We have guest visits from a cat.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, today very late, I slept a bit longer and then was busy with things, Our wether has been quite okay, yesterday there was some rain, it will rain possibly too in the evening again, temperature today is about 23-25C. Later this week it will drop to may be 20-21C, which is somewhat  low for July. 

I was later this morning because I slept longer than usual. All due to the Olympics. We have a time difference with Japa of about 7 hours, so a lot of events take place in our nights. There are of course summaries to see of tod enough for a medal, They start often at 02.00 night (our time). Not best for the sleep, I know, but ..................

We had again a quiet week, I love to say it, although sometimes it seems dull. However, we had a visit from Heidi and Séverine this week on Tuesday and it was ever so nice. Séverine explained us a few things on our phones, not all, but every time something is okay. we had a drink and a few laughs, sitting in the garden.

And we have a visitor lately from a beautiful young cat, at home somewhere in the neighbourhood. No, it doesn;t look astray, looking far too clean and well-fed, but it seems to like our garden and our chairs with the pillows in the garden, hahahha. It's a very friendly cat, grey with white and very light green-greyish eyes. I will try to make a photo and put it in my next blogpost. I only have to try to learn him/her( I didn;t check, LOL) that it can be in our garden and lay around but cannot harm the little birds. Will be hard, I know, but I can always try.

After I woke up this morning I first had a cup of tea and something to eat, watched a bit tv and then started to prepare for dinner. I still had some big shrimps in the freezer, so I thought I might use them up and they are in a simple marinade of sunflower oil, some pepper, salt and garlic. I also made a potatoe salad to go with it and I also have a few slices of smoked salmon with it. As dessert we will have some yogurt with fresh strawberries. I think it will be yummie. It's a bit luxurious dinner, I know, but we don't have that too often. During the week we also have sometimes just a hamburger with some salad or boiled veggies and potatoes.Another day perhaps just some pasta, or a Sheperd's Pie with some salad,  But every now and then we can make an exception, isn;t it?

Oh, I also turned on the washing machine to have the laundry done, it's hanging to dry now in the extension room we have. All together I think I filled my day well enough, so now it is about time to do a little game perhaps on the laptop, and later hang some food for the birds and then the afternoon will be gone already.

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe, take care of yourselves, and till next week.

In several weeks we will have all the curtains.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Weather is good again, We have around 22-24C, sunshine, little bit of wind, and it will stay like this probably all next week. So somewhere this week Jan has to water the garden again. This seems strange, if you know that in the south of our country, as well as in Germany and Belgium there was very much rain and there are terrible floods. It hurts your heart when you see the disaster and the dammage that it has done. Lots of people lost everything in their house, if not even their house too. There are also a lot of casualties, for all in Germany and Belgium. And there are still people missing.

There was also another really bad news item, on Friday the 8th of July a crime journalist was shot and badly too, they hit his head. He died of the attack last week after struggling for his life about a week. It is shocking that things like that happen and it seems if it happens more often. Journalists, lawyers, program makers etc, seem not to be safe anymore to do their job. If you want to know more details I have alink for you:

Peter R de Vries: Dutch crime reporter dies after shooting - BBC News

Thursday the man of the curtain-shop came by to measure everything to the detail, and during his visit we even changed a few things, and now all the house will be having new curtains, or blinds or net-curtains. It is really a lot of money we will spend, but it certainly will last for a longer time, because it is good quality and will be well-made. Of course it hurts a little bit in the wallet, LOL, but it will be worth it. I tried to find some examples of the curtains we will have, and i did find some, although it looks as if it isn't really the colour I have in mind. Nevertheless you will have a slight idea.

For the living room front and back we will have net curtains(of which I didn;t find a foto)and curtains.Here the curtains

I have the idea that there is a slightly more green in it, but you can see the kind of tissue, which is linen.

For the little bedroom Jan wanted a warmer colour which is about this one

Because of starting of holidays, we will have to wait somewhat longer on the curtains to be ready, we hope to have them mid-september.

My friend Heidi also returned from their vacation, they even came home one or two days earlier, because they didnlt have nice weather at all, or only two days of wonderful weather and the rest of the time cloudy, rather cold, even rain. Well, if this is the case, you better can be at home. If all comes right Heidi and Séverine will come by next week for a moment, which will be nice. The Séverine will also explain a bit about our phones, may be even install some small things or so. 

Returning for a moment to the flood disaster, even then there are happening kind of miracles. read the following article if  you want

 https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/07/cow-survives-100-kilometre-swim-downstream-in-river-flood-waters/

As long as it is nice weather i should spend some time outside, under the parasol as I already did earlier this morning with my coffee and the book. It is so nice in the morning, real quiet and peaceful.

Wishing you all a lovely week, stay safe!

New curtains, net curtains, blinds, all in short sight.

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Weather report: Today looks quite nice, we have mostly sunshine, temperatures are around 20-22C, we've had a little rain, so all in all it is not bad. Next week will be of about the same weather.

Well, Friday was the day. Jan and I went for the new curtains(I will call them all just "curtains"is easier), not too far from our house, with a bit of effort and here and there a very short break, Jan did walk it. The shop where we went wasn;t the most cheapest, but it is one, that is doing business for years and years, it is a family business, and they have still time for their customers and good service. Time we took for our order, I think we stayed there about 3 hours, but the lady took her time, and that was very agreable. We ordered now net curtains for front and back of the living room and for the small bedroom, also curtains for there(in the bedroom a sort of blackout curtain), then blinds for the kitchen and lamets for the expansion. So we've done all the house. It's quite some money, but we have real good quality, that should do for some years ahead. Next Thursday the husband of the business will come to measure for all and when all will be ready, he will hang it all, with new rails etc. It will take a bit of time till it will be ready, because it is just start of holidays, so we hope to have it all hanging by end of August. Oh gosh, how wonderful it will look with all the new curtains, all fresh and well hung and sliding etc.

Next project will be to find us a new couch, which will probably will be two smaller ones. I already looked into some websites of furniture shops and I saw one or two that have a good selection for not too expensive and still an aoky quality. May be we will go there in a week or two, if Jan feels up to it. And then we should stop for a while , because we already will have spent a lot of money this year. But....... it will be worth it. For years we weren;t able to invest in new stuff, now we have the possibility and we should do it now. It will be a good feeling to have some new and fresh furniture and together with the curtains and the new windows we will be settled for while again. 

There are still some other projects that I would have done, but those will have to wait for a while till we can save some moeny for that again. I will be happy as a child when the first things will be accomplished in , say, 3 months time. 

Yesterday Jan told me, he called again Séverine, just to check if all was still okay. Wow, he did it without me asking for it, that's a news item, LOL! All seems to go allright with her, she told Jan she would go out for diner to a small restaurant with her grandparents. And some day last week she had some girlfriends visiting her and they played old fashion board games and they had great fun.

Already next weekend Heidi and Danny will be back from their vacation. Then we should pick a day to visit them, finally. 

I managed to take a few foto's in the garden so here they are. First is to show that my tomatoes really blossom, now it is waiting till they make tomatoes!

We have several plants, so who knows what harvest we might get??????

Next foto's are from a rose bush, that already bloomed with several roses, now it is busy with the second bloom. It is quite a large bush, about 1,50 mtr or may be even more. It has beautiful roses, in fact this foto isn;t really showing how beautiful and big they are. When new buds will open I will try to take better foto's. And the next foto is from lilies that bloom like mad. I had once a few from Heidi, but now I have a whoe bunch of them and they bloom for such a long time and hold also well in a vase.

I am still learning how to take the best pictures with my smartphone, so they will get better in time, hopefully. And I edit them with Paint(already in the windows 10). It will do for now, but perhaps one day I will buy me a new Photoshop Elements again. You can do much more with that, who knows, may be one day I'll pick up designing scrapbook kits again. Don't get too enthousiastic, I am not sure about that at all yet. We'll see what future will bring us. For now, I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe, take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Better weather makes better mood.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is somewhat better now, not spectacular, but temperatures around 20-21C, some clouds, some sun, here and there(mostly there, hahah)lots of rain, even thunderstorms, but not much in our part. It's good enough again to have the gardendoors opened and I did have my morning coffee in the garden today.

It was a week in which not too much happened, as usual, we don;t get out very much, that's to say, I do, but Jan is much at home, it is not easy for him to go out for a longer time, it has to do with condition of course but his breathing too. However he can be a bit outside because of the garden, he does do some work there, every time a little bit, it keeps him busy and is good ofr his feeling still being able to do something, you know. Let's just be happy he still is around.

One day I was out to get us some new stock of cheese in another shopping street a bit further away from us, and I also found some wonderful jars and small sprinklers for herbs and spices. Lately I was a bit annoyed because of the unpractical cupboard, where I keep my herbs and spices. I often buy larger packs, which is much cheeper of some spices and/or herbs, but not arranged handy. Now with these smaller jars (for a very low price) I arranged all much better. All the spices and herbs in the bigger jars to keep fresh and dry and all the more daily used spices all in the same sort of sprinkler, it all looks a lot better arranged. It might sound just very little to be so excited about, but I am happy with it, LOL.

Also found myself two new t-shirts for this summer, I run out a bit, because I cleaned out the shelf with the long and short sleeved t-shirts too. Got rid of several very old ones, they were too small, or discoloured etc. Slowly I get around in all cupboards and wardrobes, as well as I cleaned out my little desk where I have my laptop on. It has four very handy drawers, but you know the trouble with drawers...........after some time they get more and more filled with .stuff. So I bought some small low baskets and the pens and staples and all such things are now well arranged again, and i can see what's in the drawer. The second one was mainly full of old manuals for older laptops/computers, some program cd's that will not work anymore in Windows 10, all kind of terrible stuff, that had no use anymore. Gosh, I have even space left over a bit in that small drawer! All drawers look great again, so another small job finally done. It is amazing that it always takes more time than you think.

Somewhere this week I will try to attack one or two drawers in in a cabinet. I fear there will come out a lot of rubbage too!

This weekend my friend Heidi went on vacation, so Jan will call Séverine somewhere today to ask if all is okay with her(he came first with the idea, gosh!). I think she will be, but I promised her mother to make a few phonecalls just to check. 

It's looking as if we might have a little rain , which is good news for my tomatoe plants. They keep hgetting more and more yellow flowers, so it looks good for a small harvest. 

Could be time now for a cup of tea, may be a sandwich, and hoefully a later today a moment on the patio in the sun. Wishing you all a lovely week, take care of yourselves!

Nice weather and quiet week.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

it is gorgeous weather today, the app on my laptop says we have about 25C now, and i believe it, feeling the temperature in the garden.  Yesterday we had some light rain, and that was very pleasant for the garden and pots and containers. It was a bit cooler during last week, but now it is great.

It was a very quiet week, with just everyday- things that I did, and I have to admit that the plan of "every day some cleaning or things alike"didn;t happen. No, not completely true. I did some two days in a row and I was already happy with myself, hahaha. And I did go through a part of my wardrobe and it got rid of a lot of things that were old, or not suitable to wear anymore. Specially two baskets with underwear and socks etc. Gosh, they look a lot better now. Also the shelf with my sweaters looks good again. Got rid of some of them, folded the other ones neatly, great. 

One day I went to city town, I wanted to buy us two new pillows for the bed. The ones we used were really no good anymore, and I found two nice ones for not much money and so another thing on my list is gone. I enjoyed shopping again, because in most of the shops we could enter without much restrictions, Ibut inside I still wear a mask and try to have some distance and coming home wash my hands.. Jan and I are vaccinated, okay, but not all people yet, and may be I can take the chance, but I also have to think about Jan. I might be okay, but could catch the virus and give it to him and he is much more vunerable to it. So better take no chance.

Do you believe, I already bought a few little Christmaspresents? Yeah, it is may be early, but best is to buy a thing when you see it. 

Yesterday I had my friend Heidi on the phone and she told me she and her hubby will go on holiday already next week! They will go again to France, to some friends there, but their daughter will stay home. Not a big thing, if you read it, but it is the first time it happens. Séverine is old enough (19 years), but now she has to take care of herself ; so cooking( which sounds easy, but not if you almost never did it, hahahaha), although Heidi bought a lot of grocerie stuff, she might have to do a bit of shopping, probably doing a laundry, taking care that it will not be a too big mess after two weeks, LOL. I think she will be okay, but her father already said that they should phone every day, just to see if all is going well. I promised Heidi, that we also will phone her once or twice. I am curious to know later, how Séverine will manage.

It is just such nice weather at the moment that I should sit a bit outside now, under the umbrella, take a cup of coffee and perhaps a book. I dont have to to do much for dinner, because yesterday I made us a sop and i always make enough for two days. I also made a few small piroshki(kind of little pies) to go with it. enough to have a good meal and perhaps later we could take a little snack, if we feel to it.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, thanks for stopping by. Take care.

It's funny weather at the moment

 Goodafternoon everybody!

What about the weather? Last week we had some days of extremely hot weather, then some temperature drop and then two days in which at night, there were thunderstorms and very heavy rainshowers. In short time soooo much water from the sky, you cannot believe it.

Now it is rather calm again, but there might be some more this evening. And then suddenly tomorrow temperature will drop to around 15-16C! And coming from around 30C that is some change! All next week it will be under average for this time of year(as they forcast till now), not much more than perhaps 19C, still some sunshine but there is no steadiness in the weather now.

We'll have to take it as it comes. 

It was a quiet week( and surely the hot days I didnt move too much) and I had to compensate a bit the other days. So one day I collected all energy I had and did some proper cleaning in the house etc. Glad I did it, some more tobe done, but okay, if I try to do so every week something, well, not bad, is it then?

Jan went to an appointment with the pulmonologist, in fact a trip for not much, no change for the good or bad, which we expexted. Next year a new check-up. 

We did spent quite some time in front of the tv, because we like, as you know, soccer and there is the European championship going on. Our team did win two of the three starting matches, not bad, of course, but I cannot say they did play fantastic matches. It should be better next round, otherwise they will fail to go any further I fear.

A small nice thing happened today. I needed a fast easy program or kind of app on my computer to just resize my foto's I downloaded from my phone(yes, I did it, hahahaha). In future I will see if there is a nice, free program I can download with some smaller features for enhancing, but for now this one is okay. It is alled Image resizer for Windows 10 and once downloaded and installed you just work from Windows explorer with just a right-click on your mouse and it works fast! I found it, intalled it, opened Windows explorer and....................surprise.........suddenly I had some foto's in the foto file from years ago(some from our cats, some from Jan). I must have perhaps changed their size sometime online and the foto somewhere survived on the web! I am happy with the foto's because I thought I lost them in the almost crash/not working well of my last laptop.

I am no pro at all yet in taking pictures with my phone, should be easy, but for me it is still a very difficult learning process. I will get there, some day, but I am happy i have a few photo's of our garden for you now. Not spectaculair, but okay, again, after long time, here a few foto's.

If you look well, you can see even the new garden set of two small chairs and table and yellow pillows on the seats. They are nice to sit on for a shorter while, or if you lean on the table to do, e.g. a puzzle or so. But if you really want to read a book in quiet and lazyness, well, we still need to put up the "relax"chairs with thick pillows on them. Still I am happy with the bistro-set, because it's not taking a lot of place and is wonderful to sit on in the morning and have a coffee(if the weather is nice enough).

It will be all for today, I hope next week Jan and I can go to a shop for new curtains and / or blinds, it would be nice to have those at last. Wishing you all a wonderful week, with pleasant weather, and remember.... despite of all vaccination, be careful and stay safe.Bye, bye.

A lot of sport to follow

 Goodmorning everybody!

After 1/12 day of not very great weather(suddenly several degrees lower) it looks as if from today it will go better and better. The sun is shining, little wind, temperature not yet too high, but it will go up during the day and next week it will rise to very warm temperatures of about 25C average. I can digg that for now.

It was a quiet week, looking back. Last weekend Jan didnt feel very good but on Monday he was already a lot better and I was happy no doctor had to be visited. On Thursday he had an appointment in hopsital to have a ECG, it was done quickly and on Friday he had a telephone from the cardiologist that all seemed to be okay and working well. So that was good news.

Now he has another appointment next week with the pulmonologist. It is more a check over appointment I think We'll see.

I did manage however to buy me a new pair of sunglasses. seems nothing special about it, but after the cataract operation I notice I have a bit more trouble in bright sunlight. I didn;t want to have prescription sunglasses , very unhandy to put on your "normal"pair of glasses on and off etc. So I wanted to find a clip on pair. I had one long ago and they were very handy and also didn;t damage the glass. Not evident to find( if you don;t buy online) but I have a pair of real Polaroid flip up sunglasses. The one I had was more or like plastic and this one is protecting to 85%. Looks a bit like this (only I have brown color)

I am happy with them.

This weekend started the European Soccer Championship, and as you know, Jan and I like a lot to watch soccer(and lots of other sport too). However there was a terrible incident yesterday evening during a match I am sure it went all over the world on the news, bt here is a link if you want to know more.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/euro-2020/2021/erikson-stable-eriksen-was-given-life-saving-cpr-by-denmak-medical-team-after-collapsing-during-game_sto8372118/story.shtml

Everybody's thoughts were and are with Eriksen and his family and his team. Good news is that he is alive and stable but it was a real shock to witness.

Nevertheless life continues, how mad it may sound and the championship continues too. I don;t know what to expect of our Dutch team, we have hopes, but we'll see how they will do.

We have also a hockey championship(european) and there our Dutch men;s tema won the gold medal. Todau the women's team will play the final against the German team. Of course we hope that our team will be the winner.

And in a month time there will be the Olympics to watch. It will still be a bit strange, because there will not be a lot of public in Japan, all to do with the Covid, but it is the greatest sport event of all. 

So this summer we are kind of packed full with a lot of sport, not mentioning the cyclist Tour de France and the Vuelta, oh and there also is on a Volleybal league etc. You cannot follo all, that is far too much, so we pick our moments and matches but still it is a loaded program this summer.

In between all that there is "normal"life continuing, with society and business opening more and more now, because more and more people have one or even already two vaccin shots, but still we aren;t done with it yet, certainly not if you look around on the world. so I will stay a bit cautious, better too much than regretting it afterwards.

Good, this is about all and I think it is time for a morning coffee. Wishing you all a wonderful week.