Merging two life’s into one, the past catching up with the present

You will have noticed (just a rough guess) that we haven’t posted any updates last week.
This doesn’t mean we are living a boring life, far from it! Life has been a little busy….

Apart from the usual jobs (in and around the house, work) we have been out and about like a visit to the doctor (Tjep all of sudden has a lypoma/lipoma of the size of a half golf ball on his shoulder. But lypoma’s aren’t doing any harm but they can become a nuisance) and I have “ring worm” (a harmless virus infection I once got when treating a calf with this virus, a long time ago).

My Mum passed away in November 2008, her house is still for sale. We all know this is a very difficult time to sell a house, even when it is in the very green and picturesque village of Suwâld (or Suawoude). The first village on this planet with a solar ferry for pedestrians and cyclists. It has its own little harbour at a crossing of two canals, a school but no shops. Still we think that is one of the charm of this village. I lived there for 9 years and if there would have been a house for sale at the time we were looking for a house, we would have lived there still.

Mum collected dolls, tea pots and much, much more. Her house was her little castle (not that big though!). But now it is up for sale, it needs to be cleared which is a time consuming and a sad job. Going through all the things she loved so much, often brings tears to our eyes.
Last week we spent quite some hours doing right that. On Saturday my brother and sister in law came down from Germany for a helping hand. The house is not empty but at least ready for viewing without attracting hoarders in stead of buyers!
If any of our readers is interested in Mum’s house or knows anyone who might be, please contact us!

In Friday we went to see one of Tjep’s friends who retired.
They met being members of the Kiwanis NL (more info in English). We drove all the way to Montfoort where we met a happy hero of the feast and his wife as well as many, many other friends from Tjep’s ‘past’
Some of them I met before on our wedding party or when they visited us in the North.
It was a true pleasure to meet more and to catch up with news with the others. They all smiled when they saw Tjep; handshakes, a pet on his shoulder and many happy memories of funny events,
I listened and listened. Tjep often told me about these happy times and I feel fortunate to become a part of it too.

We left around half past 7, drove straight to home to joint the birthday party of our neighbour. We did not stay too long; around half past 10 we noticed that it was a huge job to keep our eyes open. Yes, dear readers, we are no youngsters anymore…..

There is more to tell but we will do that in a separate post in the near future, keyword “chamber pot” Stay tuned………………..

Maria and Josef

Sweden, August 1999, midnight. A phone call from Holland which ended my 17 years of marriage.

Sweden, 5 days later, Hotel Erikslund near Helsingborg. Me not being the most happiest person in the world and on my way to Holland.
I sat there in the lobby with my big white dog Invandra. I wasn’t up to nice chats with other people, if I was even aware of them.

Half an hour before when I parked the car, there was another car next to me, also a Volvo but with a German number plate. Two very kind people were the owners. They looked at the dog and my packed old Volvo 245 and asked me if I was moving. “Yes” I replied but did not feel the need to explain why.

These two nice people walked by and asked me if the telephone in the corridor was working. They could not get through to their daughter. I didn’t know so advised them to contact the reception desk.
Soon they walked by again, told me they finally talked to their daughter. I nodded.
But the lady did not give up. In Swedish she said “You don’t look well. There is something wrong, isn’t it?”
This caused again tears and I couldn’t help it hearing myself telling a little bit of my story.
She sat next to me, holding my hand, showing so much sympathy.
“Please join us for dinner” she said. “That will do you more good than sitting here on your own. And please, let me introduce ourselves to you. My husbands name is Josef and I am, honestly, Maria”

This truly made me smile. I spent part of the evening with them and we met again the next morning for breakfast. They were so very nice, so compassionate. Balsam for my wounded soul. We exchanged telephone numbers and they kept in touch.

But after a while we lost contact. It took a year or so before Maria called me again.
They had moved from Germany to Sweden. Not long after that I received a lovely present per post. Maria is a sculptress and sent me 3 beautiful stone penguins for the garden. I adored them and thanked Maria for the gift.

But as it goes in life, we lost contact again until 4 years ago. Maria told me they had moved back to Germany. The occasional phone calls and than my life changed. I met Tjep, we moved house, changed address and telephone numbers and also Maria and Josef could not be contacted anymore.

Saturday evening March 20 – 2010. A call on my mobile. I hurried downstairs to answer but was too late. Though a few minutes later it rang again: “Hej Ike, hur mår du?” (Hi Ike, how are you?) I replied that I was doing well and “how are you Ann Marie? (another Swedish friend, same voice). “No, I am not Ann Marie, it is Maria!!”

Maria……… all of a sudden I was talking again to Maria!! Many memories returned and tumbled round and round. Tjep looked at me and was puzzled. His wife was all of a sudden talking in a language he doesn’t understand, full of joy with a huge, huge smile!
Maria and I talked and talked. She told me that she has been looking for me on the Internet for many, many weeks. She finally found an I. Roelfsema, called them but it turned out to be an Irene Roelfsema. Irene’s boyfriend Arend however, was extremely helpful and browsed the internet until he found contact details.
Thank you Arend, you hardly realize how happy you made me!!

After the call (and yes, we do keep in touch, mailing, calling.....) I couldn’t stop telling Tjep about Maria and Josef. How we met, what they meant to me and much more. One big smile all night long. Wonderful Tjep listened patiently.
He is now very curious to meet them and we will on our planned trip to Sweden in September. So much joy in advance!!

Miracles, our dear readers, still exist. Angles still live amongst us. Maria and Josef.

Our test weekend with the Hymer (5)

Day 5, March 9 - 2010

We woke up at 0.60 after a very quiet night. 15 Minutes later the Road Workers arrived to collect a trailer. Within no time the left again and the peaceful silence of the forest returned.
An occasional car passed by, other than that we only heard the lovely Spring songs of the birds. It was cold, still freezing but not too cold.

During the morning walk with the dogs we found out that we were only 100 metres away from the River Ems. Wouldn’t it have been dark when we arrived the night before, we would have found a lovely spot with a view to the river.
It was marvellous; the sunrise above a frosty field with a powdery layer of snow.

I went back to take some pictures while Tjep made us breakfast.
The sun guaranteed another lovely day!
Getting dressed Tjep complained about having a pair of sock of different colours.
My fault, maybe my lenses are not as good as they are supposed to be. Or was it just me…

Before we left we did the occasional household jobs while the dogs preferred to stay on their cushion. Dée dreamt and made funny noises which puzzled Frits who sniffed carefully.

We drove North and passed the border to Holland near Winschoten. From there we travelled via very small roads through Groningen and were very impressed by the huge farmhouses we saw near Finsterwolde.
Farmhouses like Estates, that big and beautiful! Size matters here though!
“Look, look!!”we said to each other. Wherever you looked, they were there.

We left Groningen near Lauwersoog and arrived home around 3 in the afternoon.
Happy cats, happy crow and sparrow. And for us: good to be at home.

We still look back at a wonderful weekend. The weather helped tremendously to test the Campervan properly. It couldn’t have turned out better!
We don’t have to explain that we are already looking forward to our next trip.
It isn’t difficult to get used to Campering….. (I bet this is a new English word).

Our test weekend with the Hymer (4)

Day 4, March 8 - 2010

We slept extremely well and only woke up at around 5 because we heard a soft tapping on the roof. When we got up at 8 it turned out it had been snowing…......... again!
Everyone knows I love snow and Tjep mentioned that it is following us because of this.

Surrounded by trees, the view was beautiful.
The dogs loved it too and pushed their noses through the snow during the morning walk. They returned with balls of snow dangling from their paws.

We had a shower but it definitely needs to be cleaned as we had just a few drops of water coming down!
Still it was nice to have a shower, very luxurious though!

After breakfast we decided to go back to Holland, to Drenthe but we changed our mind when we discovered how close we were to where our friends Loes and Arnold live. Born and bred in Holland, they moved to Germany a few years ago.
It would be a huge surprise for them to see us so unexpected.
Well……. If they would have been at home of course!
You guessed correctly, they were not at home. We left a note and drove via Nordhorn (worth wile visiting) to Lathen where my brother and his family live.
They did not expect us either but they were at home and it was a true surprise to see us.
We chatted away and they wanted to see the Camper. They loved it.

We left around 6 PM and although we decided earlier to go home, we looked for a nice place for the night. We parked the Camper near a depot for roadwork utilities. Nice and quite and again near a forest.
A nice and simple dinner, a quiet and cosy evening and again early to bed.

Will be continued!

Our test weekend with the Hymer (3)

Day 3, March 7 - 2010

5 in the morning. We both woke up because of the very low temperature but after a very quiet night.
Tjep switched on the heater, it was bitterly cold. Iced windows and, not to our surprise though, no water. Frozen taps and pipes. Luckily the water tank was not frozen.
We went back to sleep hoping the heater would also defrost everything.
False hope and we scooped water from the tank in bottles: one for the WC, one for washing, one for the tea, one for the coffee, one for the dogs, etc.
It reminded us very much of camping with a tent. But still far more cosy!

It was beautiful outside and after walking the dogs in the snow, we were fortunate to see deer passing by the Van, 7 female and 1 male. Unfortunately they were too fast to take photo’s.
Apart from a few Golfers we didn’t see any people. This was definitely our best spot for the night.

During morning tea and coffee we looked at the map and decided to go down to Essen via Ede.
It was very slippery when we tried to leave and Tjep did a great job getting the Camper back on track. Off we went!

In Ede we stopped for the lunch. From Essen we drove through impressive landscapes to Recke, looking for a place to park for the night.
We found one near a small road with two houses in the neighbourhood. There was hardly any snow here for a change.
We left the Camper for a long walk with the dogs. A big mistake as what we thought was a bus stop nearby, was a kennel with a few dogs that barked hysterically when the saw ours!
Guess what ours did. Exactly, barking back in the same hysterical way!
After the walk we decided to move on as we were not looking forward to a cacophony of barking sounds throughout the night.

Tjep drove the Camper backwards and a small red light switched on. Not too happy with unknown error messages in a Camper you still don’t know thoroughly, we looked in the manual. The brake warning light…..
Driving back and forth, braking, we didn’t feel any problems and decided to drive on but carefully.

Our new choice for the night was perfect. Close to a football field, near a small road and only a few houses nearby.

We saw on the map that we were close to the villages Beesten (Dutch for animals….) and Schapen (Dutch for sheep…..). Funny people those Germans J

We parked the Van, tried not to think about the red warning light and after a walk, a meal, relaxing reading and chatting, we called it a day.

Will be continued!

Our test weekend with the Hymer (2)

Day 2, March 6 - 2010

After a very stormy night in which the Camper was heavily shaken by the wind, we woke up at 07.00 and opened the curtains. After scratching the ice of the windows we saw a white world under a steel blue sky ! It was cold, very cold and Tjep turned on the heater. Dée and Frits, curled up as Ying and Yang, kept each other warm.
We watched the sunrise which coloured the sky purple, beautiful!
We stayed in bed until the temperature in the Camper caused a cosy feeling.

After walking the dog first we faced ice cold bathing water. It made us feel very alive.
Right after breakfast we looked on the map for the route of the day and decided to go to Wilhelmshaven for our lunch.
We took the scenic route along the dikes, not always easy due to the snow on the roads. But definitely worthwhile views! We passed beautiful little villages.

We parked the Camper in Wilhelmshaven and enjoyed a light lunch and walking the dogs. When we wanted to continue our way, as well Tjep and I did not manage to start the engine!! We tried and tried….. no sound what so ever.
We looked for the telephone number of the ADAC but it did not work with our mobiles. With a big sigh gazing at a desperate Tjep, I tried again and yes! Brroomm… We now know that we need to handle the anti theft starter with common sense!

We drove to Neuenburg where Tjep wanted to see the house he often stayed with his cousins the Von Münchhaussens. We found it without a problem and Tjep explained it looked much nicer and brighter than 45 years ago! It was than a grey painted lodge, now, as an office and family home it is white with a well kept garden. It pleased Tjep tremendously.

We drove via Westerstede and Bad Zwischenahn to a parking area near a Golf Club between Halfstede and Rostrup.
A beautiful area with a lake, forest and snow! A lot of snow……
The dogs loved it, it was quiet and we had a lovely walk.
During the walk we found out that Dée reads English...... she tried to leave a souvenir near the sign "Dropping Area" ......

Again early to bed.

Will be continued!

Our test weekend with the Hymer (1)

Day 1, March 5 - 2010

As we posted previously; we were very much looking forward testing our Hymer Camper over the weekend, starting Friday March 5.

The weather forecast for northern Holland was terrible: snow, rain, you name it. We decided to go to northern Germany. Our weather wasn’t necessarily theirs!
But to our surprise early morning, there was only a little, very little snow so we left at 11.45.

We travelled via Lauwersoog, Groningen, Delfzijl and direction Oldenburg to Norddeich. We left the main road, the A7 appr. 60 km before Oldenburg to arrive in Nordeich at 16.30. Close to Delfzijl it started snowing and at the end of the afternoon it also began storming!

We parked the Camper at a very quiet spot at the harbour (harbours are Tjep’s favourites), but had to park it the other way round because the wind blew soon straight into the heater.
Than we settled down, the dogs (Frits doesn’t enjoy a driving Camper too much) explored their new temporary home and fell asleep soon.
After our first tasty dinner on board, we did a bit of reading, crosswords and chatting, how relaxing this was!

We walked the dogs en to our surprise it was raining, all snow was gone.
Nearly soaked we arrived back “home”. The weather became truly terrible and we went to bed very early.
Overnight the storm got worse and worse and was howling around and bouncing at the Camper. What a night. We didn’t get much sleep but felt extremely comfortable ámd safe.

How different our view was the next morning………..

Will be continued!

The West visiting the North

We are back from our weekend with the Camper and had a wonderful time.
We will post our journal as soon as possible.

Once back home we had to make the house and the guesthouse ready for our visitors.
Friends from the West of Holland were coming to stay with us for a few days.
They are very good friends so extra efforts were made to make them feel welcome.

We fitted a new heater in the guesthouse; the weather was not what you call sunny and warm! Clean sheets (of course), towels, fresh fruit, wine, home backed cake. Dusting and vacuum cleaning. And on Friday morning the house was ready.

We first chatted a way with a cup of coffee and tea.
We than took them out to the old Hippolytuskerk in Olterterp, a small village in Friesland.
Apart from being a lovely church, my ancestors are buried there in the 16^th and 17^th century. You can view my personal album

After a cup of coffee / tea in the nearby restaurant “Het Witte Huis” we collected the key. A very large and heavy key!
Our guests were impressed by the church and its history.
Olterterp is in the Friesche Wouden (Friesian Forest) which differs a lot from where we live: de Klei (the Clay, good for growing potatoes!).

At home we enjoyed a lovely dinner from our cook Tjep and all tired by the wind and being outside, we called it an early night.

On Saturday we first visited Moddergat, I little fishing village with a tragic history.

In 1883 during a storm 83 fishermen aged 13 – 64, died in a storm.
A huge tragedy for all the women, old men and baby’s who lost so many fathers, sons and brothers. It was already a poor village. The women had to find work and started a shrimp factory. You can read more about this in “Museum ‘t Fiskershúske”
Moddergat is one of our favourite places to be and I took many pictures of it and it’s surroundings over the past 10 years.

From there we went to “Land en Zeezicht” in Holwerd for a solid lunch: pancakes, yummy!!
After lunch we visited another church nearby in a tiny little village called Hegebeintum. Built on Friesland highest “Terp” (an artifical dwelling hill) and with a wonderful history. Many excavations took place with interesting results, exposed in Hegebeintums visitor’s centre

Hone again we agreed we were ever so lucky, The weather forecast was rain, rain and even more rain but the few drops we saw, were not worth to be called “rain”

On Sunday our friends left for home. For us it was a wonderful weekend!

Too proper haircut….

My hair has always been fluffy. Never blessed with a beautiful head of hair.
But one learns to live with it.

During the Chemo’s back in 2004 I lost it all and felt blessed. Especially because many people grow much better hair after the treatment. So did I. It was curly, thick and easy to handle.
But…… after 6/7 months, the curls disappeared, as the thickness and I was back to my old me. Such a shame.
Again, one learns to live with it and at least I still had hair!

Since Tjep does the cooking my hair improved and where my hair was ‘short’ before, I grew it longer.
Now it is growing like mad and it cost me all my pocket money to keep it in shape with gels and hairspray. Taking much of my time too every morning!

Today, with the upcoming travels with the boat and the campervan in mind, I decided it was definitely time for a haircut and managed to book an appointment with the local hairdresser at 10 this morning.

A to me unknown hairdresser, did her very best and did cut ‘shorter’ to ‘short’, literally…. Far too short my taste let alone Tjeps’!
His face and his comment expressed every feeling when I arrived home, it was a big, very big shock to him.

We both calmed down now and happily accepted that my hair will be back to ‘reasonable’ in two weeks time and hopefully back to ‘normal’ in 4 weeks time.
Though to be honest, it saves me lot of time in the mornings!!!

Goodbye Heku, Hello Hymer

Last year we planned the first part of our Honeymoon in France.
But with two very lively dogs a hotel was not an option.
We thought hiring a campervan would be great. The freedom to travel around and not being bound to one place is very attractive.

Our wedding day was on Friday September the 4^th and on Monday we went to see a company in Friesland who still had one Van for hire.
It looked great and we were allowed to take the dogs with us. But the price!!!
At the other hand, going without the dogs and staying in Hotels was also going to cost a “sweet penny” as we say in Holland and a bit sad for the dogs.

Walking in between all those beautiful modern campervans we discovered an old (1991) but well looked after, sweet little one for sale. We looked inside, did a test-drive, discussed the price and bought this not too expensive Heku 460 (460 means 460 cm. long).
The bed above the cabin needed some athletic climbing but who cared, we are still “young”.
It needed some cleaning and checking the engine and Wednesday we collected it. On Thursday we went properly packed to France.
We had a lovely time, the dogs enjoyed the trip. The only downside was the bed.
It is OK when you can stay there all night but if you need to go to the toilet a few times at night, sliding in an out of the bed like a gymnastic monkey, down the aluminium stairs, is getting harsh.
Tjep had to admit that he was a little too old for this. Other than that it was a perfect Van.

During Winter the idea to buy a bigger Campervan matured and browsing the Internet we stumbled upon a company in Groningen, Campercentrum On the Road (amongst a view others) who had a very nice Hymer B584 for sale (584 does not mean 584 cm…… it is 610 cm. long!)
We talked, viewed, talked, discussed, viewed again and decided to put our Heku up for sale. Selling a Campervan this time of the year would be successful. But even before we got that far, friends wanted to buy the Heku. We sold it to them for a very friendly price. We sent it to the garage for the MOT and an official Camper check, cleaned it last Saturday and off they went, as happy as could be.

We collected our Hymer the same day. On forehand I have been making curtains and cushions to give it a little private touch. As soon as we arrived home with it, we installed the curtains and cushions and told each other how extremely fortunate we are with this beautiful 1993 large Campervan. We hardly can keep our eyes of it!
On Sunday we cleaned it. It now smells fresh and definitely “us”.
Our neighbours came to see it and smiled as broadly as we did. Super and very supportive neighbours we have.

On Thursday or Friday we will be off for a few days to do our test weekend before we go off to Yorkshire and Scotland in May.
Stay tuned for updates and pictures!

Animal Talk

We spent a lovely afternoon with friends.
It was their first visit to our new home and we guided them around the house, followed (except upstairs) by our two dogs.

Once in the drawing room we chatted about many things and had a good time.
The conversation seemed very interesting to our crow ‘Caro’ who replied in his own crowy way.
Like all crows he loves noise, no matter what and my voice is certainly a noise he loves very much as he always replies in his own language.

One of the conversation items with our friends was “do animals talk to each other”
Yes, they do. We all know and understand that a species of a breed recognizes the sound and signals of another species of the same breed.
Dogs understand other dogs, cats understand cats, crows other crows etc. etc.
And not only the sound but also the body language.

But for example, do birds talk, really talk, to dogs, dogs to cats, cats to birds etc? And now I am not talking about body language but with “words”. Well, they do at our home!

Caro loves visitors, they are “noisy”, they are interested in him, talk to him, laugh.

Caro lives completely voluntarily, in a big parrot cage full of toys and bells.
Or outside the cave. On top of it, to be precise. From there he flies around, sits on the windowsill and dominates the cats and dogs when they come too close. If all the animals respect Caro’s rules, everybody lives happily together.

From his cage he has a perfect view to the entrée of the garden to the house.
If any visitor, Caro spots him/her immediately and happily announces the person with a special sound. Very convenient for us because being in the kitchen at the back of the house, we are aware of visitors before they ring the doorbell.
But also the dogs learned to recognise this sound which means that they raise their ears and softly yell (if we are lucky! Especially Dée is known to be a good barker). No one can ever enter the property without being noticed!

Silly enough Caro also developed the same interest and almost…. almost the same signal for big agricultural machines! Nice when you live in an agricultural area….
But dogs and we, learn to recognize the different tone! Animal talk….