The 'Tweener Week

Someone from my other blog asked me what 'tweener meant but I know you know:  this is the week between Christmas and New Year's.

 It's a hiding-place week, like where the soldiers hid in the Valkenburg caves during WWII.

Except minus a war, maybe we can whoop it up a bit till normalcy returns?

Actually, start with me 2 days before Christmas, when I took my walk around our citadel walls.
Our temps are still hovering around 40F here in the Netherlands...not too conducive to the holiday spirit.

At the inner harbor, he at least dressed for the season, don't you think?
I wanted to know if he had family with whom to celebrate?
Or had his wife died the year before...as we often see here in our senior complex?

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar and Prettige Feestdagen were everywhere.
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays, snow or no snow..

My €10 fake tree, after my first 2009 Christmas here, is still going strong.
Year after year it reminds me of how quiet she is...the Christmas spirit.

We celebrated with Astrid's Jeroen, Eva and Jaap 2 weeks before...at Jeroen's house.
Then we celebrated here with Femke and Jeannette the week before.

Quiet celebrations.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then on Christmas Day Astrid and I celebrated our 5th Christmas here, eating out at 4 p.m.
See that overhang on our Gorinchem canal, top-right?  That's our Greek restaurant.
We watched the day grow dark there, with festive lights all around...our gift to each other each year.
And then we took a walk...to see the lone man on his houseboat across from the restaurant...

Astrid set up her tripod all along the way to take time-lapsed pics...
while I checked out my new camera for hand-held night shots.

Christmas night in our inner city is so...quiet.

How many times have I said that I love our city!

 How can you get more festive...and quiet...than that!

  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was Wednesday.  A bit of rain fell after that and then...Voilà!  Yesterday, Saturday, surprised us with SUNSHINE.  It was a glorious day, and like all good Dutch, we went out-n-about to welcome the day.

We drove the backroads on the dijks nearby. 

THIS is for me like Christmas all year around, any day.

Even Astrid was surprised by the hunters.  Pheasants?  Deer?

But look at what I hunted...and found.  It was Christmas all over for me....

As Astrid and I often say, it doesn't take much to make us happy!

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

  And now, it comes...the Happy New Year!

Here's to 2014.

Happy New Year

On this very last day of 2012...let's say Good-Bye to this past year and Hello to 2013.

Lucky for us, we had a dusting of snow 3 weekends ago while we were out in the polder, driving to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant.  All the images today are from that trip (no snow since!):

All the guys were out fishing or just being lazy.

That's what the sun does to you on a brisk, cold day!

The canal at the restaurant by the parking lot had a thin layer of ice.

I am a huge fan of the Dutch pollared willows.

And that day was perfect for snowflakes in the restaurant windows!

The drive home after we ate was bright and sunny.  Soulful and therapeutic.

Did I mention I love the Dutch polder!  So do the ducks and swans.

As the sun sets on 2012 and now rises on 2013,

may we all feel the warmth and wisdom of the Universe.
Happy New Year!

(stock photo image)

Choosing HOPE

De Hoop (Hope) windmill about 15 minutes' walk from our apartment here in Holland.

The week in between Christmas and New Year's Day is one of those weird weeks of the year one hardly knows how to describe. If you have to go to work, you wonder why. If you get to stay at home, you hardly know what to do with yourself.

Since the camera never lies, you can see (above) that we did indeed have snow here in Holland, even on Christmas day, for the first time in 30 years, Astrid says. I think it snowed just for me! Now it's all gone, after several days of warmer temps...but Hope still stands tall.

This is the same De Hoop windmill from above, taken a week before the snow fell. It faces the setting sun of the Old Year.

While saying Good-Bye to a tumultuous 2009, I am reminded of a Christopher Reeve quote: "Once you choose hope, anything's possible." I'm living proof of his words! And so, once again, I choose Hope for the new year, 2010. It's possible. I wish it for us all.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008!

After holiday celebrations here at home, at Donica's mom's and her cousin's, at Ruth and Don's farm in Michigan, followed by the family cottage, I'm sorting through some 1,000 photos! YES! You could say I have my work cut out for me.

But for today, here are some windows and doors from the farm's barn, beckoning us to open our eyes and look out onto this new year.

For each and every one of us, may this new year surprise us with Joy. If we keep our eyes open and look out the windows, maybe there will be all kinds of open doors through which we can walk. I wish that for you and me both.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!