One month!

Who'd believe it's one month already! We are still adjusting to the long daylight hours, kids going to bed around 9pm, Mara included. Though we don't rise till at least 8, so not so bad I guess. Although it does mean we are up till midnight, getting some child free time (blog time in this case).

Two more weeks of school holidays and then it'll be settling into a new routine.

This last week, we've been to Tante (Aunty) Letty's 70th birthday and Oom (Uncle) Jan's 60th birthday. Fortunately nice weather and we enjoyed a typical dutch dinner- chicken satay and lots of mayonaise type salads. It seemed like there were more bikes there than people! This pic I took at around 7pm, so bright still.

And of course, the biggest news! Mara has taken her first steps! Though she still prefers the hands and feet method of getting around. We are on our way! The film clip I've added is the first'ish steps and we missed the 3 big steps to her big sister! ........see how adding the film goes............


We've been spending some time with Jens and Nils (the kids' cousins), both at their place, at ours and at an indoor playcentre......just like Maze Mania (my favourite!).

Fortunately the weather has cooled a bit and us tropical bodies now have a jacket/scarf on to ride our bikes. What will we be like in Winter? It's good to get a bit of bike riding in now that we have all the bike seats organised. It's about a 5km ride to De Lier, to see Piet and Rieki and a little less to Sito and Jo's place.

There is a big water flowerboat parade on this weekend through the canals in the Westland here. That is in the villages between Delft and Maasland and De Lier etc. Lots of boats get all decorated, so we will be finding a pos at Oom Carel's place where they pass. Then it is party week in De Lier, with lots of activities and a mini show in the village. Hopefully we'll get to see some when we get back from Just's Oom Jan's farm in France where we are heading this Monday. An 8 hour drive- not looking forward to that.

Will report more when we are back from France!

Duinwandeling / Hiking in the dunes

Vandaag zijn we een paar uur wezen wandelen in de duinen in Hoek van Holland. Natuurcafé en klimaatcentrum De Zeetoren organiseerde een duinstruintocht voor kinderen van 6-12. Flink rondje wandelen en de gids liet steeds van alles zien over de natuur in het duin: van schelpen en slakkenhuizen tot St Janskruid en zijn rupsen. Maar het allerleukste was natuurlijk praten over- en bestuderen van konijnenpoep! Lekker met een vergrootglas naar konijnenkeutels kijken.

Finn wilde van de gids weten of er daar ook slangen waren. Nee hoor, Finn, al zijn er elders in Nederland wel adders en brilslangen. En Kirsten zag warempel nog een konijntje uit de struiken komen.

Gauw terug voor limonade.

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Today we went hiking in the dunes of Hoek van Holland for a few hours. Cafe and climate extension centre De Zeetoren (Dutch website here) organised a walk for 6-12yo. It was quite a hike and the guide pointed out lots of interesting nature facts about the dunes, from the shells and snails to the St John's wort plants and their catepillars. Of course the best bit was studying the rabbit poo! Wow, you should see it through the magnifying glass!

Finn asked the guide if there were any snakes. Nope, Finn, not here, but there are elsewhere in the Netherlands, Adders and Glasses snakes (sort of cobra ones). And Kirsten was sure she saw another rabbit coming out of the grass!

Soon enough we were back for a cup of cordial.

Blog started.

Not-so-early adopter, I know, but with a recent number of small personal revelations, including the iPod touch in the home wifi network, I'm now re-attaching to the modern world. Having said that: part of me still feels somewhat like Dylan Moran as he expresses at the start of this interview.

So to write down (and share) some of what we see, do and find on our travels, this blog.