Backyard Bits-n-Bobs

In America, of course, we say bits-n-pieces.  But don't you just LOVE the British bits-n-bobs!

Anyway....

Thanks to our Dutch friend, Janny, we've already had two fun outings this new year not far from home, one weekend after the other.

First, we drove to pick Janny up to go see the Leather Museum (De Looierij) in Dongen, 30 km. from home.  It's a museum about the history of tanning and the leather-making process, dating from the 1890's.  Dongen happened to be the home of a profitable leather industry in the Netherlands, back in the day.

Too bad we didn't know we could take photos until our visit was almost over.

But here are a few pics I snapped at the end, most of which are of the times, 

not of the leather-making process.  Oh well.

HOWEVER...not to be disappointed...a block or so away was this church with its half-ruins.

This is the Oudekerk (Old Church) from the 15th century.

Originally Roman Catholic, it was "confiscated" by the Reformed Protestants in 1648.

During a storm in 1928, the roof of the nave caved in and has remained a ruin since then.

I don't know if they still hold church services there but they do have a Facebook page!

Can you imagine getting married in those ruins on a sunny, gorgeous day?

We ate lunch there in Dongen where Astrid and I had our favorites:

latte macchiatos and uitsmijters!

The three vanes on the right are the ones we saw that day.

The bottom-right is apropos, of a leather tanner.

And the bear is from the home of someone whose last name is Bear (in English).

Thanks to Janny for scouting out my first bear vane ever!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was the weekend of January 14th, the day my brother, Nelson, turned 75 (since we're talking about bits-n-bobs)!

During that weekend, Janny told us about a vacated swimming pool in Oosterhout, 29 km from home, not far from where we were in Dongen.  Without even thinking about it, we went to see it the following weekend (which happens to be last Saturday).

Like I said, it's a vacated swimming pool, but did I mention...with 18,000+ art tiles!

Who thinks up these things?!

All I could think about was how my little camera could pick up details from 1200 mm away.

But first, I wanted to see the forest before zeroing in on the trees.

Some of the sections had multiple tiles in their themes.

Some were grids of only 9 tiles, following a theme.

"We are all angels with one wing.  We have each other to embrace in order to fly."

(How wonderful is that!)

This was one of my favorites of the multiple tiles.  :)

Then, from individual tiles, here, there and everywhere, I picked out my own themes.

This one for me is everything Dutch.

There were body parts lying around.  HA.

And animals, birds, insects and fishy things.

Some things actually reminded me of some of you who frequent here...

like Ruth's sumac in Michigan, and Robin's cactus in Arizona.

We're everywhere, aren't we.

But did I expect this?????????  NO!

And that reminds me of the Dutch response to Trump on YouTube, for those who haven't seen it yet:

It hit me after seeing this that one of the reasons why I fell in love with Astrid is
because of her humor, not connecting that it's DUTCH humor.  OMG.  It's true.

But back to the swimming pool...so many bits-n-bobs.

And when I went down to the "water's edge," I was able to see the 3-D effect on some of the tiles.
Not all were ceramic tiles.  Most were paper.  But what an effect.

THANK YOU to Janny who gave us the shout-out to these two outings in January.
What a great visual start to this new year!

Castle Het Nijenhuis in Heino, NL

If I told you this is a post whose images have languished in my archives since 29 June 2014, would you believe me?  Let's just say I never found my Round Tuit!  HA!

But, yes, we started using our annual Museum Cards on any and every museum we could find, just because.  And this one was a doozy.

This is Castle Het Nijenhuis, located between Wijhe and Heino, 138 km NE of us.

It's one of those castles with a moat, around and in which you can walk.

Throughout the course of the day, we did just that.

First, we turned left at the entrance and entered the gardens.

What a great time of the year to visit!

You know by now that the Dutch love their statues and art sculptures.

Sometimes the wackier the better?

Of course, I was most interested in Mother Nature's "sculptures."

Turning right from the gardens (we're moving clockwise around the castle),

we found two fun interactive displays.  This one gives you pause, as you see.

And to the right of it, we had fun playing together with this monstrosity.

Who thinks these things up?

When we passed this bower, I wondered where the bridge led,

but it wasn't where our path around the castle took us.  Hmmm.

Instead, we followed behind the castle through the woods...with art still everywhere.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...."  HA!  I couldn't resist.

By now we were ready to cross the moat to the eastern side of the castle where,

yes, more sculptures/artwork were to be seen.

At this point, we're really talking crazy and wacky...and H U G E.

(Look at the size of those women top-center!)

The piece I loved the most was this "conglomeration" in miniature.

Look at all the detail.  I'm sure there's a link about it somewhere (Astrid???).

Other artwork around the castle was a bit more austere.

But as we rounded the corner back to the entrance, it was wacky again.

Still, gotta love the color!

By then, we were ready to walk inside, ready for...whatever.

The "whatever" was an exhibition of "subsidized art" midst the castle furnishings.

Can you imagine someone doing this in your home?

Of course, your own valued pieces are still on display.

But...then there's that wacky piece again, almost like a desecration?

Or maybe more like a laugh?!  If you can't take a joke?

Back outside, at the moat, Mother Nature calmed me down....

...as did a bit of respite from the castles café.

As some of you know, Astrid and I aren't real museum people, but with our annual cards,

we are getting our education in places we might not otherwise see.

When you get to throw in a castle, why not!

Open Monument Day

Every second weekend of September is Open Monument Day in the Netherlands when approximately 4,000 historical buildings and sites are open to the public free of charge.  We'd be stupid if we didn't take advantage of that, right????

So, last weekend, we took advantage of two places here in Gorinchem, within walking distance from our apartment, and then on Sunday drove to nearby Hoeven (next post).

Our goal for Saturday was only one place:  the Toll House on the periphery of our citadel walk.  Back in its day, ships passing by on the Merwede river had to pay taxes at the toll house to...pass by.  Hard to imagine?  Think about our toll roads in America, which is basically the same idea.

 This is what the Gorinchem layout (citadel) looked like in 1649.

This is what it looks like today, with the majority of Gorinchem's 35K population outside the citadel.

Astrid and I are lucky to live inside the citadel, which is the "old" city center.

From the citadel walk (bottom-center) you see past the toll house to our grote kerk inside the citadel.

Inside the citadel the toll house looks like...a house, built in 1598 (top-right).

The handy thing is you can tell what's open to the public by the Open Monument flag.

What we didn't know is that the toll house is now used by the Syndion non-profit group.

Syndion helps to mainstream adults with disabilities.

In fact, our favorite café here in Gorinchem, Metropole, hires disabled servers who wait on the tables.

(The café above is in the toll house, not the Metropole, for clarification.)
We LOVE the Syndion concept.

 So when we discovered the toll house is a place for the disabled to chill, we were thrilled.

Sometimes the "disabled" put the abled to shame, don't you think?

Thank God all this creativity has not gone to waste!

It makes me want to get out my own "paintbrushes" to start creating!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It so happens that we had an appointment in the afternoon and started out on our way home after the toll house, to eat lunch and get ready.  But much to our surprise....

...we saw another Open Monument flag and decided to check it out.

Guess what?  It was the Freemason lodge of Gorinchem, which I never even knew existed!

Who knew it was a national monument!

And after all the years of "secrecy" I had experienced about the Masons, 

I was not going to miss this chance to see as much as I could.

Very nice gentlemen were available to tell us everything we wanted to know,

without giving away secrets, which they explained were more inside each individual person.

Know thyself.  Conscience.  The Eye of God.

Sounds like something we all want, right?

To see and enter what I thought was their Holy of Holies rendered me speechless.

The Square and Compass are everywhere, of course, the most universal freemason symbols.

 The Square is for virtue, to "sqaure our actions by the square of virtue with all mankind."

The Compass exemplifies "our wisdom of conduct, the strength to circumscribe our desires 

and keep our passions within due bounds."

So, why don't they allow women??!  HA!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 While coming and going, we saw all those things that are "old hat" by now.

But sometimes I pay attention to them again, as though seeing them for the first time.
(My new 1200mm camera helps, of course.)

This is where we live and we love it here.

How many times have you heard me say that?!

And while I'm on the subject of where we live,

here are some more weathervanes while out-n-about on any given day.