A Dutch New Year's Celebration

While this first week of 2014 is still with us, let's have some fun!

First of all, the Dutch are allowed to legally shoot their own personal fireworks between 10 a.m. and 2 a.m. on New Year's Eve.  Of course, that doesn't stop them from starting a few days earlier and going at least a day later.

And because these personal fireworks are shot by every Tom, Dick, Jane and Harry all around us (here in Gorinchem, NL), we don't even think twice about going to bed till after 2 a.m.

So, the best vantage point where we live is across the street at our parking garage, 3 floors up....

...and out of the light rain and gusty winds.

Look how the wind affects the fireworks!

It was my first time to check out the Fireworks setting on my new camera,

as well as my wired remote control, using the tripod.  This is still very new for me!

And look at how even our Grote Kerk 2 blocks away got in on the action!

She took it all in stride.  What a happy camper.

Of course, I had to try out the camera's video setting, first against the sky...

...and then with the Grote Kerk (Great Church) peeking in.
(The white steeple to the right of the Great Church is the Catholic Church on our street,
which has been turned into apartments.)

Astrid says the Dutch spent €69 million on personal fireworks this year.
Sadly, there was one death and 8 eyes lost, plus other injuries and arrests.
What a price to pay for...fun?!

But there you have it...a grand Dutch entrance into the 2014 New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This, That and the Other

Is it really possible this much has happened in the first week of the New Year! It's a mish-mash but it all happened.

First, it was watching the clean-up of all the fireworks while out on my daily walk:

Every year the receptacles with openings have to be boarded up or locked
to keep firecrackers from being tossed in by the New Year's revelers.
This one apparently got missed by the lock-down!
Astrid had told me about it but this was the first time I saw it.

During the week, between Sunday to Saturday, we finished another of the Jan van Haasteren jigsaw puzzels we absolutely love:

This is the 1500-pc. puzzle called Neighbours (De Buren).
Actually, this one is a loaner from one of Astrid's co-workers who's also addicted.
The cool thing about Jan and his whole operation is that if you ever lose a piece,
you can get a replacement from him. How cool is that!

This is the time of the year when make-overs and clean-ups seem to be on everyone's mind. I love to see how the Dutch do it:

This particular farmer is cleaning the moss off his thatched roof.
How many ladders does it take to clean moss off your roof?

Good thing I have Astrid nearby to always explain what's happening, things that are old-hat for her!
The Dutch canals have to be dredged every year or so, depending on how big they are.
The silt from the bottom gets siphoned off and dumped on the farmland nearby.
It allows for cleaner water and better water flow, especially when there's lots of rain.

Here's a YouTube to show how it's done:

While they're at it, they also break up the roots of the water plants
to keep the canal cleaner and less impeded:


See the shell on the bottom-left? That's a fresh-water swan mussel the size of a grapefruit.
The muskrats dig them up in the canals and eat them.
Now you know why the canals need continual maintenance!
Too many rats, building their tunnels near the canals, would collapse the farmland.

Talk about getting my education...almost every day!

Besides all that, since our New Year's community party we've had another New Year's party (by the property association) and 2 birthday celebrations, all at our community center. We're feeling partied out!

One last thing, ruminating all week, relates to a New Year's resolution I plan to share next week about Giving Back. I want to "donate" images to Wiki and have begun the process of registration and uploading. It's been a complicated learning curve for me. Tomorrow, 4 days after registration, I'll find out if I'm up and running.

But more on that next week, also with exciting news that Mart Martorell, the glass blower from the Düsseldorf Christmas market, wants me to be the photographer for his new website. In return, he will teach Astrid how to blow glass! But like I said, more on that next week.

If this is how 2012 is starting, don't you wonder what the rest of the year will look like??!!

Now, something fun for those of you who enjoy Dr. Seuss!
This was worth every minute...looking ahead to the rest of this new year.

Happy New Year, again!

The Jaarwisseling

At Kinderdijk, Netherlands, on Christmas day 2010.

My favorite Dutch word of this last week has been jaarwisseling (yar-VIS-sel-ing):
jaar = year; wisseling = changing...and thus, changing of the year.
Changing, rotating, turning...crossing over? Perhaps, like at this Kinderdijk bridge.

I pray all of you have had a great jaarwisseling!

While out-n-about the last days of 2010, I loved seeing Gorinchem, our city, in the snow. While we had a tad of snow the previous year, it wasn't anything like this:

For a country that has the highest population of bikes per capita, models are everywhere.
All of these were within a block from our apartment.


A year ago I took the top photo of this art sculpture on our nearby Melkstraat (Milk Street).
Look at how it has changed with a bit of snow a year later.
You know what you get when you mix milk and snow, right? I recall friends making ice cream in the old churn when I was a wee girl, adding in fresh snow. Memories that stick like snow wads on the wall.


Our city's Stadhuis (City Hall) is where I registered a year ago to become officially part of Gorinchem by getting my equivalent of a Dutch social security number (BSN). From there I was able to start my resident-permit application for staying in Holland. This is also where Astrid and I were married on 5 February last year. Everything is now coming back full circle...with snow added, as frosting on the cake.


Twice a month I walk back-n-forth to the bank where I take money out of my stateside account and deposit it into my Dutch account. I'm not always happy with the conversion rate (right now €1 = $1.34) but when I first came a year ago, it was horrendous, at €1 = $1.56. I just grit my teeth and bear it. I pass these willows every time and breath a bit deeper. In the total scheme of things, I have much for which to be thankful!

We did indeed bring in the New Year with our fellow senior neighbors here at our living complex. We were in bed by 1 a.m. because of getting up the next day to drive to Den Bosch for a day with The Girlfriends. As we went to get our car out of the garage, look what we saw: both self-service parking-ticket machines were boarded up. Astrid says they do that on New Year's Eve so no one will tape fireworks to them and blow them up. It so happens that New Year's Eve is the one day of the year here in Holland, during very specific hours, when both public AND private displays of fireworks can be set off. Mailbox openings are closed, anything into which a firecracker can be tossed...everything possible is secured.

What a mess! Now the clean-up begins.
As I recall from last year, it took several weeks before all the residue was gone.

Speaking of gone, after several days of above-freezing temps, all our snow is now gone. At least we had a White Christmas! But winter is not over yet. Astrid says the hardest winter days are typically the end of January and the beginning of February...even though we've seen many fresh molehills. Doesn't that mean spring will be early?

Don't you love how the whole year is now before us once again and the sky is the limit! The jaarwisseling is full of pomp and circumstance...full of promise. Let's all grab it by the tail and see where it takes us, one day at a time.

Good-Bye 2010. Hello 2011

From a Nicholas POV

Since it's my prerogative (as Amy always says, "This is YOUR blog, Mom; you can do anything you want!"), I'm gonna have two different posts of the Michigan holiday vacation from over the Fourth of July. This one will be from Nicholas' point of view (good g'ma that I am!).

The day we arrived was THE holiday, July 4th, but because it was a Wednesday, the rest of the family didn't arrive till Friday...except for Don and Ruth who were already there, waiting for us. And since we had no other time to celebrate Nicholas' 7th birthday in Atlanta, we celebrated it at the cottage before the tribe arrived. Amy did a good job of mixing up the holiday and birthday.

The birthday boy then played one of his new Nintendo DS games, showing Uncle Don how to do it, while Aunt Ruth snapped away. HA! We snapped at each other!

The thing about the N DS is that it was a fun playmate while none of the cousins were yet there. But there were rules, of course. You can't spend ALL your time gaming, you know!

So Uncle Don oversaw the Lego construction. Uncle Don, the favorite uncle. Uncle Don, the elementary school teacher. The Uncle Don everyone needs to have.

Uh-oh. There it is again. Oops. Amy clearly is okay with it, as are Donica and Dennis.

Well, let's just say it was a big hit! Once Peter and his girlfriend arrived, Nicholas followed them around. Peter is Uncle Don's son. Like father, like son! And Nicholas knows that!!!

So as you see, there really WERE other things to do! But it's still with Peter...

...or with Uncle Don! Once cousin Audrey arrived, there was finally a playmate.

See what I mean about everyone needing an Uncle Don!

Then Aunt Peggy had her 65th birthday! She, too, is/was a school teacher, so guess what she told all the kids! "Since it's MY birthday cake and I can make the rules, you can all come and lick the frosting anywhere you want." And he did! And it was before dinner, because sometimes you just have to eat dessert first! Life really is short!

The last night was when we celebrated the fireworks. The kids, of course, spent the first hour lighting the sparklers, before it was dark enough for the bigger bangs. It was the best fireworks we had had to date (we always pick them up as we pass through Tennessee). Ironically, the next day we adults decided we didn't want to continue the fireworks tradition any more, fearful of any accidents that, thankfully, have been averted all these years thus far. We just don't want to keep pressing our luck.

As I said, this is a Nicholas slant to the holiday trip. My next post will be a bit of everything else. Just because I can?! :)