Birthday Party

Last night we attended Georgena's 18th birthday party. It was a lovely evening, attended by Georgena's family and friends. Lots of talking, sharing of experiences, dancing and food. Plus some alcoholic beverages of course.

For those people on the other side of the world, Georgena attended STM school and her mother, Carole, taught at the school. I remember when Georgena first started at the primary school, which just seems like yesterday. And now she is a grown up 18 year old. Still just as beautiful and friendly as she was when at STM school.

My apologies re the darkness of the photos - the flash on the camera did not work so well. Or was it me!

Georgena and Carole.
The three ex staff members of STM school.
A line up of the STM group with Georgena.
Even Walter got up to dance. And enjoyed it too!
Georgena's family giving a display of their special dance.
A truly wonderful evening.

Toonkamer

Toonkamer literally means show room. And it is full of designer furniture, curtains and floor coverings. All with appropriate price tags of course. The building is used for display purposes only, and if you are interested in a piece of furniture or a designer, then you either take a brochure or ask an assistant for further information. All very impressive!

I am not sure what the following display represents but I like it!
This room contained a shop, with French designer objects, clothes and shoes mainly.
I love the wave effect!
An oversized chair! Great fabric design.
Kylie taking a rest on a very stylish piece of furniture.
I am taking a rest on a pod chair. The lid closes on the chair. Portable I suppose. A portaloo?
Raphy was not impressed with the visit to Toonkamer.
Then outside was a beautiful old water tower.
And the sunshine was brilliant too. After days of slecht weer (constant grey drizzly weather) we certainly welcomed the sun and blue skies.

Work around Houten

There is much activity around Houten at the moment, with the cleaning of canals and roads being renewed.

The path in front of the house will be renewed during the next few weeks, as well as the road on the other side of the edge. The huge machines are getting closer!
The machine below is shovelling all the bricks into piles for the dumper to collect. There is also a huge machine with a grabber on the front (for picking up the pallets of bricks). The grabber swings from side to side when it is driven at speed (often) and we all feel very scared when it comes towards us. I also saw a man doing wheelies whilst driving a small dumper truck! Irresponsible Dutchmen!
The roads and footpaths are paved so the work proceeds quite slowly, in comparison with the laying of bitumen roads. The thoroughness of the work is quite impressive. The workmen also clear away unwanted trees, roots and replace pipework where needed.
The bricks that are removed are not thrown away, but instead are washed and sorted and put onto pallets ready for replacing other roads and footpaths.
I always wondered how the canals are kept in pristine order. Usually the work is done in September so that the leaves from the trees can fall to the bottom of the canals in order to provide nourishment for the plant and animal life in the canals. They are running a little late in Houten this year. Luckily most of the trees still have leaves on them.

The canals are cleaned out by using a flat bottomed boat which has a huge hedge clipper on one side and a spiked clearer at the front. The sides of the canals are cut back (trees, rushes and grass) and the spiked attachment on the front lifts all the debris and puts it into piles onto the banks of the canal. The water plants which have been growing all summer are also removed at the same time. Of course the roots of the plants are left behind for the next growing season.

As there are thousands and thousands of canals in Holland, the maintenance of canals is a major undertaking, but I think that the local councils and farmers are responsible for clearing out the canals in their areas. The overall supervision of work would all come under the State Water Authority though.

I would love some of the debris for my compost heap!

Raphy loves watching the water clearing machine.
Raphy also loves the park down the road, although I don't like all the large road building machines around there at the moment.
The park was but a brief interlude on our walks.

Utrecht

Today we rode our bikes to Utrecht, which is a 10 km ride away, all on flat land of course. A grey day, but not cold.

We locked our bikes together, due to there being no available bike racks.
A view up the street towards the Dom.
Hot chips with lashings of mayonnaise! Delicious!
The shop window opposite had mannequins wearing size 8 clothes. This reminded us that hot chips were very fattening!
Colourful bikes everywhere!
I love them.
The last time we were in Utrecht, it was March. The trees were beginning to come into leaf and people were sitting in the sunshine. Now they were still eating outside, but the leaves were beginning to yellow and fall off and there was no sun.
The rondvaart weaving its way through the canals.
The Heaven07 'the most vibrating shop in town'. The vibrator which plugs into the IPhone looks interesting. Music and vibration together!
And so ends an interesting trip to Utrecht.

Fort Vechten

On our bike ride today, we called into Fort Vechton. This was part of the New Dutch Waterline, a defence line, almost 85 km long and 3 to 5 km wide, which runs from near Amsterdam in the north to Zeeland in the south. It was built between 1815 and 1885, and consisted of forts, bunkers and group shelters, together with a system of sluices, dikes and flood canals which could be used to flood the surrounding land quickly. The flooding was a shallow layer of water, about 40 to 50 cm deep, and it was designed to make the land treacherous and difficult to negotiate on foot, but was also not deep enough to navigate by boat. The aim of the New Dutch Waterline was to provide a protective ring around the cities in Holland and Utrecht.

An ingenious system, but had no chance to prove itself as a line of defence. However the forts and bunkers were used during the France-Prussian War in 1870, the First World War and the Second World War.

The New Dutch Waterline is now used for recreation activities, including opportunities to visit 60 defensive works, all of them different, plus cycling, walking, boating, dining, museums, guided tours and even for overnight accommodation.

We visited Fort Vechten, which is about a 20 minute bike ride from the centre of Houten. When the fort was built the main brick buildings were covered in soil, so they look like small hills, and the whole establishment was designed to represent a star shape.

The two former military sheds in the photo below are now used as an information centre and a cafe.
The building below would have once housed military personnel but the rooms can now be hired out for functions.
The narrow passage way, which runs along the back of the rooms looked very spooky. Not for me!
The rooms, which still contain the old stoves, look neglected but are very popular for parties and functions.
The moat, with the gun emplacement at the end.
On the way back we rode along a very picturesque path with wild flowers growing between the path and the corn. I presume the wild flowers were designed as companion plants for the corn.Off for a bike ride to Utrecht tomorrow.

Houten in Autumn

We are back in Holland, the weather is glorious and the trees are starting to show their Autumn colours.

Due to technical difficulties, which are too confusing to outline in this blog, the photos are on the following blog. I am great with technology as long as it works the way I want it too. And it is currently not doing so!

Last evening Aaron and Kylie celebrated a joint birthday and held a party for their neighbours and friends in Holland. A great time was had by all who attended and we got to bed at the very late, or early hour of 3 a.m. There was much conversation, singing and listening to some Dutch CDs (presents for Aaron and Kylie).

In typical Dutch manner, the evening started off at 8 p.m. with delicious cakes (lemon and raspberry tart, chocolate and lime cake, medieval apple tart plus tea or coffee). This was followed by wine and beer with savoury dishes, also delicious, - a cheese board, curly kale bruschetta, pea and chorizo bruschetta, olive and thyme tapinade and cheddar cheese biscuits. All made by Kylie, except for the cheddar cheese biscuits which were made by a neighbour. I still cannot get used to the Dutch custom of eating cake first, but I must admit that you tend to drink less alcohol this way, which can only be a good thing.

My apologies, as there are no photos of the party due to forgetting to use the flash on my camera. Technical problems again!

Yesterday I took Mia, Abi and Raphy to the adventure park on the other side of the ring road which surrounds Houten. We rode our bikes of course. The park is a wonderful place for children, and no health and safety restrictions stopping children from getting wet and muddy and generally having a good time.

Mia and Abi tried out the obstacle course and managed very well without falling into the water.

Then we went for a walk on the path, where there were little waterfalls and pools. Raphy enjoyed lifting up the weed with a small stick, but unfortunately he slipped and sat down in the muddy water. He was not happy about his shorts getting wet and muddy. The photo shows him happily poking the pond weed before he slipped on the mud. The girls paddled through the small waterways and poked around in the mud and weed to see if they could see anything interesting.

It was into the bath when we returned, happy and muddy.

Houten in Autumn