DELFT visit and Akkrum too

On Easter Monday 9th April 2012 we flew to Amsterdam from Luton on Easyjet and took a train to Akkrum to visit my sister in Friesland. Our eventual destination was Delft as above.

After a 2.5 hour train journey through pouring rain we arrived at Akkrum and were met by my younger- well of the two that is, she's a bit older than me- sister very wet standing at the platform! We went exploring and lots of chatting and a lovely lunch and then the girls were soon messing about...

Then it was also FAMILY PHOTO time!!! Voila.

Yep sis is tallest and Miss E is taller than her mum these days... Miss Y still has some catching up to do.

Better sitting down, isn't it?

And then of course it all got very silly.

It was a long and crowded journey back on the train to Schiphol and then a taxi to Delft...

Fuzzy pictures due to poor light and tiredness? The train was so crowded they were telling people NOT to board this one and we sat in the passage way outside the main carriages for most of the way. It was South of Hilversum before we got a comfy seat.

Next morning this was breakfast in our hotel at # 3 Breestraat: a glorious view of a canal with many busy cyclists pedalling past the window and over the bridge.

There ! A cyclist as well as the bread delivery van. Polder Broodjes.

View from our bedroom.Looking to the right

And looking to the left. The OUDE DELFT is the road and the canal name.

On the main market square we spotted a new cheese shop.

After enjoying our'' broodje haring met uitjes'' at the fishmonger on the corner as well as some delicious smoked salmon we rounded off our lunch with POFFERTJES!

These are small puffy pancakes for the uninitiated English and other readers.

This photo also shows the PIET VONK cycle shop in the background where we bought my orange bicycle in 2008. Alas it was closed and Miss Y had wanted to buy a bell and some other accessories for her English bike.

Happily waiting you see? Having a lovely relaxing time.

Yep I was there too.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm Miss E can't wait.

Here they are in all gloriousness, don't they make your mouth water?

It was actually quite a nice day, not warm but with some sunny spells, which don't seem to show.

I went for a long walk to an area by the Delft Zuid station.... 2 hours of walking to work off the poffertjes.

Here's Miss E at the window of our bedroom. I called and we posed this one.

View along the OUDE DELFT.

We had dinner in a restaurant on the market square and it was so delicious we ate it before photographing it. My steak with forest fruits and red wine gravy was delicious and came with herbed and seemingly mildly curried balls of mash? The girls had KING burgers which were huge and delicious, much beef, bacon, cheese and salad was included, not to mention the thick cut chips. Then Miss Y had this chocolate cheesecake desert which came with raspberry custard sauce. Only it wasn't really a chocolate cheesecake, it was ordinary cheesecake with a solid dark bitter chocolate ''hat'' on it. Oh and the obligatory raspberry coulis of course...

That ended our Tuesday in town, we then had a terrific giggly time back at the hotel in our shared room. The only sad point in the day was to find that my beloved wool shop on the Brabantse Turfmarkt had GONE. I still have much yarn from there in my attic.

I did find some crochet magazines and purchased the three I quite liked. More of this later.

Wednesday was our ADVENTURE day where we were going to be travelling for most of the day to go see paintings by Ton Schulten in OOTMARSUM.

Bumbling day

Today is a kind-of-a bumbling day I have decided. Alas to bumble is not in my Concise Oxford Dictionary so I will attempt to explain. Quiet contemplative and very spontaneous in terms of activities. Play nice music in the background and make a few things and/or bake or/ and mop a few floors and then daydream with a cup of tea followed by some crochety-playtime?

If and it IS a BIG IF at the moment: I can work out HOW to do it( not terribly teccie IT minded)

I am going to load the above crocheted fingerless gloves pattern onto Ravelry as a free download.

In case you may be interested I will post the link in a following post and you'll need : 2 balls of DK wool and 1 ball of Hummingbird 4 ply from Artesano which is a lovely soft 100% alpaca. And a 4mm or 4.5mm hook depending on size required. Mine are very popular with both daughters as well as myself- for dog-walking see later.

Had some lovely hookey-playtime the other day and the above was some of it. And guess what??

It'll become a pattern in ISSUE 6 of INSIDE CROCHET magazine!!! I'm remaking it in another yarn delivery of which I am awaiting eagerly so keep your fingers crossed that the postal strike

a. Doesn't happen and is resolved amicably between all parties.( yes I dream)

b. Is resolved very quickly after commencement

c. Excludes Oxfordshire

d. Has a trial run in North Wales and is then abolished. ( oops sorry to all in North Wales)

e. Results in Richard Branson setting up his own ''freepost'' delivery company...As a charity to all craft presons....

Ok I've gone mad. Must stop and arrange my thoughts in some kind of order.

Walked the dogs early today. Lucy came into her first season a few days ago now. Just BEFORE I realised this was happening I walked her in our local nature reserve in the afternoon. OH OH.
I am now PERSONA NON GRATA with all dog owners in the vicinity of this park.
The tall tales of bitches on heat ARE all true after all! It never hapened with Pippa so I doubted the veracity.
Dogs came a bounding up and sat adoring by her side, while she- o- daft- one rolled over to have her tummy licked! Poodle,alsation,labrador,schnauzer,westie, sheepdog it made no difference.
Neutered or not, all males came to pay homage. In fact one alsation was forcibly removed by his owner to walk home on a lead..... Only to dash miles across town and back to the park when his owner let him off once they were home! He came right back to Lucy's side.
WOW! If only I could attract such adoration? Actually, no thanks. I'd rather be crocheting or embroidering.... Not that anything happened, Lucy was on a lead and I was right there by her side. She started ''showing'' a few days later.
Back to the point: I have been walking them in a far field where there are no other dogs until today when I thought I'd walk them very early: before 9 am.

Lucy constantly stretching ahead, eager to be off-lead and impatient to explore.

Pippa slow and reluctant, plodding along. Often just sits for a while. If taken off the lead she simply watches us walk around the reserve and waits until we walk past on the way back to be picked up to go home....

My wrists will shortly be joining my ankles!!! My arms are stretched so much daily. Here I am under the centre of a willow tree.

No colour outside- I don't like ''white skies'' much! Give me BLUE any day!!!

Here to cheer me up is an image by TON SCHULTEN a famous contemporary DUTCH artist .

This is on my ''mood board'' from a calendar of a year ago. See more of his excellent colourful style here. And finally as promised here is one of the Joseph Murphy books I was on about the other day.

This is quite absorbing and excellent at lifting one's mood. When I am home alone all day it can be good to have a read now and then.

Have a GREAT bumbling day, I'll bumble some more and go play the piano and read....

See you soon.

Post Script: TON SCHULTEN -For more colourful inspiration see his ''webwinkel'' at the link above.AAAh,OOOOH,

FABULOUS COLOURS!!!