Ora et labora

Last weekend I was in this monastery in the south of the Netherlands together with 14 other members of our parish in Amsterdam.














We took part in the rythm of the monastery, prayed the liturgy of the hours, took meditative walks through the forest, fields of wheat and cattle.














We also worked on their farm. I choose to help harvest the apricots. There was just the one tree, which gave us 32 kilos. About 75 imperial pounds???














It took a whole day to turn them into 106 jars of delicious jam.















A wonderful weekend and a very rewarding job!

Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet?

Meet Ali, a tourist from Australia who was in Amsterdam for a week.
Some of that week she stayed with me. It was fun to have her company around the house, and I really enjoyed getting to play tourist with her for one afternoon.


We went to the 'Zaanse Schans', a touristy but still pretty authentic area just north of Amsterdam. It is the area my parents were from and I was born close to there too.


We had a lovely time just walking around, and sitting and chatting. Ali is a retired dancer turned deaf interpretor and cannot help but talk with her hands and legs and well, whole body continiously really. This was her explaining an Australian birthing ritual to me.


We also happily just sat and stared at the view for a while.


And there we are, strangers a week ago, and really enjoying each others company now.

Butterflies

I have this 'thing' for butterflies. Well, all bugs really. Where some people are fond of cats, or dolphins, I just really like bugs. And butterflies are even more special.
Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling a bit blue. I went downstairs, said my morning prayer, and than saw in my living room a butterfly. No idea how it got in, but there it was, immediately making me feel better.

Keti Koti

Keti Koti is Sranang Tonga for 'breaking the chains. Every year at July 1st they celebrate the abolishment of slavery in the former Dutch colony of Surinam in 1863. This is always a very festive occasion with lots of music, dancing and food. This was the celebration just around the corner of my house.

Guest room

Obviously I am not the best photographer. Again this is a photo that came out a bit 'odd'.
But I am proud of this one though, as I finally have a 'real' guestroom. Not just a spare bed in Nina's old bedroom/laundry drying and ironing room/suitcase packing and unpacking room.
It took a while to get all the wallpaper stripped and prepare the walls for painting. It also almost gave me an asthma attack to have all the 'stuff' that I had accumilated in there in my bedroom for well over a month.
The only thing that still needs some work is the floor. Have not managed to remove all paint stains yet. Will get to that later.
First............... I am off to Germany, as a volunteer nurse with a group of elderly/disabled people going on holiday. Really looking forward to this. Back next week!

Lush

Living right in the middle of Amsterdam it is a real luxury to have a garden. No matter how small, this place is a true haven for me. If I had to describe it in one word, I would say 'lush'.


And this is my idea of heaven of course!


And this is what I see when I sit there.

Trip notes from Dallas.........

Oh oh, I did it again...........
Last Sunday morning, I walked out of the little guest house I was staying in. As I closed the gate, I kept watching it to make sure the dogs would not escape. And I looked down the street to meet Glenn and Lahoma, and never saw this hole in the driveway........... well, maybe you won't see it either as it does not show too well in the photo, click on it and it will be enlarged.......



So I tripped, which resulted into this:

A badly sprained ankle. Along with some big scrapes and other bruises.
So there I was all dressed up and ready to go to talk to the mitigation investigators in Bobby's case and I end up going there hobbeling and looking a mess.

Oh well, the meeting went well though, and they surely have lots to work with now.

For the rest, I postponed my appointments that I had for the next day. Spent the Monday and Tuesday catching up on my knitting and really bad American TV while I kept my foot up and cooled. And by Wednesday I was walking around again. Still finding the balance between enough rest and enough exercise here. Like today I really need to take it easy after the long trip home yesterday. So far so good though and I am sure I will be able to do my volunteer nursing trip the week after next.