Out-n-About Again. YAY!

You have no idea how good it is, 3 months after knee replacement, to be out-n-about again, like old times.  Seriously.  The timing, to coincide with spring, has been P E R F E C T.

My surgery was January 8th.  Winter.  On February 22, at 6+ weeks, and still winter, I took my first mini walk out on the citadel wall and did a post about it here. 

Now that it's SPRING, I'm still going strong...stronger, that is, with every consecutive walk.

This was on March 22nd, with an almost-complete citadel walk.

To include both of our windmills was a goal that day.

Then, on Easter Sunday, April 5, on a gorgeous day, I did the entire walk:  4.5 km/2.8 mi.

Stopping for just a few pics, I did the walk in one hour.

The following Sunday, April 12 (last Sunday), I did it again!  In one hour.

Old Sannie was sitting back on his wee island at the Paardenwater (removed during the winter).

(In fact, we were in the right place at the right time on March 26,

when we saw the men putting Old Sannie back where he belongs.)

Even if I see the same things over and over again while on my citadel walks,

it's like seeing them for the first time.  I never get tired of them.
I hope you don't either!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then, of course, we went out-n-about with the car.

There's a canal right next to our parking garage where we saw Mama Duck and her 12 babies.
Cheaper by the dozen.  HA!
Too bad there's trash, but it gives scale to these vivacious ducklings.
(that's the sound of Astrid snapping pics in the beginning)

 Driving along the dijk near the Mervede river, where you can catch the ferry to Brakel,

is this grouping of 3 statues called "Where's the Water" by Hans van Eerd.

It was commissioned for a dijk renovation project of 32 km along the Merwede,
and sits totally out in the middle of nowhere.  Who sees it???

It was the 2nd Easter Day, April 6, driving out into the boonies in the direction of Hellouw,

15 km east of Gorinchem.

It's the time when the storks are delivering their own babies.

Don't you love the stork weathervane here!

It so happens this is at the Herwijnen stork village that we try to visit every year.

And look at all the weathervanes we found that day!

Five days later, this past Saturday, we drove out again, this time to see Fort Vuren (a next post),

directly across the Merwede river from the Loevestein castle.

As we prepared to stop, a cargo ship laden with coal passed by,
followed by two other freighters, heading east towards Germany.
This is commonplace any time we're at the Merwede!

 That day we found more weathervanes.
Gotta keep our eyes open, you know!

With all this energy, I'm totally invigorated and feel I've reached a new level in my rehab.
I even moved the saddle of my exercise bike down a notch, increasing my knee flexion.
For me, that says it all.  So YAY YAY YAY!

A Wee Little Walk in Gorinchem, NL

Did I mention that we drove to Münsterland this past weekend in celebration of our 4-year wedding anniversary?  Guess what I'll be working on for the next several days/weeks to come.  HA!

In the meantime, here's a wee-little citadel walk I took a couple Sundays ago when the weather was just spectacular.  I wanted to play around with my camera, for one thing, and just look again at what's at our doorstep.

I pass our little Paardenwater (water horse) pond every time I walk to one of our grocery stores.

The ducks and geese love it--their own little paradise.

You can look back to our Grote Kerk from there, just two blocks from our apartment.

Nearby, after rounding the pond, you can see our fire station on the Linge river.

Do you recognize some of these landmarks by now?

Our water tower from 1886 is now an apartment building.

And that's our Nooit Volmaakt windmill from 1718, a block from our apartment.

The little church is a reformed church across the street from the Paardenwater pond.

Astrid calls it the "black-stocking" church.  :)

But what I really wanted to catch that day was these Eurasian Magpie birds!  Ekster in Dutch.

I see them all the time but they only sit still in the trees for capturing...600-1200 mm away.

If ever I catch one even 100-200 mm away, I'll be in heaven.

They're so beautiful, especially in flight.

The ubiquitous pigeons, of course, you usually can capture up close.

But these, too, are 600-1200 mm away.

As I said, I just want to see what my little camera can do. 

Of course, there are always the views that catch my eye.
"What can I make of that," I'm always thinking.

I love that there's a skate-boarding park nearby...with soccer goals.

 And always the bridges that give us these sweet views along our canal.
Yup, that's the same fire station in the background.

All in a sunny day's wee-little walk in our lovely Gorinchem where we live!

Happy February to everyone.  We're still waiting for winter....