Tag: Netherlands

Real or Fake?

The Cedar Journal January 3, 2022

Today is my last day in the Dutch wilderness (a empty campground cabin) without the Hubby. He will join me for these next few days.

A huge storm blew in overnight dumping tons of rain and brought howling winds. At some point I did wonder what would happen if we got enough water that I would float off into the lake while I was sleeping.

Then it cleared. The sky had a million stars. The Weerribben is maybe one of the few places here in the Netherlands where there is minimal light pollution, making it an excellent place (when it is clear) to see the night sky.

I started the day by biking to Oldemarkt, a small village about 3 kilometers from the campground.

The winds gusting to near 25mph I wasn’t sure I wanted to bike but I did need a few items. So I bravely packed my gear and set out.

The thing about biking in The Netherlands is that wind is almost constantly a factor. Knowing that can be more a mental state of self motivation.

“I will have a headwind going, so I will get there faster. Maybe, while I am shopping the wind will magically change direction or disappear.”

We all tell ourselves these sort of lies in order to make it easier keep going.

So, I am sure this is why I saw several stickers today along my route.

This was the first one. No translation needed.

Here is another picture one inside Oldemarkt. NOS is a Dutch media outlet.

As I entered town I saw that the bakery was closed, won’t reopen until 5 January. I saw all the other businesses along the one Main Street were also closed per the national lockdown. So… maybe not everyone in this village believes these stickers.

Wonderful day to window shop. Body amour for sale? Awesome!

As I entered into the small village grocery there were a few customers it not anything like I experience in the busy area where we live close to Amsterdam. People were like anywhere these days, some half way made an effort to wear a mask, others not at all. Some people kept their distance, some not at all.

I made my purchases and made my way towards the cabin.

No, the wind did not change magically while I was shopping. So I window shopped some more before tackling the flat expanse. I walked slowly with my bike along side. Noticing things I haven’t seen before on other visits to this village.

One of the three churches in Oldemarkt. I like the added smile on the the other building.

There are three churches. An antique store. Two knitting/craft shops (mental note must visit next time I am here). A garden with a miniature train track. What a cool find!

A garden along my route in Oldemarkt with train tracks. I would love to have seen the train.

Did they exist all this time? Of course. I just needed to slow down an really pay attention. These items and places are real. Appreciate.

Just because we don’t see things doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Fake or real we all must determine it for ourselves. Oldemarkt is real, the virus that no one sees is real. Media is real. Sometimes what we see or experience can be fake.

I know the wind was real for my ride across the flat Dutch fields!

Starting 2022 Mud Hiking

The Cedar Journal January 1, 2022

I had laugh as I made my first edit, still writing 2021. Maybe by mid January writing 2022 will be natural.

I started my New Year, after getting the first good New Year’s Eve sleep in years, with a nature hike.

I have enjoyed these trails on other summer visits to the Weerribben National Park so I was excited to see what I would experience in the winter. There is a fair number of wild animals that call the National Park home but mostly they remain hidden in the thick brush and reeds.

I was prepared for this hike with my new Muck boots. Thanks to my friend Janet in Canada who held onto these beautiful boots for a year and half. Finally, we realized this COVID thing wasn’t going to end anytime soon, she sent them to Minnesota. Yes, it would have been cheaper just to purchase them at a farm store in Minnesota but we didn’t know that a virus was going to delay her plans for coming to Europe. Anyway, thanks Janet, I love these boots for walking muddy Dutch trails.

This hiking trail goes through some marsh like woods. I was heading to a location I hadn’t explored before close to number 19 canoe site.

A small bridge goes over the canal and into the woods. I had never explored it much from the canoe site.

Canoe site 19 from the bridge over the canal

I started seeing signs of wildlife. Trails going across the landscape, feathers hanging on the grasses next to the trail.

A feather seemed magically suspended on the grass.

Then my hike was halted by a gate. This trail was not a trail but a path to a private property. Disappointing!

STOP! Do not enter! Private property! Very clear…need to hike somewhere else.

Turning around and heading back to the main trail I continued for a few more kilometers. Hiking along the muddy trail in the isolated quiet of the National Park. The only other people I met were a couple who were trail running. They caught me hugging a tree. I had to laugh as I really thought I was alone in the woods.

That is the thing about the wilderness in The Netherlands you are almost never very far from people.

Hope that each of our readers gets out to your nearest wilderness in 2022.

cedar strip canoe

Dutch Donut Day

The Cedar Journal December 6, 2021

Hello my fellow followers and bloggers. Between the weather coming off the North Sea (cold, wet, windy) and our lockdown/restrictions here in The Netherlands, there isn’t much to do but wait all of this out. Today, I decided to practice one of my American survival skills and deemed today The Cedar Journal’s official first Dutch donut day. Named for living here not for the American cake donuts recipe I was about to use.

I had some survival food that was due to expire and what better way to use the items than to make donuts.

After pulling out all my baking stuff and assembling the ingredients everything came together in less than 15 minutes.

Cook little donuts.

Now that the kitchen smells like burning oil as with all my clothes and hair. I feel happy that for once the fire alarm was not activated.

We all need a pick me up from the reality of the current world situation, so take a break, read an interesting blog, then do something creative.

Now… I have some donuts to eat before the Hubby gets home.😳

How to keep busy…

The Cedar Journal November 16, 2021

Warning from the local Great Blue Heron should have been my first clue that we were heading towards another limited lockdown.

This Blue Heron was going on like this for a good while before I pulled out my phone and captured his alert.

After my return from the United States I was finally starting to feel like we were returning to some pre-COVID normal here in The Netherlands.

I was off to my volunteer job at the Historic Gardens at Aalsmeer every Friday. Taking the bus from my house each time and pushing down some anxiety the bus was full of wall to wall people riding to and from their daily jobs. Masks were still mandatory in the public transport, and the Dutch (who don’t normally chat on public transport) seemed liberated after so long of being sequestered at home, passengers chatted with everyone. On once such bus ride I chatted with a lady who works at the airport who was going back to her sales job for the first time in a year and half. She told me she was nervous but happy that she still had a job. I felt the same way about my volunteer job!

Fall at the Historic Garden in Aalsmeer.

Never a lack of work at the Historic Garden, I was put to work weeding, planting and separating plants for the next season. I always doubt my abilities of my work as I am surrounded by giants of the plant industry. Mostly men who owned and worked the soil of the Aalsmeer plant industry for years before retirement. Now volunteering their skill sets to the preservation of old horticultural skills. I look forward to learning so much each day I volunteer.

One of the fall plantings I was in trusted to plant.

Notice the difference in the piles… the inexperienced volunteer pile I created, is on the left.

The thing I realize each time I volunteer is that work, hard manual work is how humans existed for centuries before the modern age. That those skills are being lost with each passing day when those skills are not learned by generations who have only grown up in the modern age, in front of a computer or TV.

Then COVID hit here once again knocking us all back into a limited lockdown. We are all strongly encouraged to work from home, limit our social contacts, wear a mask everywhere again.

I know that COVID has been hard for most people. The mental anguish for most people of not being able to gather with family and friends at any given moment is difficult.

But, maybe it was a message from Mother Earth that we all needed. That our 24/7/365 world is not sustainable.

What to do with all this time now that we have been given? Here it is three weeks. 3 December, if anyone is keeping exact track of the timeline for this current outbreak.

I am thankful in many ways of my agricultural roots I grew up with. In times of distress on a farm, you just pick up and keep going. Life and death is part of the farm cycle. The change of seasons and the hard work that continues. I never remember having much time to sit and worry about what was next. Heaven forbid if we as children uttered the “I am bored…” words as we instantly found ourselves not bored doing some really crappy task.

One of my Dutch friends thinks I grew up like Laura Ingalls Wilder, she isn’t far from the truth. No running indoor water or toilet with only wood heat for the house. The one thing Laura Ingalls didn’t have was over 100 head of sheep to care for during the year. The year long work even in the -40 temps of Northern Minnesota! Plus, I don’t ever remember Laura Ingalls being told to go clean the crap in the barn due to the fact that she was bored.

When the government announced our lockdown again due to the explosion of COVID cases I pulled out one of my old skill sets I learned as a young person, spinning. Filling my days with making wool yarn with the ancient drop spindle.

The result was something I can feel and see with my own hands. A sense of accomplishment in the world of COVID chaos.

A small skein of hand spun natural wool yarn.

Not a huge accomplishment. It won’t replace the joy I get in volunteering at the Historic Garden, but it is a good filler for the time I now have to stay at home.

I hope that each of my readers are also finding ways to move forward in all this chaos.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Wordless Wednesday-Netherlands

The Cedar Journal November 3, 2021