hang them still wet and they will dry superfast.

Now it is time to watch a bit of tv (there is cycling of the Tour de France) and there is quite a difficult ride for the cyclists today with some mountains to climb. Not yet the highest and most difficult, that will be for next week, but still tempting enough. Then after that time to put the dinner in the oven and them there is the football and later this evening another match, and then after all that sport we still have some recorded detectives etc. to watch. So you see, we don't have time to get bored.

I wish you all a wonderful week, hopefully you all will have good weather, and stay safe.

Flowers is all I see in the garden(and some snails)

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today we have good weather, but no so very warm, around 18C in general, but in the sun it is a bit warmer. Next week it will be around 20 or 21C, perhaps a drop of rain in between. For me it could be a whee bit warmer, let's say around 25C, but I am not complaining. we can have the garden doors open, we can sit on the patio in the sun or under the umbrella if it is too much sun. It is nice it isn;t raining that much, but it brings also work. For all the containers and pots need water when the sun is shining almost all day. And when there isn;t enough rain, we have to water the garden too. But I don;t mind. When you bring some love to your garden it gives you a lot back in return.

when it isn;t raining that much, we have not so much trouble with the nacked snails, but every now and then I go hunting for them, I know by now which plants they prefer and I do feel like a bit of a murdered, but they must stay away from my beautiful plants, isn;t it? And I am sure there are enough left to continue the population, hahaha.

It was a nice, but rather quiet week as always, although I am happy to say I have done again some needed work in the house, that on one or two days this week. But I also took a bit of "free time"and went into town centre to look around what is new and perhaps find something in sale what is interesting. I did find a kind of jogging suite, which will be great to wear in the evenings this autumn and even winter, and for a very low price in sale.

Also found again a few Christmas presents, small things, but nice. My wardrobe place where I keep those assembled presents gets well filled already. I am glad, it saves time at the end of the year when it is necessary to send away boxes in time so they will surely arrive in time. And you know what? It is also kind of surprise for me to look at the presents when they need to be wrapped. I know more or less what i bought but there are always things you forgot and seeing them makes me often smile.

Jan got good news from his doctor about the endoscopy. No strange or worrying sthings seen, so all is as well as could be expected in his condition, even a bit better. Well, that is something to be happy about.

Today we've made a phonecall to Heidi's husband who has his birthday today. They don;t make a big party, they have just one or two friends for a short visit. I asked him his age now, and he already is 60 today! Gosh, I didn;t think he already had that age. So you see how fast life often goes.

Yesterday (like on almost all Saturdays) I've made us something quick for dinner and this time I found a recipe that I adapted a bit but came out very tasty. I've marinated a little bit of chicken filet, cut in small strips, and later on fried them in a pan, together with some small cut bacon, in another pan I had some ready to use mix of vegetables(like some tauge, leek, onion, paprika) . I added small pieces of pineapple to it, that all took only a few minutes in the pan, then added the chicken/bacon mix, gave it a good stirr, ready. On a plate I prepared two leaves of little gem salad(you could also take ice salad leaves or whatever suites you), filled them with the mix, added as last things some dices avocado with a little bit of lemon juice, and sprinkled  a spicy mayonnaise (with some chili and pepper in it) to it. It was really yummie! For us two small leaves filled where enough, I had some ciacabatta (italian kind of bread) with garlic butter to it.

If you like to experiment and want something quick for lunch or even dinner you should try it out. I  have two photo's of the web to gie you an example how it could look(mine were a bit more filled, hahaha)

 

 

And to end this post happy, I show you some photos from the garden

My last buy for the garden(for now), such a happy color of these Coreopsis)

Petunia, bought it as a small plant start of May and look the waterfall of flowers now(and such a special one)

The Hortensia's are starting to flower, this is not yet a very big one, but is from a self grown  cutting, fantastic isn;t it?

Abought strawberrie plant, and every few days Jan has one or two delicious strawberries from it and there are still lots more to come, if I look at the flowers.

A beautiful Pelargonium, I have to make a cutting of it later this year.

Also a container with 4 Pelargonium, in another color.

And this is a beautiful white French Pelargonium, I do want to find one or two more of those, but in another color, they are really beautiful.

So, all there is to do is wishing you all a wonderful week, hope I brought a little smile on your faces with the flowers. Till next Sunday.

Tried my hands on backing

 Goodevening everybody!

Yes, it is already evening. I just finished washng up from our dinner and thought now was a good time to do my blogpost.

Weather today was fine, around 20-21C, with some sun. Last two days we had some rain during the night, happy about that. Next week temperatures will rise again till around Wednesday, then later it will drop a few degress. All by all it will be lovely weather.

Today I was, in slow pace, busy with several things, so I found no time to do the post earlier. Yesterday I've made a big pan of tomatoesoup, well filled with lots of vegetables, and tiny tomatoes, and small meatballs, so that was our supper for the weekend.  Then I found out that I still had a roll of ready to use puff pastry. I had it planned for a savoury plate dish, but never came to it, so now it had to be used. Well, I tried my hand on some backing, which I rarely do. I made an apfelstrudel, a bit my way, I suppose and that is now waiting to be served with our evening coffee. I have no idea if it will be any good, but hey what disaster can you produce with ready puff pastry and some apple, raisins, and sugar?

I;ve made a photo of the result, now just hoping it will taste well.

Rest of today I was busy with the laundry and some gardening and i between it all taking it easy and slow, LOL.

It was a rather quiet week, as many of them are, thank God, and still the days go by so fast and looking back I don;t know with what it was filled, but I have the idea I did a lot, only cannot remember it all hahaha.

Had to make a call to the bank to ask something for Jan, had a very nice person on the phone that helped me very well. There is nothing better than a person to person call, so much easier to explain things than on a computer chatprogramm, at least that is my opinion.

Soon we will have wellfilled evenings concerning tv watching, (we always have lots to watch and always are short in time to watch it all)but in about two weeks time there wil start the European Championship Women soccer and you know Jan and I love to watch that. Our tean stands a good chance, but there are a few more very serious candidates for the title. Let's just hope our team performs well and comes into the finals.

Oh, last Thursday afternoon Jan had to undergo an endoscopy, which is nothing bad, but takes time. As Jan gets into panic when they enter his throat he always has a light anesthesia, but then the whole procedure takes a bit longer. So after the endoscopy, which takes not long, he has to get awake again on a ward, and that takes about an hour. They always keep the patients for about an hour in the bed, give them something to drink and perhaps, if they want a little sandwich(e.g. Jan wasnt allowed to eat during the whole day). But then to get him home is still quite a challenge, He still was a bit under the weather, so when we finally ot home, he was glad to lie down on the couch and was asleep within a second and slept almost the whole evening and night, only woke up two times for 10 minutes or so.

I did say to him that I better liked to take a taxi home, but he refused that and wanted to go by tram. And there is no arguing with him about it. So stubborn and hard headed at times, hopeless. We managed to get home, but if there is a next time, I will have to plan it otherwise, because I didn;t feel very happy during our travel. The tram was okay, but we also have to walk aa bit from the station to our home. Pffff, why are man so difficult to handle at times????

But okay, all went well, he had a good sleep, next day he took it easy, and I did also, and on Friday evening we were up to date again. Now just waiting the result of the biopsy they took(they almost do that every time). Every time all was well, it is more of a repeat control every no and then. 

Our garden is a real pleasure now, with all the blooming snd the good weather at the moment. I am now waiting for my tomatoeplants to blossom. we have sown them a bit late and then perhaps moved them outside just a bit too soon. Now they seem to do well, they grow like mad, but still is the question if they will give us some tomatoes. There is still a little bit of time, so we'll just have to wait patiently.

Soon there will be the evening news on tv, so this is a good time to finish the post. I wish you all a splendid week, stay safe and healthy.

In spending mood this week.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Today we have a not as good weather as we had last couple of days. We reach about 17C, now some sunshine, but rain is expected also. Last couple of days we had really warm weather of around 28-30C here. Gosh, that was something to get used to again. Okay, that might be somewhat too warm, but next week we will get again nice weather with temps of ca. 23-25C, little wind, not very much rain either.

This week Jan and I were in a spending mood, hahaha. We went together to an electrical shop, where they sell all kind of things, and also raidio;s telephones, all kind of things. It was easy to reach with one tram that stopped almost in front of the shop.Good for Jan of course. Well, anyway we needed a new phone (we still have an öld-fashioned" phone by cable, and that one was at the end of its life. Now we have a new one, with big buttons, the kind of "senior-phone"Wonderful!!!

Then Jan wanted a little radio or perhaps radio-alarm clock next to his side of the bed. He is often awake at night and likes to listen to some radio then. We found a nice little thing, but I must say that it isn;t that easy to handle and preset all  that is needed. I explained the most necessary things to him, but I don;t know if he remembers it all. Perhaps we should have looked a bit more before buying this one. We still can return it, if we want, so I will talk about it with him this week. Then we also bought a new radio, this one has DAB+ on it, and even has a cd player, for me it works okay, and is enough, because we don;t listen all too much to radio. I think in time we will be happy enough with it, And I bought me a printer, finally! I still have to install that, I just hope it will not be to complicated. I know, it shouldn;t be, but when that said, I know I will encounter some problems with it,for sure. But.... one day it will work and will be a good feeling to be able to print some things when necessary, like some bills they only send by email these days etc.

It was some money spent, all together not too expensive, now we just have to familirize ourselves with the new equipment. You know they say that new techmics make it easier for us, but sometimes I am not really convinced by it. Where is that radio/tuner, where you just have to turn a button to get your station? Or the one that had a simple to use preset system, much easier than a lot of them sold now. Or is it just my age that is playing tricks with me???? Perhaps a bit of the two LOL.

We have a lot of flowers now in the garden and I made a few photos for you.

Isn;t that a beautiful rose? And there are several more just opening.

These are such happy flowers, and only completely opening when there is enough sunshine.

A container we changed, I bought a Canna and love the plant. Hopefully it will get through winter and bloom even more next year.

And I couldn;t resist buying this dahlia(I bought two of them) Aren;t they of a wonderful yellow color?

And this is a spot in about the middle of the garden, and old little chair, holding a few containers with lovely flowers and a bird bath too.

Oh, I see that Jan is busy reading the manual of the new radio set. Is it just me who things so, or are they writing those manuals often too complicated? I do have at times real trouble to understand them. Only after reading it several times(and of course first making 10 times or more mistakes) I get a grasp of it. I hate installing new equipment and amd really happy when at times somebody else does the trick. 

Good, time to get something to drink now and have a lazy sunday afternoon.

Wishing you all a wonderful week to come.