I am still around, LOL

 Goodafternoon everybody!

You must have been thinking something has happened to me, because there was a long silence on my blog. To be honest, I am not in a great "writing"mood, so it may happen ofter, that I keep away from my blog. Still, I don;t want to give it up completely, so when there is something to tell and I feel like writing, I pop up every now and then.

Life has been quiet and also hectic too at the same time. It still is sometimes hard to accept the fact, Jan isn;t there anymore. I keep busy, which is the best thing to do, I still am i the "clearing out drastically mood" every now and then. Lots more I will have to sort out, but slowly does the trick too.

I am really thinking about moving out of this house, it is too big for me alone and in coming years there should be done a lot of maintenance and it will take a lot of money. As my house is free of mortgage I can spend the money for another appartmenet, probally a 2 room one, nice compact. I like to have something with a lift in it, and a small balcony that would be nice. I think it will be better to buy then to rent. Renting prices are really high and go up every year. I can do several years of course with the money I get from my old house, but at a time it will be gone and then? I don;t know how many years I still will be around but you have to think about it. So I am informing myself here and there about the right thing to do and how. It will not be done from today to tomorrow but I would like to be in another appartment somewhere next year(if sooner is possible that's okay too, but I must not rush into it!).

At the moment my friend Heidi has found another appartment much better situated and not too far away anymore from her friends and social things. It means she is not too far away from my home and who knows, I may find a new home even closer to here too. The first appartment she was looking for, wasn't appointed to them, there are a lot of rules for that, hopeless, but may be that one wasn't really "meant"for them. This one is a bit more expensive, but a lot better for the, So I am happy for them and hope they will live long and happy there.

I also am occupied with perhaps selling my grand piano. I contacted this week a company and somebody will come over beginning of May, to take a closer look. I already sent them some foto's and it seems they might be interested. I don't think I will get a very high price for it, but at least I know it will be taken care of and at the end there will be someone playing it with love I hope. I didn;t play already for longer time and if I should move to another appartment it will be almost impossible to take it with me, so selling it is the best.

Now I am more or less in stand by for my friend, in case she needs some extra help for the new house. I I can help with cleaning, or wrapping in things in boxes for the move or whatever. 

I also have an appointment with a notary in May, I want to have a will drawn up. It must be done, I am not the youngest and everybody knows we all can pass away from one day to another. 

So you see, there is a lot going on, and even with important things.

As soon as I have some news again I certainly will let you know.

Thanks to all who are visiting. I wish you a wonderful week to come and do keep safe and healthy!

Diving into the Zentangle.

oodafternoon everybody!

Oh wow, I took  longer break from the blog then intended, but here I am again. For now we have again more or less nice weather,  temepratures are up and down, but at times it is nice, around 12 or13C. Only thing is there is quite some wind and that makes a difference. 

At days when it is okay utside, I go out, I want to keep the body in as much shape as possible, LOL. No, it is just that it makes me feel good to spent a bit time outside and with the better weather hopefully coming soon, it will be even better to go out.

Past time I've been busy with sorting out a little more of the bookshelves, there is already more place there, which is great. I keep busy with all kind of things, not so much the household(I never was very good at that I must confess), but okay, one or two times a week I make a household job and for now it is good enough. 

I also took courage into my two hands last week and when it was good weather to be outside, I demounted the cupboard, Jan removed from the living room. So you can figure out how long it stood in the garden!! But that also had a good thing about it, the weather already worked a bit for me, it wasn't that hard to take it to pieces like this

So soon I will call for the bulky waste collection to let them pick it up. Will have to bring it on the sidewalk, but my friend will come to help me. I will try also to have one or two cardboard boxes filled with stuff I don;t want to have around anymore. So the call will probably be in a week or so.

And I spend time to Zentangle. I first looked around on internet and found a lot of nice patters I liked and found a lot of step outs for them. I printed a few(but it takes a lot of ink), so now I also try to copy them by hand. Then mostly in the evening I take a notebook, I use only for trying out and excercise and when I know more or less how a patterns works I try it on a Zentangle. I have a few photo's of tmem.

These are about the first two I've made.

Then I already tried my hand on a bigger work.

 

This one is from a week ago

This one I've made today.

Oh they are farm from good, but I like to make them and by doing it a lot I hope to get better and better in it. It is really relaxing to do, you know. I often take me some time later in the afternoon, I put on some really quiet music(I have some New Age cd's, is very appropriate I find) and try out patterns or even make a Zentangle. 

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by, take care of yourselves and stay safe and healthy.

H0pefully winter will be over for now

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes I know, I skipped a week but as there isn;t all too much that happens, why talking about nothing at all hey?

Our weather has been a bit cold, at least the last week, but there is again hope, temperatures will go up again and also during the night. So in a day or may be two no more frost at night is nice already. Today the sun is shining as yesterday it was amost raining all day and even wet snow. 

I am still busy clearing out and that will go on for much longer too, but it is nice, you know. I am for all busy with all the books we have and that are so many! And I know lots of them I will no re-read again so better get rid of them. As now-a-days you almost get no money for them I have found another way. Every few days or so I fill a big plastic shopping bag(as you have in the supermarket e.g.) with books of all kind a real mix from art books to detectives novels etc. I put a little label on them reading: Free to take. Books of all kind. And there seem to be people who really like those bags, because almost every time they are gone within a few hours time! Somebody else happy and I am happy. There are still loads of books I want to get rid of but..... some shelves are a lot emptier now, yippee!

This week I also sent the paperwork to my accountant for the taxes of every year and I also had a letter from the taxoffice to send data for inheritance tax. You always have to do that, but I don;t think I will have to pay anything. Glad my accountant is working on that too. I am no good in taxstuff.

Then it might be I will spend some time at Heidi's house, helping her to pack things, because it might be she will go to another appartment, one that will be more to her and her husbands liking and also much nearer to my house and easier to get to with just one tram. Oh, I hope they will be granted to hire the place and so exciting times are near for her.

It would be fantastic if she would move to that new appartment and she will be nearer to me. Then it will be easier to sometimes hopp in to have a cup of coffee or so, which now is quite difficult. To go to her the whole trip takes at least 45 minutes so just a bit too long you know. Might be that the move will happen in about a month or so if all comes together. We'll see!

What else I am spending time to or with? Well, almost every day I have the visit of Muppet the cat. In the evenings I watch a lot of tv while I am knitting with yarn I have still so many of. I am jut making larger squares in several patterns, and as I dont know what to do with them I think I will fill a big bag with them and put them on the sidewalk also, with a little paper on it saying: for the creative mind, take it for free. I am sure someone can do something nice with it.

And as the weather might get a bit better I first should demolish a cabinet that still is standing in the garden. I might ask for a bit of help with that, and then I can call the bulky waste collection service to pick it up, together with a few boxes with stuff I dont want anymore. So you see, I stay busy.

And I just started to try my hand on Zentangle. Do you kow that? It looks nice and you can make some beautiful art with it. I am just starting so now it all looks till not as easy as they do appear, but I want to give it a good try.

Here are a few examples(there are so many to see on the web, for all on Pinterest)

I am curious if I ever will be able to make something liike this, but...... practise makes perfect they say LOL.

Okay, I think I will make myself a cup of tea or may be chocolate now and later perhaps do a bit of practising the zentangle.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, till next time!

Took a long time before I could tell

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Here is all going quite well. I keep busy, I go out walking auite a lot(and sometimes also buy myself something nice like something of clothes or tasty things for dinner or chocolate too LOL). And once or twice a week I have  "working days". That means cleaning up something, like last week part of the kitchen and the kitchen windows, or clearing out some stuff,like I got rid of a lot of films on dvd or cd's I don;t listen to and already a few books.

Yesterday I had the courage to do a little work in the garden, like pruning the hortensia's, clearing out a bit the borders from plants that had to go(they won;t flower anymore so better take them away). And it felt quite good to have done that. Pity the weather wan't that nice, it was rather cold so I didn;t stay all too long in the garden. 

Now I have to and finally CAN tell you the very sad news that Edna has passed away. It happened already on the 2nd of February. But the family asked me to wait a bit with telling because they had to inform all family and had to do a lot and of course I promised them. Now I had permission to inform all of you and so I do now. Our beloved Edna isn;t there anymore and I will miss her terribly. Although we never did meet in person, we had a special bond and already for quite some time. She was a long distance friend, with a great heart and lots of humor. I hope she is in a good place where she will have peace and meet her husband and brother again and of course her doggies, she loved so much. 

Rest in peace, dear Edna, and you will always stay in my heart.

I will finish now, I think you understand. Wishing you all a lovely week.

Homebringing

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It's a bit of a dull day today, it is cloudy, not really cold, around 9C, but no nice weather. It will stay this way about the whole week, here and there some rain.

I think I am doing okay, although in a way it still sinlt real all waht happened. Still this week there was a rather important day, last Monday. That day my friend Heidi and me went to the crematorium to receive Jan's ashes. As you know I want him to give his last restplace somewhere in a beautiful spot in nature, which we will do later this year when good weather is there. But for now, we brought him home and it is a good feeling somehow.Every day I light a little candle near his foto and more or less the whole time I am speaking to him about things I do or watch at tv. It feels good to do so and most of the time I don;t feel very sad, you know. I think it is just my way to cope with the situation and why not?

I try to get out of the house almost every day, may it for short or longer time, because it feels good to sniff some fresh air and do some walking. Every now and then I find a nice buy(mosty lately cuddly and warm fleece like sweaters, I can wear in the evening. I found a couple that are really comfortable and also warm to wear.

Also did again a little bit of clearing out again, it wil take me still a long time to do all I want, but it keeps me busy. May be next week I will take courage in my two hands and start with painting the larger part of the hallway . Not promising anything, but it should be a good thing to do. I also am not all the time alone, because I still got a visit every day from Muppet, the "lease-cat"as I call her. This morning she was there too and has just left again, after having something to eat and drink of course.

This evening I will have for dinner, some roasted potatoes, and  I willl try my hand on some fennel from the oven, think it will taste well, and as meat I will have some tenderloin, which will be enough for tomorrow too. I do have a cooked meal every day, except for sometimes on Friday or Saturday, but that's okay. 

Good, slowly it is getting time to have something to drink, I am not sure yet, if I will have tea or a cup of chocolate or perhaps another coffee. Oh, those decision one sometimes has to make LOL!

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe and healthy.

Not to worry, all is well

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Don't worry if I stay away from the blog a bit longer, I am not in the real mood for writing, but wanted you to know I am doing really fine. 

I might do a real post this weekend, I hope.

Greetings to everyone and have a wonderful week.

Tackeled a little job this week.

 Goodmorning everybody!

I was drinking my morning coffee and then realized I didn;t post yesterday, although I planned too. So better do it now, before another day passes.

Weather looks quite good, at the moment the sun is shining, temps however are not too hig, around 3C, and a little frost during the niht. But later this week it will go up again to around 7 or 8C and no frost during the night. So it's not bad weather and for the moment is is dry too.

Last week was a day with some activity and also a few days with not too much hahaha. But..... I told you I wanted to start painting some walls here, and first I checked the old paint we still had left. Well, that looked very odd, so I decided there had to come some new wallpaint. First I looked around on internet where perhaps there was a nice offer and I found it. Not all too far away there is a DIY shop where they had a good offer from 10ltr. buckets with paint in white with RAL 9010(that is white but not shouting white). I went there with my shopping car hoping a bucket could fit. Good, you can guess, the bucket was too big, but the guy in the shop offered to bring it along after his working hours. So I ordered right away two buckets of it, to have enough for the time being. And so nice of the fellow it was good service.

So next day I started with the small hallway, and it looks a lot better now. Of course there is a lot more to do but I am happy Iat least made a start with it. I dont know if this week I will tackle another part, depends on how I feel and what else there is to do.

On internet I found a nice little printable, that I have now in a frame hanging in the new painted hallway. I plan to have a few more frames with nice quotes but I go slowly. The one I found is this one and it was so cute:

Remember I cleared out the cupboard and already put out on the street a big shopper with glasses? Well, I still had more so packed that in another big shopper, also with a note that it was free to take and that also was taken in a moment of time. Hopefully somebody will be happy wth the glasses and some cups and saucers and little teaspoons.

This morning I phoned with the crematorium to make an appointment for picking up Jan's ashes and my friend  Heidi and I will do so on Monday the 13th. So finally I can bring him home, give him a place for the time being and then think of a nice place where we can leave his ashes to rest. It will be in nature and as I said, on a beautiful sunny day, hopefully.

Tomorrow I will go to Séverine, because it is her birthday and it is a bit of specail one, because she will have her 21th! Quite an age already, and I cannot belive it all went so quick, I still see her as little girl, carrying our rings on our wedding, this year 16 years ago. Yes, at that time she only was 5 years old. And now she is studying speech therapy. She is doing well, and she loves it. It is only hard to find every time an internship, which she needs for her study. I am glad for her that this year she found one and I think she starts next week. It also isn't too far away travelling, so let's hope all will go well. 

Good, that's it for now, I have to go out to do a bit of grocerie shopping, specially for my friend Heidi, who asked me to buy her some chicken breast, that is for a really good price offer near my. I will go and buy that and can take it with me tomorrow. I don;t think I will need much for myself to buy, this evening I will have some tagliatelle with tomatoe sauce, some grated parmezan cheese and perhaps I will add also some capers, perhaps some olives or anything. It will be good enough for dinner, and I eat an orange as desert, which is good for the vitamines. 

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

Yesterday was a bit of a sad day.

 Goodevening everybody!

First I will give you a little update about Edna.

The last news I had was from one of her daughters on the 25th of January, teling me that Edna was at that time already two days in hospital with breathing problems. She seems to have moved in with her other daughter, Deanne, which perhaps is a good thing, so all day someone is around her to keep an eye on her.

Audrey(daughter I had contact with) wrote me, that she only has every now and then a little texte message from her mother, very short, because Edna doesn;t want to worry her. As soon as there is more known, Audrey will let met know. She said she will let her mother know that a lot of people asked for her and worry about her. Let us just hope that Edna soon will be out o hospital and in reasonable health again. All we can do is send sometimes a little prayer for extra support.

Yesterday it was a little bit difficult day, because it was Jan's birthday. He should have become 70 years old then. But in the morning my best friend came to visit me and have a cup of coffee together and a chat, so I wasn;t alone and that was a good thing. 

Her daughter Séverine had made for me and also for Jan a little present, and I was so touched by it. She made an effort to finish it in time and now her present has found it's place. Here a photo of it. It's the little bear at the left side of Jan's photo.

 I also sent out a formular to be able to collect Jan's ashes. I decided that I would like to take it home and leave it in peace for a few months perhaps, wait till it is nice weather(Jan hated the cold, LOL) and then go with my best friend to some place where we can leave his ashes to "recycle". If possible near a beautiful tree in the ground. We'll see in time.

 ========

Last week I have been busy with clearing out again, This time I tackeled the cupboard, which is rather large and had a good rummage through all of them. It ended up in having a big shopper full of glasses, and also a smaller cardboard box full of glasses mixed with some China, cups and saucers .

Then I washed up all the glasses that were left over and re-organized them a bit and now it looks fantastic again. The large shopper I put out on the street with a little note on it: "This is glassware, free to take" and when I looked out about an hour later it was gone already.

I also went into town to a store where they sell cheaper stuff(just not a dollar store) and bought there some paintrollers and stuff for it so that when the walls will be tackled we have all we need. I just need to buy one or two big buckets of wall paint to have enough for all the walls.

May be I will start already somewhere this week with the little hallway, that isn;t a bit project and I think I have enough paint left from another time. It depends a bit on how this week will go. It has no rush, so I can start also some days later.

I try to keep busy as you see, which is a good thing to do. Of course I do take here and there a day "free"of a to-do list, and have a pyjama day.

This is about all I can tell for now, not too much, but I did want to make a little post, I must not let that go. It's okay to have at times a little longer break, but it also is nice to keep in touch with the "world"a bit like this.

Have all a wonderful week, keep safe and till next week.

As promised, back on Monday

 Goodevening everybody!

I was real lazy yesterday and so I decided to do the post today. My week has been rather good. I've been busy with clearing out more things( I have a full big sac of clothes of mine that can go to charity organisation or perhaps a thrift store. The cothes are still real good so perhaps it can make somebody else happy. I will wait till I have more sacs of clothing ready. There still are Jan;s clothes to be done and that will be quite a lot.

also little by little I try to clear ut more cabinets or at least some drawers. Gosh, what a lot of things we collect, it's aweful! Lasst week I had to make the freeer a bit free of too much ice inside and ended up to also clean the drwers in ti and checking all the things that were in it. Real old stuff I just threw away and I ended up by having drawers in it that I could oversee, LOL. It made me happy in the end. Also some drawers of the kitchen have been done, oh they look so nice now! Still quite some stuff but at least a LOT less.

It's just a story of clearing out this past week, or most of the time. I also brought Jan's medicins to the pharmacy. That was a bit tricky and emotional when I went through that cupboard, you know. Such small things are still getting to me, but all in all it's going well.

Last Saturday it was cold weather but with some sunshine and I decided to go to the market. I took the tram and spend some time there. It has been a whie since I visited the market. I came home with some fried fish for my evening dinner and finally home i was glad to be able to sit down and warm up a bit.

I started knitting again, I just am maing bigger squares in all sorts of stitches, I have so much wool lying around that I have to do something with it. I already gave away quite a bunch to somebody who likes knitting and crocheting, but there still is a lot left. I don;t know if I will make something with those squares, perhaps I just will put them in a plastic bag and put outside on the street and may be somebody creative will pick it up and make something nice of it. For now my hands have something to do when  I watch tv and that feels good.

Well, it is almost time for my favourite quiz on tv so I will finish the post with wishing you all a fantastic week with a lot of happy smiles.

Don't worry, I am still here

 Goodevening everybody

Just here to say I will post tomorrow or at the last the day after.

I am just being a bit lazy today concerning the writing, LOL.

Have a lovely day/evening(depending on where you are) and till soon

 

Week with being busy!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Last week we had quite some rain and at times it was accompanied by some strong wind. But temperatures were not too bad, around 8-12C. At the moment it is dry but I think there will be more rain and also next week. Pity that temperature will drop again, not drastically but still lower than we had. May be there will be even some slight nightfrost here at the coast. I don;t hope it is the announcement for having a late winter time in February and March! I never was a person for long winter and cold temperature, so I cross fingers that soon that will be over with.

Last week I was filling the birdfeeders and looked around in the garden. Gosh, when temperatures will go up again I will have to do a lot of work in Spring, but that is for later. What catched my eyes were two bigger containers that showed already sprouting tulips and daffodils! The tulips are just above the soil but still! And as I saw that it was as if my Jan gave me a lte birthday present. It was he who planted the bulbs a few weeks before he had to go to hospital. So now I hope they will come out good and flower well. Yeah, seeing that made me smile with a little tear, but it felt good.

The other weekend I took away the Christmas decorations and saw how much we gathered during the years! So I decided to clear that out this week. And I went into towncentre to buy me a few plastic storage boxes, to get rid of the large cardboard boxes. Now I still have quite a bit of Christmas decoration, but I was hard to myself and got rid of a lot of things. I hope I can donate them perhaps to a charity store or so. Then I also started to clear out more things, that will go some day with the bulky waste collection service. It's a start for that, more will follow I am sure. The one thing I still didn;t start to do is clearing out Jan's clothes and other things. I am not yet ready for that, I want to wait with it till after his birthday on the 29th of January at the least. It feels now a bit too soon.

Oh, I was this week also in a thrift store, just to see if I could find perhaps one or two easy to read books and I ended up with 7 big fantasy books for Séverine(she is very much in reading those kind of books at the moment). So I sent her  whats app when in the shop to ask her if she knew the writer. She didn;t but right away looked him up on the internet and answered it was something that she would read. Well, with some apping back and forth I bought 7 books of a serie , hahahh. Lucky I had my shopping car with me, otherwise it had been far too bulky and heavy. Séverine apped me that she would pick them up some time and would pay me then(of course those books cost almost nothing in those stores). But I will give those books to her as an earlier birthday present(she has her birthday in February). 

So all together I had a good week, cooked well for myself(sometimes portions enough for two days , but that's okay, isn;t it?). I had potatoe mash with sauerkraut, one day with a hamburger and another day with a fried chicken leg(we call it here a drumstick). Another day I had spaghetti with tomatoe sauce and some yoghurt as desert. Today I will make myself a piece of salmon with some potatoe out of the oven and I;ve made some applesauce compote. So that should do for today. 

As you see I am keeping myself busy, which is a good thing. I also go out every day or sometimes I skipp one day, but it is good to go out into the fesh air and keeping the legs in motion. 

Now it is time to have perhaps a chocolate drink and watch a bit of tv and then later make my little dinner.

Wishing you all a wonderful week and stay safe and healthy!

Reached the age of 70 now.

 Goodafternoon everyody!

Yesterday I somehow didn;t have time to write my blog so here I am a day later. It was my birthday and it was, of course, a bit different from other years. Still it was okay and I was invited by friends to have dinner with them(without them knowing actually it was my birthday), so it came together just nice. It was a simple but very tastymeal and we had a nice chat.

It was a good thing I accepted the invitation, it is important not to loose all contacts and this was just a good occasion. I wasn;t home very late, it was just around 8.00 p.m. all together I had  a good day.

All is slotly coming into a kind of rythm again, although there is still a lot to do, you know. First big thing is clearing out all Jan;s clothes, but I coudn;t do it till now. I will wait perhaps a few weeks and then ask my frined Heidi to come and help me with it. I think it could be a bit emotional, but it has to be done. And he still has so many really good clothes that I will see if I can donate it to a good charity or so. 

We have stil rather mild weather, balancing from 8 to 12C, with sometimes some sun, also rainshowers, but for the time of year it is quite good . Let;s hope we will not get a fall back in February or March with really cold temperatures. Cross my fingers, you know. It also helps in the costs of gas, because at the time they are very high and although we have this year some help from the government, it still is a lot of money to pay each month, and there will be much people that will come into trouble because of that. May be the price of gas will get lower again later this year, but I don;t really have high hopes on that.

It's almost time to fix myself some dinner, I will have some "Nasi Goreng"with is fried rice with some vegetables in it and to that some diced chicken filet in a peanut sauce. It is quick but tasty and later in the evening I can take some fruit(must think of the vitamins LOL).

I wish you all a very good and wonderful week, stay safe and cherish all the little happy moments and make them to memories!

A New Year in different circumstances.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

At first to all of you a very happy New Year, in good health and many little but oh so important smiling moments.

It was a bit strange last evening at midnight to sit on the couch and not having next to me to give a kiss to at midnight and wishing him a good New Year. I did wish him that, but in a different way, of course.

It was just a short sad moment, in most I think I am doing rather well. As I said before, there will be coming still difficult moments but that's ok.

Friday I realized it was only one month ago that Jan passed away. Somehow it seemed much longer time ago and on the other hand as if it didn;t really happened. Very confusing actually, but I suppose it is a way of coping with the fact perhaps. Tried to keep myself busy with all kind of things, or also having days I didn;t do much at all. But I will be ok and all will be fine eventually.

There was quite some fireworks at midnight, some of the bigger fireworks of the city were cancelled because there was a real hard wind blowing. So they wanted to go safe. But here in the neighbourhood there were some folks who had some real beautiful fireworks and it was nice to see it.

Today I promised myself really a day of doing nothing else that watching some films and perhaps one or two detective on tv, making myself a good dinner and start tomorrow being busy again. Later this week my best friend comes home again from her Christmas vacation, and I will be happy to see her again. She kept contacting me every few days, to "keep an eye on me"as she said, hahaha. But nothing goes over a "person-to person"chat, isn;t it?

Another perhaps more difficult day will be next Sunday, because then it will be my birthday and Jan always congratulated me with my birthday and always said with a big smile on his face: "Ha, now I will be married to a wife that is older than me.(we are from the same birthyear, but I am from the 8th of January and he is from the 29th, you see), and that for 3 whole weeks". It was just a gig between us and it will be strange not to hear that anymore I guess. 

So , best I finish now this post, before I make you all feel too sad, which isn;t my purpose, but it is nie for me to write some things down about how I feel. It is helping in all of this.

Thanks for visiting and reading and leaving your comments. It all is muh appreciated. 

Have a wonderful week.