<-- Joris, our genuine Frisian stabyhoun (one of the two Frisian internationally ackowledged dog races)
For the first time since weeks the sun is showing herself, and at about twelve we Janine and I decide to benefit from it. The hiding sun however hadn’t been accompanied by low temperatures, yesterday’s TV weatherforecast announced that when the weather kept on like it was, we would “enjoy” the warmest January ever registered in the Netherlands!
Our son prefers to play computergames, but halas! His parents find it better that he joins us for a walk. Our dog Joris of course agrees. We are too lazy to do the 45-minutes walk to our destination, the “Koekoekspaad” a small road through the fields and meadows in the area and go by car. After thus having reduced the walking time to five minutes, we change the warmth and comfort of the car (Ford Focus) for the cold strong wind which I estimate to be around 5 Beaufort. The light, the sky and the landscape compensate amply for it. I don’t know if 9-year old Menno also notices these enjoyments, but anyway he is surrounded by it, and is trying to explain to us several techniques and methods of how to get at certain levels of his now favourite computer games. He is disappointed when a small heap along the path isn’t an owl-ball like he hoped it would be, but an ordinary dog’s excrement. Janine and I discuss several good plans to organise things better in our house: the mail, the bills, etc. I put my cold hand next to hers in her jack pocket, because I hate these discussion topics on an occasion like this. She can’t, however, help to make “useful” remarks and says that my cold hands are caused by my smoking, which is a bad habit indeed. I replied that during the two years I didn’t smoke my hands were also cold. I can’t remember what her answer was. What a different kind of conversations did we have when we just got to know each other and when touching each other’s hands filled us with warm feelings of enjoyment and thrill! (She was also a smoker, then). Anyway, Joris found a sheep, luckily on the other side of the ditch along the path, who didn’t take the effort to rise when he passed and “got punished” by loud barking which she arrogantly ignored. Joris is a genuine swim-dog and for a moment I worried that maybe he would jump into the ditch, but probably even he found it a bit too cold I think. During the walk I made some pictures with my mobilephone. This is really a beautiful place to walk. On the other side of the narrow canal an area is visible, though not accessible, which looks exactly the same way as in the times before the Romans had their empire up to the Rhine river. It’s a paradise and we told Menno that there were most certainly also owls, but that owls are sleeping during the day. Through the leafless branches we could see ochre cane fields of more than three meters high.
Unfortunately more people are attracted to the place so the more time went on, the more crowded it got with walkers (with and without dogs), joggers and cyclists, groups that don’t live in harmony and sometimes get irritated by each other’s presence. On our way back we were overhauled by a cyclist in Tour-de-France outfit. He was irritated by Joris although the animal walked in the grass along the pavement, and shouted to me in the local dialect: “Hûn beethâlde!” ( keep dog online!) but before I could answer he was already 50 meters further. I could imagine that he was irritated by anything that possibly could hinder the steady movements of his legs, but on the other hand I found that this was one of the very few paths in the area where loose dogs were allowed and that he could bike anywhere he would like. We also came across, you won’t believe it, a small engine-driven chariot pulled by six huskies (I think that was the race)! They got trained by a member of a club keeping and training sledding-hounds, but the sledding was imitated by the chariot. I was allowed to take a picture, while our dog was already inside the car. The dogs were really beautiful and we admired their speed : at first we met them half way, they went the other direction until the small village at the end of the path which we didn’t reach, then just before we were at our car again, they were there at the same time.
We drove home and Menno went to his school friend.
Our son prefers to play computergames, but halas! His parents find it better that he joins us for a walk. Our dog Joris of course agrees. We are too lazy to do the 45-minutes walk to our destination, the “Koekoekspaad” a small road through the fields and meadows in the area and go by car. After thus having reduced the walking time to five minutes, we change the warmth and comfort of the car (Ford Focus) for the cold strong wind which I estimate to be around 5 Beaufort. The light, the sky and the landscape compensate amply for it. I don’t know if 9-year old Menno also notices these enjoyments, but anyway he is surrounded by it, and is trying to explain to us several techniques and methods of how to get at certain levels of his now favourite computer games. He is disappointed when a small heap along the path isn’t an owl-ball like he hoped it would be, but an ordinary dog’s excrement. Janine and I discuss several good plans to organise things better in our house: the mail, the bills, etc. I put my cold hand next to hers in her jack pocket, because I hate these discussion topics on an occasion like this. She can’t, however, help to make “useful” remarks and says that my cold hands are caused by my smoking, which is a bad habit indeed. I replied that during the two years I didn’t smoke my hands were also cold. I can’t remember what her answer was. What a different kind of conversations did we have when we just got to know each other and when touching each other’s hands filled us with warm feelings of enjoyment and thrill! (She was also a smoker, then). Anyway, Joris found a sheep, luckily on the other side of the ditch along the path, who didn’t take the effort to rise when he passed and “got punished” by loud barking which she arrogantly ignored. Joris is a genuine swim-dog and for a moment I worried that maybe he would jump into the ditch, but probably even he found it a bit too cold I think. During the walk I made some pictures with my mobilephone. This is really a beautiful place to walk. On the other side of the narrow canal an area is visible, though not accessible, which looks exactly the same way as in the times before the Romans had their empire up to the Rhine river. It’s a paradise and we told Menno that there were most certainly also owls, but that owls are sleeping during the day. Through the leafless branches we could see ochre cane fields of more than three meters high.
Unfortunately more people are attracted to the place so the more time went on, the more crowded it got with walkers (with and without dogs), joggers and cyclists, groups that don’t live in harmony and sometimes get irritated by each other’s presence. On our way back we were overhauled by a cyclist in Tour-de-France outfit. He was irritated by Joris although the animal walked in the grass along the pavement, and shouted to me in the local dialect: “Hûn beethâlde!” ( keep dog online!) but before I could answer he was already 50 meters further. I could imagine that he was irritated by anything that possibly could hinder the steady movements of his legs, but on the other hand I found that this was one of the very few paths in the area where loose dogs were allowed and that he could bike anywhere he would like. We also came across, you won’t believe it, a small engine-driven chariot pulled by six huskies (I think that was the race)! They got trained by a member of a club keeping and training sledding-hounds, but the sledding was imitated by the chariot. I was allowed to take a picture, while our dog was already inside the car. The dogs were really beautiful and we admired their speed : at first we met them half way, they went the other direction until the small village at the end of the path which we didn’t reach, then just before we were at our car again, they were there at the same time.
We drove home and Menno went to his school friend.
2 comments:
I like your photos. You asked about posting family photos online. I also hesitated to do this for awhile. Since many of our relatives live all over the USA and Canada, posting photos on my blog is one way they can keep up with my family's growth. They do the same thing, so I can see how my nieces and nephews are doing, even though it's often months or years between visits. Blogs and Internet photos have been good for us.
Thank you for understanding, Evie. We have our family all living in the Netherlands. Despite its plural (Netherlands) it's only a very small country so we are only separated a couple of hours driving or by train. We Dutch are often complaining about distances because we are so used that everything is nearby. Also in America Internet is far more usual than it is here, especially many people above 50 have no e-mail or Internet. So many of us feel it as a "Big Brother-is-watching-you"-device, like a camera so to say.
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