Our storks

We have a pair of storks in the village. Each year, they fly from the south of Europe back to us and start to breed. The whole community is always on the lookout for their arrival.
This year they already where here in February. There must be eggs in the nest by now.

Since they are in a field and therefor a little bit hard to photograph, I asked Mark to use his camera. It was so sunny today, so a perfect time to try.

The storks share their field with some horses.

I wish you a happy Easter. We will be in Gran Canaria, on sunday, for our holliday.

There will be no blogging for 2 weeks. I'm going to miss the internet, and my sewing, but hey, you have to make some sacrifices sometimes, don't you.

Ria

If it doesn't come naturally ...

When Pelle became 2, he started at the 'peuterschool', the playgroup for toddlers. And he made some wonderful things there. I have them displayed on one of the doors in our hallway. I think his teacher is very creative and allways comes up with nice ideas.
There's just one difficulty: Pelle DOES NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING CREATIVE WHATSOEVER. No painting, cutting, drawing, playing with clay. So the things you see on the picture are for the most part made with the aid of the teacher or assistant.





I have to admit that this is not what I dreamed of. In my ideal world, the two of us are sitting behind the table and making all kinds of nice artwork. That has not happened yet. So far, I don't even know if Pelle is left- or righthanded, because he barly holds a pencil or brush.
And it also confronts me with a dillema. Should I wait patiently and jump to the occaision when Pelle shows any signs of being interested, or should I take more initative myself and set aside a fixed creative time each day, to spark a dormant area?
Can I stimulate him? And if so, how? Or should I stick to the adagium: If it doensn't come naturally leave it?
I think this will be a recurring theme all through his childhood. I hope I will find a good modus for it.
So I stay expirimenting. This is a bus I draw on his request.

Oh boy, no people behind the windows, only puppets ("poppetjes"). I guess I have to practise my skills, too.

Some challenges

I thought it was a nice idea to sew a slip-over for Pelle (at least that's how we call it here in the Netherlands). Something I can easily fit over a T-shirt, when the wheather is warmer but not to hot. So I selected a pattern in one of the Ottobre magazines (4-2005, # 6) and started sewing, the last weekend. I also incorporated one of the Little Fish caracters. As I was fitting the slipover onto Pelle it turned out way to small. So I had to change everthing. Bah! I widened the side by sewing in two yellow strokes of 4 cm. each, deepened the armpits (had to remove the yellow binding) and the neck. So it took me so much longer to finish. I wouldn't have gone to so much effort if not for the snail, wich turned out so good and immediately spoke to Pelle. So here we are.

Accompanied by a stripy T-shirt with a hood. I had to play with a T-shirt pattern from Ottobre, because in the issues I have, there's no ready to make hooded T. So I had to experiment and redo the neck, because my first try was to small (or Pelle's head to big). But now it all fits and I have 2 adjusted patterns I can use for some time, I hope.

I'm also expirimenting with a different camera, but have not quite come to grips with it. I still think my pictures should be sharper. Will keep trying.

This one is rather nice, I think. He's wearing the blue pants I made him some time ago. I still think they're missing a few pockets, but alla.

And now it's off to sit in the sun. Love that!

Going to school

In July, Pelle turns 4. He has to go to school in August, after the summer hollidays. So the past few weeks, we visited a couple of schools in the village (there are 7! here, but we brought it down to 3). And now we have decided. Not the large school in our own street, as we fear that Pelle will drown in there, but a small one across the main street. I love the building, as it has written SCHOOL all over it, and it looks so romantic.

But of course the inside is more important. And the inside spoke to us in caring voices. In a warm atmosphere. We were guided by a 12-years old boy who was not the witty, wellspoken intelectual who is the showcase student. No, this was a shy, vulnarable boy who was given a chanche to learn how to interact with people he didn’t know. He immideately stole my heart.
And this is what I want my school to offer to my child: a chance to encounter difficult situations while concerned. (I later learned the head of the school watched us, briefly, and thought it went well).
Off course I want Pelle to learn to read and write, calculate, to learn the world around him.
But more than that, I want him to learn how to deal with difficulties. Because life is not always easy. And that’s not bad, that’s just the way it is. You can’t always be happy. Pelle will encounter sadness and grief, unhappiness and sorrow. That’s the fullness of life. I hope he will learn how to cope with it. Integrate it into his life and go on, more mature.
And I hope he will learn that even in bad times there’s love around. That there are always people who care. That he will receive and learns to give. That he can offer help when needed. That he learns how to care for others, too. Because that’s what lies in the heart of our humanity.

Learning to live takes a lifetime. I hope Pelle will love to learn, just like me.

Life in the village

What I love about reading blogs is the account of daily lives all over the world. I'm interested in womens lives all over the globe. And I really think the internet brings us more together. You can read in the paper about elections in Israel, the different parties involved etc., but it springs to life if someone writes about her own feelings concerning the politics in her land.
As I want this blog to be a mirror of what I want to read myself, I would like to tell you more about living in a village in Holland, once in a while.
After living in the western part of Holland for 11 years I went back to the green surroundings of my childhood. The forests, the pastures, the fields. The space and rest. And a great city nearby.
Our community counts more than 10.000 inhabitants and we very quikly settled down and became a part of it.

Easter is arriving here, too, and today I took some pictures of the windowshop of one of our bakeries. (We have two here).











Isn't this a wonderfull display? I so like the flowers and fabricchicken.
Eating bread is very important, if you life in Holland. Pelle eats 4-6 slices each day, at breakfast and lunch. Or sometimes a krentebol , a bun with raisins. I myself like it with butter and cheese.
Yummy.



And we seem to grow off it. (Dutch people are some of the tallest in the world).

Hoping you had a good lunch too,

Ria.