Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Week That Was and Other Mundane Matters

Hi Dear folk,

Snow storm is in full swing and the way it's coming down I think it will be a big one.  All these pictures are from the past week not today.  Still spring is sitting dormant these buds on the rhododendron have been waiting for a while.

Our neighborhood is from the 1920's and I think when they built these houses they did certain plantings of shrubbery with them, and I do think the purple rhododendrons were part of that.  A neighbor has an absolutely huge one, although mine would be that big if we did not cut it back.

What have I been up to?  Well life isn't all glitz and glamor it's the every day small stitches of life that hold it together, all those mundane things that keep the boat afloat.



Mr. B. bought me this lovely bouquet and after trying several vases I eventually put them in a vase I inherited from his mum.  His mum died when he was four, really hard for him.  In any case his dad and step mom had kept a number items from their marriage stored in a barrel under the stairs, and this was one.

It was a wedding present in 1945, but I think dates back further than that, I would say what they call depression rose glass.  I appreciated having it.

Mr. B's parents were married in August 1945 between being sent back from England, where he was a flight engineer in B26 Bombers, and before he was meant to be deployed in the Pacific.  He was on his way across the country when the war ended.

Before being sent out to England he worked in Baltimore at the Martin Marietta plant and one of the planes they made was the B26 Marauder, where he worked on the engines, so not at all surprising that he was assigned as flight engineer on B26, The Widowmaker.



I finished the one patchwork curtain, trimmed in crochet and I am working on the second one for the other window.  It's hard to take a good photo when they are up at the window.  I used a new kebab skewer to hold them up, it works well and just slips in the hooks I already had up.  Threaded through the crochet at the top.

I found a nice edging crochet pattern for the bottom.  Mr. B.  said the hallway is darker with them.  Before I had wax paper up with pressed flowers in between, but they were old.  I had made them out of dried pressed flowers I collected in PEI and that's BFR (before Rob) so old.

Have you ever tried that for a window?  Taking pressed dried flowers and ironing them between wax paper, it is I think a lovely window treatment for a smaller window.



Enjoying the meter of my day.  Coffee and croissant by the fire, reading Expiation by Elizabeth Von Arnim; which is due to be released by Persephone Books next October.  As always I have the original first American edition from my local library.  They all know me, I'm the one who pulls old books out of unused shelving which exists on the top floor of the library, and someone has to be sent in to find it.  Love that they have them there, so special.


My little mug bought in Amsterdam, it reminds me of my paternal grandad working around his market garden and chicken farm.  He always looked like that with his trousers and braces and the other side has chickens on which you can just see in the picture above this one.

My boys have given me a pile of mending which I have procrastinated on, must get to that.

I have one project on the burner, but I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched.  I filled out all the paperwork to apply to the local borough to build a garden shed.  I have a rough quote on it and will have it built from scratch, as it has to fit into a certain area and be in compliance with local ordinance.  I wished we lived somewhere where that didn't matter, are there places like that?  I assume so.

I went to the offices to submit them and pay the fee but they are closed until Friday for training, oh well!  I hope I don't get turned down because the fee to re submit is $550.00, and I don't think I'd contest it.

I'm not going to talk about my plans and ideas until I know that it is a done deal.  Well maybe a little.  I have old windows I want to use in the project that I've collected over the years.  Three circular columns that came off the house porch when we enclosed it and two sets of French door wood screen doors that came off also.  They are the original 1920's wood doors with windows that can be taken out and screens put in of which I have everything stored in the rafters of the garage.  Hope my vision comes to fruition.

Well that's the week that was and a little of what is.

Have a wonderful week.

Christine

Monday, December 31, 2018

24th September 2018 Leaving Rotterdam

Hi Dear Folk,

Leaving Rotterdam.  Our voyage began on a beautiful and ended on a beautiful day.


Tram going across bridge.




Tug assistant leaving the docks.


If only we had been on the other side of the ship we would have seen this coming in, the old head office for the Holland America Line, which is now a hotel.  We might just have had enough time to walk up here and take a look around.  I think they do have a lot of old photographs of their history.

Now they're a cruise line, and their headquarters is in Seattle, but in their day they had the transatlantic immigrant shipping route as well as travelers who made that journey, jumping off from the old world to the new.

Yes it would have been iconic to look around.


It takes two hours to navigate the waterway from Rotterdam to the open ocean, so we saw a lot as we travelled along.



It was just lovely to end our voyage eating lunch on deck in the sun watching the world go by.


Container shipping and transportation.


Windmills, areas below sea level could learn a lot from the Dutch, they've been at it for a thousand years.








Modern apartment buildings.




New windmills.  See these all over in the ocean, at bit weird, they must be sitting on a bank, but no land around what so ever.


Sea gates to hold back storm surges.




Car ferry and train transportation.


The beach and beach houses.  Where the waterway ends and meets the open sea.  It's all about holding the sea at bey.


I have enjoyed sharing our travels.



Christine

24th September 2018 Rotterdam, Holland

Hi Dear Folk,

The last day of our cruise was spent in Rotterdam.  When you go on vacation you always have expectations of what you will see and do and they are usually high, because you have chosen to go there.  Rotterdam was really just the last port of call on our itinerary and to be quite honest I did not have high expectations, just considering it a big international seaport, totally bombed out in WWII.  How wrong I was.  Yes is was and is both of the above, but what we saw of the architecture in just the small area we visited was stunning and left us wanting to see more.  We only had a morning there, but I would go back on another trip and spend several days there, it is so interesting.


The city actually provides a free shuttle bus from the port into town and drops you off at a couple of places.  We chose this area, because we knew it was near the Cube Houses and we wanted to see those.  We were here by about 8:30 am and of course again nothing open.



The Markt which is that domed horseshoe shaped building did not open until 10:00 am and the Cube Houses you could not take a tour until 11:00 am.


We did walk around the Cube Houses and looked at all we could from the outside.


Love the super efficient tram system.


Aren't these amazing?  The architect Piet Blom 1934-1999.  He presented his designs, two projects surrounding the old harbour 1978.

Both projects are quite different from each other according to form and scale.  A similarity is the inner squares, where people can meet.  The intended number of 74 cube-houses was reduced to 38, such a shame.

The pedestrian-viaduct on which the cube-houses have been built was a wish of the municipality and was meant to be a safe crossing over the Blaak, from the old harbour to the inner city. To me this is reminiscent of Medieval bridges that had businesses and houses on them such as you see in Florence.

Blom saw a tree in a cube-house and the pole or pedestal as the trunk.  the complex gave him the impression of a vaulted cathedral ceiling or of a forest and that is how it was given it's name Blaak Forest.  A cube has a total surface of about 100m2 over 3 floors, which Blom names Street-house, Sky-house and Tabernacle.  The Pole is the entranceway, and houses the winding stairs up, plus may be used for storage space.





Bike storage.


The Markt or Market Hall opened in 2014 shaped something like an aircraft hanger is an amazing building that houses a ground floor food court area and then actually goes underground several floors, housing different department stores.  The surrounding structure houses offices and apartments, with some having windows that look into the mall area.



After viewing the outside of the Cube-Houses we decided to get a cup of coffee at an Internet cafe.


Here you see rubbish being brought up from the underground area.


The inside ceiling with apartment windows.


Food court area.




I love a fresh dragon fruit.  First tasted these in Hawaii.



I meant to get one of these men and didn't in the end.


We went downstairs and found a grocery store where we bought some food items to take home.






We went back to the Cube-houses to take a tour.  Several of the stair cases wind around and are reminiscent of the stair cases found in old cottages in England, then you have the angled sloping roofs and you feel like you are in a modern version of an old thatched cottage.  Jean and I loved them, but said the design was more appropriate for younger folk, but I could probably manage it for a couple of years so if there's one going let me know because I fell in love with the design.









We especially liked the top room, with all the windows.  You could just imagine sitting up here on a snowy or rainy day, reading a book, or studying, just such a great room and space, to think, imagine and inspire one.



This is how the Markt apartments look on the outside of the building.  Just seeing these two wonderful designs made our day.





What about this bridge too?  Taken from where we docked.

Christine
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