Week 46

Week 46

Walking

Featuring Zoey, park benches and late Autumn colours......and a strong wind warning on Sunday - watch out for falling branches!

I've always been intrigued by the changing colours of the Heath area over the road from us.

I dug up a couple of old photos.

The Pieterpad

thinking of doing this in my spare time....(ha!).

The Pieterpad is a long distance walking route in the Netherlands. The trail runs 492 kilometres (306 mi) from Pieterburen, in the northern part of Groningen, south through the eastern part of the Netherlands to end just south of Maastricht, on the top of Mount Saint Peter (St Pietersberg), at a height of 109 metres (358 ft). The Pieterpad is one of the official Long Distance Paths in the Netherlands (Lange Afstand Wandelpad Nummer 9) and by far the most popular of its long distance walking routes. It is possible to walk the route in either direction, and throughout the year. It is well signposted, and is well served by public transport and accommodation throughout its length. The official guide book is in two volumes, Pieterburen-Vorden and Vorden-Maastricht.[1] A dedicated website (in Dutch) also gives updated accommodation details.[2] Although the walking is always easy and never remote, it is a varied and often beautiful walk, passing through woods, polders, heathland, and numerous small Dutch villages.

More on the Deltaworks

This set of locks has been declared a National Monument. It was built as one of the first parts of the Deltaworks, between 1956 and 1970, as a result of the flood disaster of 1953. I Mentioned the Deltaworks last week. This is the 2nd "real" news story in 2 weeks - at the same time they are showing a Dutch Mini-Series drama about the "next" time the dykes break. Episode 2 saw 25,000 people dead. ( I suppose the irony is, in the TV drama, the Deltaworks didn't save the day as intended).

Around the Farm.....

The clients are working on a project to prepare 350 "Christmas Gifts" for the members of one of the churches in Bakkeveen. As the deadline approaches, Janny's Mum is even helping...

One of the Church members brought back some "angels" from Kenya. These are extremely well-made handcraft objects that will form part of the "package". Our main work is in making a "Christmas Tree" and assembly of Fair Trade products onto a tray.

Picking up Lucas, around 0800hrs.... and minus 1

On Sinterklaas

A character based on Saint Nicholas (for whatever reason) comes along on the 5th of December (?) to distribute gifts to the children. Traditionally, he has a few helpers, all known as Zwart Piet (Black Pete). What could possibly be wrong with that? The kids love it. The role players love it - it's for the kids, after all. But no, someone (of colour and in a political role) decided that it represented slavery in some way. In more than 20 years of watching the fun - I have a brother in law who does a pretty good Sinterklaas and nieces who spend a lot of time dressing and making up as Zwart Piet - and not once did I think of slavery. I'm sure I thought of the Moors at one stage but as equals and not slaves - but I'm not even sure they ever ventured this far north. So, in a world-gone-mad form of "Political Correctness", Zwart Piet is under pressure. Many people are protesting that he should remain as part of the tradition - and some are only half doing the make-up - to give the "sooty" effect after he has been down the chimney!

In any case, many of the Sinterklaas "arrivals" are done by boat..... this one in Gorredijk.

My photo, a few days later

Photos on the day from a news-in-Gorredijk website...

Our Man in Hong Kong

Did some photo shoots with a Chinese photographer,  "just for the portfolio"

and this week off to........

Macau