Back home from home

The monkeys and I are back after a week of fun, sunshine and blissful lounging in the Netherlands. The trip seemed a little hectic with a day in London before and after the journey and all the driving to Dover and from Calais to the Netherlands but it was all worth it.

In the Netherlands we stayed in a teeny weeny village called Driewegen. Although my parents lived a seven minute drive away I had only been there once for a flower arranging course with my sister. In fact the house we were staying in was that very same place I had been to and what a delight to come back. The owners of the house have gone on a very impressive pilgrimage to Rome and hope to get there after three months walking! Hats off to them!

We were very lucky that they needed guests to look after the chickens and the cats and I thought it would be a great way of familiarising my monkeys with pets and country life. Boy monkey usually walks on the other side of the road when he sees a cat you see.

Upon arrival (through the back garden and door, the usual thing to do back home) we were welcomed by a lovely vase of flowers outside and some pears from the garden on one of the numerous tables outdoors.

Indoors we were greeted by the cats and to my surprise boy monkey kind of fell in love with one of the three, a tabby cat called Guus. Upstairs was a lovely welcome note on the door and inside it read :

(Good night for whoever sleeps here). Girl monkey really liked this pink room and wanted to make it her own but at nighttime she decided she'd rather share a bed with her little brother in the new and dark environment. Boy it did get dark there at night!

We were so lucky with the weather, if we weren't at the seaside making sandcastles we were exploring the expansive garden with it's many lovely seating areas, fruit trees and chickens (we didn't find any eggs even though we tried).

I came across many beautiful plants that I had never seen before and tried Japanese wineberries in our trifle. The plums weren't all that ripe but we picked a few and it was just lovely to eat something grown in your own garden (well theirs...). If I had someone to help me I would love to have an allotment. Maybe I should put an ad in the papers... could do with someone around the house and garden.

The future is Orange 2

I realise I have used this expression on several occasions in the past few months but it seems fitting somehow to entitle this blog post this way. 

Last Thursday started as any happy day, the sun was shining and the monkeys and I were excited to celebrate "Queen's Day". A tribute day to the former Queen, Juliana's birthday is celebrated throughout the country. For a nation so down to earth it is amazing to see everyone go mad, dressed mainly in orange, wearing orange wigs, even dressing up dogs and lamp posts!

A fabulous article on Etsy shows just some examples of this. 

As every year, girl monkey had orange hair clips and a red, white and blue ribbon in her hair and I made sure we had some orange food to eat that day.

However later on my brother called to say that not only had mum been taken to hospital, there had been an alleged attack on the Royal family by some loser who drove his car through the crowd, thereby killing and injuring several people and causing a huge amount of grief and shock for many. I am still in shock that this happened. More on this in this article. 

On another note today the monkeys and I took a friend to Brookside Garden Centre in Poynton. A lovely place for all your gardening and craft needs but more importantly it has these lovely little railway trains that take you round the centre for a small fee. Boy monkey was glowing as we drove through the tunnels, faces hidden by steam and seeing all the old signs. It is lovely and quaint and will not fail to please young and old. We might go back again next week!

Dutch Imports

Here are some things I brought back from Holland. Some jolly fairy cake cases. Couldn't choose between the turquoise (my favourite colour) or these red ones but I thought these reminded me more of home and would fit my red, white and blue kitchen better. I should have bought both colours but I am hoping to go back again in the summer. 

Then there's my late great aunt Pie's jelly mould. Yep that really is an old Dutch name, fitting for the object but it is actually pronounced Pee. I know this doesn't make it any better (LOL as I am writing this). 

Apart from that I brought back Dutch peanut butter (even the Irish agree it's the best!), many varieties of crisps (even though I am far from a crisps fan but these Dutch ones are delicious) and Dutch apple pie. 

Dutch Delights

In the holidays I received several parcels from friends and family in Holland. All with lovely gifts, most had some food items (Nibbit crisps still not available in the UK, as is drop, the best liquorice in the world) and just about all of that has gone. My sister in law sent me something that will keep me going for a little longer. She sent me these wonderful quilting fabrics with traditional images. Not sure what I will do with them yet though. I might have to trawl the blogs of fellow Dutch crafters for some inspiration. 

I had some friends round for lunch today and they were raving about the soup I made. It was a vegetable soup which I always make on the same principle, based on a recipe I found in a Dutch cookery book from the 50's. They liked it so much that I thought I write it down for them. 

Vegetable soup

Dice and fry one onion.

Add chopped vegetables to choice. Today I chopped up 1 big leek, 2 big carrots, 1 broccoli and 1 parsnip. Fry for a couple of minutes. 

Add water to the level of the vegetables so that they are just covered. 

Add some vegetable bouillon powder (according to packet, I tend to measure my water with a jug so that I know how much I've added to the veg). 

Add 1 bay leaf with 2 cloves stuck in (to get them out easily)

Bring to the boil and leave to boil for about 15 minutes. Take out bay leaf with cloves.

Liquidise with hand blender or liquidiser. 

Isn't this just easy? 

Dutch Delights

Recently I discovered two albums of drawings that my dad did at school in the early 1940's. I think they are absolutely brilliant and I have decided to make them into postcards as a surprise for his birthday. I am working on his memoirs which I hope to have out soon (his big day is next week so it will have to be a belated gift!) and I might use one for the cover. Dad dutifully penned his life down, refusing to even look at a computer let alone use one, bless him. I just love this mouse and farmer!

As Mr Betsy is now working in our current home town I thought he would like to have a traditional Dutch meal, call me sentimental but every now and then I do long for what my mother put on my plate back home.... So I decided to serve him boiled potatoes, meatballs, apple sauce and salad. Really I don't think you can get any more Dutch than that. My mother gave me this beautiful book (Our Taste. What the Dutch eat and drink) for my birthday which lists the most popular Dutch products. 

Sure enough potatoes, apples and meatballs were listed but I was a little put off by this image (I am on the verge of becoming a vegetarian again).

My mother's recipe for apple sauce is still my favourite. For 4 servings peel and chop 4 apples (Gala are my favorite but I have even tried it with a mixture of Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths). Put in a pan and add a cup of water, 1 table spoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Bring to the boil for about 5 - 10 minutes or until soft; mash into a sauce. 

As I was preparing the meal, girl monkey was busy in the utility room. And look what a lovely arrangement she made. She used 12 egg cartons from the recycling box, laid them out with small stones in between and put a shell and 2 laundry pegs in them. It looked quite stunning on the floor. She told me tonight she wanted a studio too for her work! She hasn't even turned 6.......

It ain't much if it ain't Dutch

What a difference a day makes! Granted a few items have been shifted to another corner that desperately needs tidying up but I will not bore you with another picture of a sad looking corner in my house. I was so pleased with the result that I finished my distressed orange frame and found my little vintage Dutch flag to which I added  little collage of newspaper letters.  You've got to pat yourself on the back from time to time. I hope it will make Mr Betsy smile when he comes back tonight after a year of working many miles away (don't worry we had frequent visits so we will still recognise each other!)

As I had some orange paint left boy monkey and I did some stamping. As they are now school age and a bit big for doing foam puzzles on the floor I suggested a while back that we should get rid of the tattered animal foam box puzzle but obviously they didn't want to hear any of it. As I am very keen on recycling, reusing, customising, refurbishing I did feel I needed to give the object a longer life in our household. Mind you hardly ever will an object leave this house without it having been reinvented at least once. So our stamping exercise started out well. No doubt the shapes will find their way in a Kantha cushion at some point. I do hope to be able to get an image of it in the right place because I am still struggling with moving them around. Any tips anyone? This all feels very new but so much fun.....