For Bill and Ange: the Family

Some of you will remember that our Shutterchance blogger friends, Bill and Ange, came to visit us a year ago, just about now.  So how appropriate that this post is about and for them!

It so happens they wanted to return the hospitality favor for two of our days while in England this trip.  And boy did they ever!  This is just the first of THREE posts on that time with them.

Lucky for us, they BOTH love to cook...together.  They even sing together while they do it.

More English you cannot get when you eat a meal like this!

And since we were there for two breakfasts....

Here's Bill's collage of moi eating what he's known for:  a bacon buttie.

He actually put it up on our Shutterchance photoblog.  HA!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But eating, splendid as it was, was not all that we did!  Trust me.

 One of the most important things on our list was to see their new and only grandchild, Joseph,
who turns one on August 20.  He was almost 9 months old.

I sure hope you're ready to be gobsmacked.

To be honest, Bill has been showing Joesph to us since he was born.

By now, Astrid and I both feel that we, too, are the proud grandparents.

Bill grabbed him first.

Talk about a grandpa who is also a grandma, working off both sides of his brain.  Seriously.

And Joseph just observes, soaking it all in.

(I should mention that Astrid and I brought Joseph the Dutch cap...but more on that later.)

Is he A D O R A B L E or what!

The proud mother happens to be Helen, the younger of Bill and Ange's two girls.

Look at him after his tummy is full.

And that's when Ange got her hands on him...patiently waiting all that time.

I would have been DYING if I were the real grandma.

About that time Kathryn, daughter #1, stopped by before work.

She wanted to get in on the action, of course.  

And now you can also see the Dutch slippers we brought, besides the cap.
(Joseph's daddy also wears a cap, so apparently that's why this cap didn't seem to bother him at all.)

Those little hands and feet.  OMG!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Speaking of Kathryn, later in the afternoon we stopped by to see her at her place of work.

She works at The Hive library in nearby Worcester,

a partnership between the university of Worcester and the Worcestershire County Council.

And yes, that's the city of the famous Worcestershire sauce.  You got it.

 Here we are leaving The Hive, the four of us, living and loving life...just like busy honey bees.

And now let me tell you this:  I have seen very few families that love each other as fully as this one.
It starts with Bill and Ange themselves...husband and wife and then parents and grandparents.
It all trickles down, doesn't it!

THANK YOU, Bill and Ange.  You outdid yourselves on our behalf.
Next up, everything else you showed us in your neck of the woods....

Bits-n-Pieces

Sometimes as we are out-n-about, I end up with a mish-mash of things that in and of themselves don't really make a post but, together, they are, well...bits-n-pieces to put together as one.

As a matter of fact, these bits all happened the second Saturday after we went to the Ottoland sheepfold, which is why I want to show them now before they go into a Black Hole somewhere.  It was a full, fun day.

We drove directly from the sheepfold to the swan man's house about a kilometer away, in Goudriaan.  Goudriaan is also where Adrie, the woodturner, lives.  See how close everything is!

I call Arie the swan man because he's the guy who smokes swan meat...

as well as geese, wild pig, deer and mackerel.

 See that stash above?  That's ours...swan and mackerel only!

I know what you're thinking:  NO!!!  NOT THE SWANS!!!

But, like deer and other such animals, even swans can be too plentiful.

Too many swans and you destroy the polder for the farmers. Not good.
Once you get past the "Bambi Factor," you'll LOVE smoked swan.  Besides of which, it's so lean.
All that oak wood is for the smoker, where Astrid is standing (top right).

Arie also has a barn where his neighbor's cows bunk down.
One of the support poles is from a windmill sail!

We continued from Arie's to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant,
catching the sights along the way.
Those herons are little rascals...always moving away when you get close.
The one above was at 1928mm on my miracle camera (for those who understand).

Have you ever seen a manure truck?  It's springtime in the polder for the farmers!

And what about a log trailer like this, pulled by a tractor.
Only out in the byways of the Dutch polder!

 At the pannenkoeken restaurant,  the sun was playing hide-n-seek.
How cool that they even have a kiddies' corner!

Between Arie's and the restaurant, there was lots of foot gear to enjoy.
The Dutch do like their clogs, especially on the farm.

Then, one last stop at Wijnhandel van Ouwerkerk in their new building next door to here.
It's gonna take some getting used to.  I loved the old look of the "museum" from 1860.
That place will now be used for storage/stock.  (sigh)

Like I said, just a bunch of bits-n-pieces, all on a Saturday afternoon!