Socks Socks Socks and More Socks (cont'd)

This wasn't the way I initially planned to do it, but the more I've thought about it, and with a bit of Women's Prerogative, I'll continue with separate posts for new batches of socks as I go along...instead of adding them to the first post from May 11 with my first 9 pairs.

So, picking up from where I last left off:

10th Pair (for Jeannette), finished May 18, 2020

Flotte Socke Scandinavia 1474 Rellana, Germany, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(Jeannette chose this yarn and insisted on it when I warned her it had a lot of brown.  She LOVES it.)

11th Pair (for Liesbeth), finished May 24, 2020

Flotte Socke Mississippi 1161 Rellana, Germany, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(Liesbeth is a Kermit-the-Frog fan, so I picked out this yarn for her, which she loved.)

12th Pair (for Harry), finished June 1, 2020

Flotte Socke Mississippi 1163 Rellana, Germany, 75% wool, 25% polyamide

(Harry chose the same yarn that I made for Astrid, 8th pair,
but the dye lot was different, making the white a more washed-out, pinkish hue)

 13th Pair, finished June 7, 2020
Flotte Socke Rellana Garne 1555, Germany, 46% cotton, 33% wool, 12% polyamide, 9% polyester
(This is my absolute favorite pair of socks up to this point.  It felt like silk in my hands!)

14th Pair (for Dicky), finished June 16, 2020
Scheepjes, NL, Invicta Colour #968, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(A thank-you to Dicky, our neighbor lady who takes care of our plants and mail while on vacation.)

15th Pair (for Astrid), finished June 26, 2020
Schachenmayr Regia, Germany, Perfect Rainbow Color #01736, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(When I asked Astrid if she could see herself wearing this design, she immediately said "OH, YES!")

 16th Pair, finished July 4, 2020
Schachenmayr Regia, Germany, Tutti Frutti II #02424, 75% cotton, 18% polyamide, 10% polyester
(This is the first pair of socks I've made without any wool!)

 17th Pair (for Lisl), finished July 12, 2020
Lang Super Soxx, Switzerland, #901.0201, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(Lisl has been our Bath, England, hostess for many years, whose husband of 35 years died
on June 29, age 83.  This was her first choice of yarn made several weeks earlier.
I needed to knit them for her now, while grieving with her over her loss.)

 18th Pair, finished July 18, 2020
Scheepjes, NL, Our Tribe #963, 70% wool, 30% polyamide
(This is my second pair of socks made for bedtime, for approximately 10-11 months of the year!)

19th Pair (for Lisl), finished July 24, 2020
Flotte Socke Bambus-Merino Emotion, Rellana #1541, Germany, 75% wool, 25% polyamide
(This was Lisl's second choice of yarn, in case her first wasn't in stock.  Lucky for me,
both were available, because I wanted her to have both.  Our England hostess with the mostest!)

(I'm now working on my 20th pair...for daughter Amy!)

Green Men in the Netherlands: Deventer

And just like that, a new collection is born!

It's a longer story than this, going back to trips to England where our hosts were constantly on the lookout for Green Men, especially in churches.  Then recently we heard of a German friend who found a Green Man somewhere here in the Netherlands and Astrid and I were immediately like WHAT!!!  HERE???

Believe it or not, there's even a Dutch database that tells you where you can find them.  So, without having to think twice about it, we pointed our finger and picked nearby DEVENTER, 120 km from home, for our first search.

But, for starters, what are Green Men?

The Green Man is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the

 cycle of new growth that occurs every spring...most commonly depicted in a sculpture, or other

 representation of a face which is made of, or completely surrounded by, leaves.  [Wiki]

...and, I might add, any variation thereof!

Hold onto your seatbelt because this is also a post about Deventer.  But I will clearly indicate WHAT images are Green Men along the way.

Because we started the day at city center (after a latte macchiato, of course),

De Waag Museum had our full attention, the oldest weighing house in the Netherlands, from 1528.

No Green Men there but plenty of faces.

Next door, however, we were in luck at The Three Herrings from 1567.

Nope, not these faces, though I wonder?

But THIS one, at the top.  A bit wild and unruly?

A zig and a zag from there was the VVV (information center) behind the Albert Schweitzer statue.

This Green Man is as clear as they come.  No question at all.

At that point it was time to eat lunch, during which we had a delightful downpour of rain.

Can you see De Waag Museum there in our line of view (top-left)?

It was the perfect location for a respite...

...and to show how carefully everything was set up for safe-distancing and hand-sanitizing.

We felt perfectly safe at all times.

Right around the corner from lunch were more Green Men, on the Kantongerecht District Court.

These faces were also there but supposedly not Green Men?  I liked them anyway.

This is a classic and unmistakable Green Man on Spijkerboorsteeg (an alley).

On Rijkmanstraat are these 2 (almost identical) Green Men.

Why do so many of them look so mean and devilish?  To scare the evil spirits away?

Thankfully a few cherubs showed up to lighten the day.

See what I mean!

These are not in the database as Green Men but I wonder.  Lions, yes.

But maybe my English friends know if the others are Green Men?

At this point it was time to spend the rest of our time in the St. Lebuinus Church from 1450.

Notice that, absent pews, they're able to nicely distance the chairs.

Supposedly there are 3 such Green Men on the church ceiling but this is the only one we found.

I don't think I would have known this was considered a Green Man, so I got my education.

Still, everything else on the ceiling was worth the visit.

A sermon in Old Dutch:  Vrees Godt (Fear God), Dient Godt (Serve God),

Looft Godt (Praise God), Eert Godt (Honor God), Danck Godt (Thank God).

By the end of our time there, our necks were "cracked," so to speak.

You know me with needing to see the organ and pulpit (for Mom and Dad).

Not only the ceiling had frescoes.

We even had time to light a candle for two important people who died that day and the day before,

one being my grandson Nicholas' other Grammy with red hair and named Virginia.

The day before my best English friend, Lis, lost her husband of 35 years, age 83.

It was time to start back to the car, catching 3 more Green Men, these two first from Assenstraat.

And then one more at the Bergkerk/St. Nicholas Church from 1209.

We took time to only pop in to find the Green Man, and then headed back to our car.

I wonder what my preacher dad would think of a Green Man carved in his pulpit.

My guess is he would get a kick out of it and would love telling jokes about it.

With that, I leave you with more impressions from the day...

Bikes.

Gable stones.

Misc. faces.

Deventer misc.

And so we start this Green Man journey here in the Netherlands.  Who knew!  Next up, Astrid says, is Delft.  Remember, we have a database, so it's like a scavenger hunt!