We have been here now for nearly 14 months apart from my 1 month in NZ.

It is truly autumn and the temperature outside was 4.6 this morning – I know this because Best Beloved bought a gadget while he was in Denmark which has a unit outside which tells us the outside temperature – fortunately the information displays on a gadget inside the house.

We live on the yellow brick road at present – because it is gently snowing yellow leaves from the huge tree beside our house. The tree still has lots of leaves so it will be a yellow brick road for some time yet. When we arrived here at the end of February I had noticed that armies of men (well an army of 4 or so men) were picking up rubbish and dog shit in the park that we look out to from the windows of our house. I thought it was because they needed to keep the dog shit off the ground because they have many bulbs in the ground and dog shit is not good for these and that they only did it in the spring. But I think they may do it all year round – it is just that the huge tree and all its foliage stopped us from seeing the activity on the grounds during the summer – now the leaves have dropped sufficiently for us to see them at work once more and it is definitely not spring.

I had 4 weeks in NZ in July/August. Jet lag hit me big time, maybe attached to being home again and maybe all that rain in Auckland maybe exhaustion from speaking where I have spent the last months only speaking with Best Beloved and the odd shop assistant and occasionally skyping family and friends.

I had nearly forgotten how bad the weather can be. I didn’t sleep a full night in my first 11 nights, so I was not safe driving anywhere as was very wobbly – my poor daughter was the taxi when she could. The doctor was helpful and I did get to sleep in the end, and then I visited Best Beloveds mum in Kaitaia and his brother in Cambridge and a few people in Auckland. Stupidly I had also made a committement to creating a piece for the Alpaca Expo – I had to complete that and post it before I left New Zealand, the beautiful yarn was waiting for me when I arrived in NZ.  I knitted in bed at 2am, and then I unpicked it during the day, and then I knitted again during the night. it was torture but the dress was okay in the end. Next year when I come home – I will not have any committments to create anything for anyone and I will see everyone.

When I returned to the Netherlands  I had 2 weeks to complete a jacket for WoolOn – for the Alexandra Blossom festival. So I knitted a huge jacket and felted it. My very first felted piece.

We have had some of my Danish family here for a week – they stayed in Den Helder in the north of the Netherlands, and we visited them and they visited us here in Haarlem. It was great – but my Danish is so rubbish and I have to do something about that.

Then believe it or not Best Beloved and I had 12 marvellous days in Denmark, we went everywhere and had a fantastic time. My Danish family were amazing and gave us a wonderful time. Some of you will have heard the story that John said 44 years ago that we would come to Denmark together and he has been true to his word – that is 44 years later we finally went together to Denmark and he loved it. Mind you we were spoilt rotten.

We have had visitors from NZ. Best Beloved went with them on a bus tour and on a candlelight dinner on the canals of Amsterdam and to Den Haag to the M. C. Escher exhibition. Best Beloved rang from the clog factory – to say would I go out with him if he bought himself some wooden clogs – what could I say? But he didn’t actually buy any.

You may as well know – that Best Beloved is probably the most photographed non Dutchman in the Netherlands. He is out with his beard, hat, pipe and his bicycle and he is constantly photographed. What would all those tourists do if they found out he was Ngapuhi from the Far North of NZ. We were in Zaanse Schans – lots of things Dutch including windmills, a very touristy spot – which is why we were there – and there they all were – a Japanese tour group all in a row waiting for BB to ride by the windmill so they could get that authentic picture with the windmill in the background and the Ngapuhi Dutchman riding by. Clearly someone spotted him coming and they all stood with cameras raised to get that special picture. And he was going to add clogs to the picture – he would end up with writers cramp as they will ask him to sign cards in the future. Maybe we could make money out of him walking around all the tourist places? – people posing with a real dutchman?????

I have now also been to the M.C. Escher exhibition in Den Haag, and we have attended a monument weekend in Haarlem – where all the monumental house were open and entry was free for the weekend, and the big town square had a huge mediaeval market and activities (the stories you will have to wait for), and a mad boat day with the biggest flea market along the Spaarne. We have attended a Jazz festival, been to the Keukenhof Gardens (famous Dutch spring gardens, museums, a bit of Germany, Switzerland and lots of places here in the Netherlands. We have been to the very south of the Netherlands in Maastricht and to the very north of the Netherlands in Den Helder and cycling on the island of Texel.

A bit of fine madness was the hiring of a RIB (rubber inflatable boat) and travelling the canals of Haarlem – they did supply a map of the canal routes and said you could go here or you could go that way – we went that way. They didn’t tell us that all 6 of us including two 6 foot 4 inch males had to lie horizontally in this RIB to negotiate under 2 bridges. The water was so high that we could not be more than an inch or two above the boat edge. Best Beloved was steering at the back and me at the front with my eyes just over the boat -  saying move left, move right – straight on – as he couldn’t see a thing from the back. A bit of bizarre Dutch humour.

We have also bought a piece of summer truffle – and created a pasta dish with it – and it was sublime. I don’t remember the weight of it – but it cost us about 20 NZ dollars – for a piece half the size of an egg, but it was out of this world. We found a video of Antonio Carluccio cooking – summer truffle and we used his recipe and it was worth every cent that we paid for the truffle.

And to top it all off I have had 10 wonderful days of antibiotics – and I am now feeling so much better and I am creating stuff once more and I will write stories again.

So that is a bit of our year – and the stories will come.

Then believe it or not, Best Beloved and I had 12 marvellous days in Denmark, we went everywhere, we were taken everywhere,  and had such a fantastic time.

My Danish family were amazing and gave us a holiday to remember. Some of you will have heard the story that Best Beloved said 44 years ago that we would come to Denmark together, and he has been true to his word – that is 44 years later we finally went together to Denmark and he loved it. Mind you we were spoilt rotten.

We had an overnight train journey to Copenhagen, 1 1/2 days in Copenhagen, 3 days in the north of Jutland, and days in and around Vejle. What a joy it was – speaking and eating and laughing and enjoying the family I do not know nearly well enough. Speaking really means trying to speak in Danish – I did okay, and they were so supportive, all of them. Best Beloved meandered along happily, smoking his pipe and enjoying what he had realistically never expected to see and enjoy.

Much to add – much to say, and much to celebrate.

Danish open sandwiches, Gamle Dansk, the sea, the coast, the land, the birds, the petanque – they all seriously play petanque, and we did as well, Tivoli Gardens, Legoland (2 old kids we are), Den Gamle By, the Eagles, the shifting sand dunes, the buried church, the history, the stories, the family stories …… so much to add. We spent 3  nights in Frederikshavn in a hotel overlooking the harbour which was great, great view, great activity. From there we explored the north of Denmark, the stories will come later. We also spent a day in Ribe, a wonderful wonderful old town, and a very wet day in the Gamle By (the old town).

At the Gamle By I discovered, or rediscovered, the Danish shawl – and I have made 3 so far – just to see how they work. I have played with the shape and increases to see how I can modernise it as the original is wrapped around the body and tied at the front of the waist. It is not a simple triangle – but more of that later – oh and it has a really great edge.

As I said before we have also been to Tivoli, Legoland, driven through Brande (where my mother was born), and Stilling – where I was born and many other places. My father was born in Vejle.

We also drove through a sea of frogs. The saying – raining cats and dogs – well in Denmark it seems to rain frogs. We drove with along a gravel country road on a very very wet night  (yes a gravel road in Denmark) avoiding where possible the frogs, there seemed to be millions. You know that story that if the frogs die in the world – then the world is in trouble. Well in Denmark there is not a shortage of frogs.

and I will tell more of these stories.

And we laughed and laughed

We have had some of my Danish family here for a week – they stayed in Den Helder in the north of the Netherlands, and we visited them and they visited us here in Haarlem. We even took our bikes to Den Helder and across on the ferry to Texel for the day.

That was hard work – riding into the wind – but it was still a great day and a great week.

It was great – but my Danish is so rubbish and I have to do something about that.

lots more to come

Here we are in the Netherlands alone, together for New Years Eve 2008. Our first ever here, but our second in Europe as we spent New Years Eve in Switzerland in 2005 with our son.

We haven’t even partaken of schnapps or herrings – all the normal things that we would be doing in New Zealand on New Years Eve. Sounds odd if you are a New Zealander reading this – my family is Danish and our celebrations tend to be of the Danish persuasion whereever possible.

It has been a funny sort of day really and bitterly bitterly cold.

Fireworks are in full force everywhere, nothing namby pamby about this – every young person is out there letting off substantial crackers, rockets and the noise and the smell is incredible and constant.

We couldn’t walk the streets today (or most of the last week) for fear of being attacked by huge fireworks and today they have been continuous and this evening since darkness fell – at about 4pm there has simply been no let up. These youngsters are so hell bent on having a noisy time they do not discriminate – that is you are a bit aged, they will still let them off right by you, baby in pram – fair game, and these are humungous humungous fireworks. They leave holes in the ashphalt. You could wonder if there will be any left for the midnight hour. But somehow I believe they are rationing the fireworks so that at midnight it will still be extreme.

I just cannot imagine the cacophony that might occur at midnight.

Will keep you all posted.