For those of you with long memories you might remember that Giftmas Day cooking last year was a new and unequivocal low point in my kitchen efforts. But not to be dissuaded, when I found a frozen duck the other day at the markets, I was all over it!
Pulling out the same recipe, I was determined to attempt this again, and be successful! Would you like to know more?
I have picked up the Crown Prince shawl again after a year and a half. Last seen here. I thought it was about time I finished it.
I have just the top half of the sixth cross up the side to do, then the row of crosses along the top. Then I get to cast on for the edgings, graft them on, and then block. Not insurmountable, but from here it still feels kind of epic.
To fill out this post a little, and because I said I would, here are the flamingos on my balcony. They fill me with near endless happiness.
I am just waiting for the weather to warm up enough for me to share my coffee with them each morning!
Since moving to the Netherlands I have wanted to buy some plants. First we were renting and had nowhere to put plants, then by the time we moved into a more stable living environment we were spending our money on setting up our new home. Then it was the depths of Winter and I didn’t think any plants I wanted on the balcony would survive the snow and frost, so I continued to wait. Biding my time until I could … spring … into action.
Well it’s Spring now, and the call of blooms was just getting too much to cope with! The trees are just waiting to explode with leaves! I think they are just waiting for the snow to finally give up and stop falling!
I had been told about a garden centre in a nearby suburb, and when on the tram the other day had even spied it out of the window. So off we went to explore! Would you like to know more?
In today’s exciting episode, we find our Heros under a mound of boxes and ex-packing material. In order to make this post a little more interesting, we will bring you instead some photos from around Amsterdam.
The first in our selection is a vivid depiction of just how they retrieve the masses of bicycles stolen every day, from the bottom of the canals. It’s a spectator sport.
In an era when property tax was based on how much street frontage you had, everyone wanted the narrowest property possible! I think I’ve found a contender for narrowest house! Yes, that door in the middle has it’s own street number, it isn’t a part of the properties on either side.
Amsterdam has some of the most wonderful street art I’ve seen, and I am hoping to fill an entire post for you. In the mean time, here’s one I spotted as I was giving a friend the grand tour of our fair city last week.
As I stated above, we have been unpacking and settling in. For us this includes the purchase of a new cat post for the fur-kids to enjoy. They have really been missing this in the past few months. We got a new one in the post last week and then spent a fun hour putting it up.
It was obvious that they’d missed having something to climb, as they were all over it and “helping” us build it, as the post was being put together!
We have had a few backyards since moving over here, but now I’d like to show you where we’ve settled. A good mix of town and country!
Being us, we are still in the process of identifying which of the local cafes has the best coffee and service. The one we were in today is a top contender! Their Croque Monsieur was delicious!
Hopefully by next post I’ll be set up enough to have gone on an adventure which I can tell you all about! See you all soon!
It’s been a long couple of weeks. It began with meeting the movers who would reunite us with all our stuff. Now, the building we are in has a hook, but it isn’t able to be used. (Long story). So we had an elevator. A platform which is put together on the street which they pile all your stuff in to bring it in through the window because the stairs are too narrow.
Like so.
This worked really well for everything except the King Size Mattress. It didn’t fit in the window OR up the stairs. We’ve been on an air mattress, and have had to order two single mattresses to counter this … adventure.
Then we brought the rest of our stuff from the interim apartment in a car we’d rented, and were finally home.
As we settled in, we began filling in some of the more obvious gaps in our possessions. We were finally able to buy ourselves an espresso machine like we’ve been planning on for the last 5 years!!!
We had a brief but wonderful trip to Zwolle to catch up with family and have a “Mum-cooked-meal” down on the farm.
There has also been brief sanity trips to knit night to get away from the boxes and packing material.
That in a nut shell wraps it up.
Nothing huge has been going on since the move, just lots of furniture tetris trying to figure out which layout suits everything the best. There is a sore back from the air mattress. There are kittens who are exploring the new uncharted territory of a balcony. And there will be a more exciting post next week wen I have a little more time to wander around with my new camera!
ghoti industries 