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.