Heen en Weer

Well, here's another post to show that nothing much has changed in this part of the world, except perhaps the weather.

Heen en weer is, by the way,  the Dutch expression for 'to and fro' or 'there and back' or however you like to say it, so this seems apt for my current situation. I will admit that in this last week I haven't spent long in Rotterdam. In fact, I was only there for the day on Friday to finish putting primer on the Vereeniging. It was incredibly hot, so I beat a hasty retreat to cooler climes as quickly as possible. I'll brave it again this week, although I fear my reception might be a bit too much cooler this time. We've had a visit from Francis, which has changed our scene quite dramatically. Gone is the heat, and I'm now shivering in 21 degrees. It's the contrast, you see.

Anyway, that aside, what's been going on in our world? Well, we actually ventured across the border into Belgium on Sunday for a whole day, and it was just marvellous. I belong to a Facebook group called Women on Barges and I've made some lovely friends there. One of them is a fellow boater we met with her husband on the Canal de Roubaix on the border between Belgium and France three years ago. These two have subsequently become special to us and whenever they are anywhere nearby, we try and get to see them. They were on their boat in Diksmuide to the south of Bruges. Diksmuide is a gorgeous small town, so after arriving at the marina, we all walked into the centre and had lunch at one of the cafés there. We had a fabulous time and lots of laughs.

The town is surprisingly pretty because it was terribly damaged during WWI and the current centre was re-built during the twenties and thirties in its original style. Now, a hundred years on, the 'new' buildings have acquired the patina of age and look genuinely historic. It really is a charming place. I've lifted these photos from Google. One is of the town square and the other is of the monuments to WWI that thousands come to visit every year.

Photo from

https://www.flandersfields.be/en/practical-info/diksmuide

Photo from

https://www.reisroutes.be/fietsroutes/westhoek/diksmuide-fietsen-door-de-ijzervallei/

There's also a gorgeous begijnhof. The béguines were communities of women who, although religious, were not closed like convents. They lived as individuals in community houses and dedicated their lives to God without withdrawing from the world. According to the Unesco website about béguinages, they were founded in the 13th century 'to meet their (the women's) spiritual and material needs'. In Flanders, they are generally composed of a collection of houses, churches, additional buildings and green spaces, and they can be found in many parts of the country. The one in Diksmuide is particularly pretty. I would guess it's been rebuilt a few times over the centuries, but it was a delightful reminder of these medieval women's role in society.

This is one of Koos's photos of the begijnhof. His focus was actually the crane, but you can see how attractive the houses were. They were accessed through an archway, which gave a lovely impression of a separate and cloistered area. The weather really was a bit grey and rainy, so these clouds were just as threatening as they look, and it rained shortly afterwards.

We did a circuitous walk back to the marina where our friends keep their boat, and on the way, Koos took some of his inimitable photos. These are his take on what we saw. I love them.

On Monday, I managed to finish painting the potdeksel/caprail/gunwale that I've debated in my previous posts and then yesterday, I was confined to quarters because Francis decided to blow my plans to smithereens. I'm just hoping the baby pigeon that was thrown out of the tree in my little garden has survived. His mum found him and the reunion was very touching. We watched her feeding him on the roof, but we don't know what happened after that. 

Let's hope Francis breezes out of our area and that life can get back to dry, sunny and warm again! The painting must go on.

Have a good week allemaal.