Scary times in Europe

 Goodafternoon everybody!

To start with we have rather nice weather, it is dry, we've had and still having, sunshine, temperatures around 8C(although at night there is some nightfrost). But in a few days the nightfrost will disappear again. I do hope so.

Oh, I am satisfied with myself. And why? I managed to send away all necessary papers for tax to my accountant. No worry about that for now. 

I also wanted to bring a two pairs of trousers I bought for Jan to a little shop where they can make them shorter. I can do it by hand, but I am not really good at it and it will look much better when it will be done on a sewing machine by a more or less pro. It didn;t happen this week, because at the beginning of the week it was no good weather, still hard winds till stormy, rain and such, not really my kind of weather(you know, have to carry bricks in the pocket when it is storming real hard LOL).So that must be done next week.

Rest of the week I did a little bit of housekeeping, some grocerie shopping(but didn't feel to go to the sewing shop as well). Jan was quite busy with his seedlings, some pruning, sweeping up all mess and putting it into bags. 

Right now that I am typing this post, I have Muppet on my lap. In dreamland, as far as I can see. She was already hear this morning but didn;t stay very long, probably decided it was nice company here and returned a bit later.

I don;t want to talk too much about politics, but this is something, that touched me and also makes it a kind of scary situation in Europe. I am talking about the invasion of Russia into the Ukrain!

There was already for some time the threat it might happen, but somehow nobody really believed that Russia would go for it. I think Russia thought they would have a pretty easy walk over, but that is a mistake. The Ukrain people stand for their country and freedom. And my heart aches for all the inhabitants there who now live in fear, uncertainty, and must cope with a real war. I hope they will win in some way, although in such a situation at the end nobody is winner, because there is done too much damage of all kind. And lives are lost on both sides for what?????

And it is also a very uncertain situation for Europe too. And this just started invasion, or just call it war, is on the very border of Europe, Ukrain is only about 2000kms away and that isn't very much. I can understand that specially in Eastern Europe, like Poland and the Baltic states and a few more they are really nervous too. 

Let's pray all that this invasion/war will end real soon and that there can be found a way that the two countries can get on speaking and negotiation terms again. But for now I am not hopefull. And let's pray for all Ukrains that are in this difficult situation, they do need our support in some way.

It isn't the most uplifiting post for this blog, but sometimes things happen in the world that make a deep impression and must be talked about for a moment at least.

I will put a photo of my ongoing crochet project next week, I did want to have one today, but okay, not completely in the mood for that.

Wishing you all a wonderful week to come, stay safe.

There was a bad storm this week

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Today it is raining and with strong wind at times, temperatures are quite good all the time, today is around 10C. Last Friday we had a very very bad storm going on, it was at times 9-10 Beaufort(meaning windfalls with a 140 km p.h) and that is really bad here. There was a lot of damage done by it, even e or 4 people dead , roofs blown off, lots of big trees down, just snapped, etc. Saturday it was a lot better, although still with periods of strong wind.

It will stay a bit like this next week, wind will be a bit milder so to say, although still strength of 6-7, some rain, not the best weather to have.

It was all by all a rather quiet week, I finally made a few necessary phonecalls , now I am waiting on just one annual statement of a pension I receive, which is necessary for the tax stuff. Most of the stuff I can get online, but as I still(I am hopeless) don;t have a new printer, I cannot print them out and I find it a bit akward to ask my neighbour if I can use his printer. I know he doesn;t mind for a few prints, but if I can avoid it, it is better. So next thing on my to do list should be going out for a printer. I wonder how long it will take to actually go to the shop. Can do it online, but I want to see the thing and want to be able to ask a few questions about it.

I am rather busy with looking on the web for new crochet stitches and I am having a ball, hahaha. Best sometimes is looking on Pinterest, gosh you can find sooooooo much there. Pity sometimes the explanation of the stitches is only with a You tube tutorial, I like to have the written one, although it helps to to watch the tutorial on video. My sampler blanket is progressing, slowly, but steady. I'll try to make a photo of the part I have done so far.

Jan is busy with his seedlings. Some of them are growing already like mad, soon they will be strong enough to be places in that greenhouse. But this week he had to do a small DIY job in the kitchen. I have there a small rack on which hand a few kitchen utensils, but one day one end got losse from the wall, so it had to be screwed in again. Not just like that, no, first he had to fill up the hole that was there, do it twice, then wait till it was hard, then drill a new hole slowly, put in a plug then the rack then screw it  and pray it will hold. It took some time but it is hanging again, so hopefully it will hold for a good time again. It sounds as if it is a job of nothing, probably is, but if you are not really too handy, it takes more time. Most important is, that he succeeded, pffffff!.

Oh, nice news from Séverine this week, she passed her theory exam for her driving license. That's already something. Now the other part, to finally have that driver license. 

This week we will be lmost free from all measures for Covid, there are still a few when there will be events of more than 500 people, and we still have to wear masks in the public transport and aeroplanes for a while. But it will be nice to be able to go shopping without a mask on etc. Let's hope there will not be a big rise of infections as result, or at least not that bad that hospitals will get a lot of patients with Covid again. The virus is mutating constantly, so we will see how all will go during this year. I stay a bit careful, certainly don;t want that Jan catches it.

Okay, I think my washing machine almost is ready with the laundry, the I want to prepare a little bit for dinner this evening, also want to look around for more crochet stitches, hahaha, and of course work some more on my blanket.

This morning we had again a visit from Muppet, almost every day she comes in the morning, I give her a a small handful of snack nibbles, and mostly she comes into the sitting room and stays there till noon or even a bit later. She likes to lay on the couch, and sleeping or dreaming about a cat dreamland.

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

And here I am, on a different day!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

we have today more or less nice weather, there is too much wind, but temperatures is around 9C and there is even some sunshine. Later this week it might go raining more, but ...... as long as there is no snow and frost, we can survive it. 

This week I had quite a shocking message concerning my friend Edna. she was taken to hospital with a heartfailure. Gosh, that really wasn't good news, but I am happy to say, she is home again and has to rest, of course, a lot and take real good care of herself. But.... she did make a post today on her blog.

 Today is Valentine's day, a happy day for many people, for me it is kind of double. It is the passing away date of my mother, many years ago and on her funeral service I mentioned in the speech, that if she had to go, this was a beautiful day to choose and I was sure her husband was waiting for her at the gate. So long ago already, but I still miss her at times.

For the rest of the week we spent time watching some of the Olympics, most of course when there were Dutch competitors. They did win several gold and silver medals, most in the speedskating, but also one bronze one in skeleton and that was the first medal for The Netherlands in that sport. Now isn;t that something great? 

Then I spent quite some time on the laptop, searching for a nice pattern for a new blanket in crochet, and I found some interesting stiches that I can use. So I started a new blanket, in colors turqoise, yellow and lilac. So very soft colorscheme, but so far it looks nice. With the new stitch (and may be I pop in a few rows here and there with a different stitch, so that it will become a kind of sampler blanket) I will be busy for a bit of time.

Oh, gosh I see it is already time to make dinner, I was not in a speed mood today and then it seems if time goes faster than ever, hahaha.

Sorry for the shorter post, but there isn;t really much more to tell, that is worthwhile,  Take care of yourself, and stay safe.

I'll probably post tomorrow.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

All is well here, don;t worry, just was so busy with other stuff, that I think I will post tomorrow. Then I have quiet time.

Stay safe and well, 

I am all in crocheting mood.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It looks not too bad out of the window, but we have very strong wind and it rained, now some sunshine but the rain will come back, only the temperature isn;t that bad for this time of year, around 8-9C.

It was again a quiet week, I didn;t go out too much, just when we needed some grocerie stuff. It is looking however somewhat friendlier again in the streets now that shops are open again, cafe's and coffeshops too. Slowly we are returning to more normal life, even in footballstadions there are people alloowed(although just a restricted amount), but it is already better. Infections still go on, but more and more you hear the cry for letting all measures go and live life as we should. Also without Q-codes and such. I think too after two years we should try to come back to life as we had before Covid. 

This week I sent a little birthday package to Séverine, who has her birtday next week Tuesday(she will have 20 years already, where did time go????). I brought it to the postoffice on Wednesday afternoon and I had next day a phonecall from Heidi, that she received the package. Heidi will stash it away till next Tuesday. But gosh, that was a real quick delivery!

Remember the yellow blanket I showed last week? That's my present for Séverine and also a card, of course and in it a little bit of money.

I can tell this here, because I know she isn;t reading my blog, LOL.

Did you watch some of the Olympic Wintergames? We did, sometimes. Most we are interested in the speedskating, we have one gold and one silver medal till now. But there are more distances that they skate, so we hope on a few more medals. We are lucky that we can watch the skating in the morning, there is a big time difference between Beijing and Holland. Other things are , for us, in the middle of the night. I think we will watch some things in rehersal, on better times.

I have finished another blanket, this one in lilac in the waffel stitch I have made photos. yeah.

I think this stitch looks rather nice.

Now I am busy on a red blanket, in another stitch, don;t know the name of it. It is a simpe pattern, just good to do when watching tv. I still have quite some rows to do, but already I am thinking about a next one, and which color to take and which stitch I will use, hahaha.

If you want to see something amazing, I have a video for you, I saw it on tv some days ago and found it rather amazing. Have fun watching.

 https://www.sunnyskyz.com/happy-videos/9777/Artist-Paints-Beautiful-Portrait-By-Making-Handprints-With-His-Daughter

Okay, time to sit for a while on the couch, take my crochet and in the mean time watch a bit tv, probably some sport, we'll see what is on.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, with not too bad weather, and stay safe.