I was going to post about our vacation, but we’ve had such a lovely summer weekend that I really want to savor those moments first.

:: boating

:: barbeque

 

:: relaxing

 

:: and swimming

 

In the channel in front of our house there is a coot nesting.

One chick peaking from under her wings.

There were three chicks under her wings, but I couldn’t get more than two in the picture.

One chick was very adventurous, exploring around her, testing the lily leaves for walking and splashing in the water. The mother was watching him carefully and the father was around too, yelling at me when I tried to come closer. Such a cute family!

We’re ready for a long hot summer!

Today was Queensday. Last year the weather was great, so we kind of hoped, maybe even foolishly expected to have a day like that again. We started at the flea market in Gouda, but I only bought two books (Jessica Fletcher, I love her). We went home very soon, because we were very cold and wet. We never even tried to see the enterntainment on the townsquare, since it’s always even colder and windier there.

The rest of the day we spent at home, reading, relaxing. Which is also good.

This is across the street. We live on a dike and as you can see, we have quite a view from our home. There will be some building going on next to that farm on the right, but because our home is build on the side of the dike, not on top of it, we won’t see much of it. From where I sit now (diningroom table) I can only see the top of that farm.
The sheep are on a field that will remain as it is. There is a road behind it and building will only be done behind that road.
We have been living here for almost three years now and I still feel very lucky to have this great view, both in front and at the back of our house. We look forward to the sheep wandering on the other side of the road again. It kind of marks the beginning of summer for us. The lambs are late this year, we don’t often see them this small on this field.
For Holland this is really extreme freedom. We live just outside Rotterdam, in the most crowded area of the country. There are more empty spaces like this, but not close to the city, which is necessary for dh’s IT-bussiness. He has most of his clients in Rotterdam and can reach them within 15 minutes or half an hour (depending on the trafficjams).
We have been moving around quite a bit (this is our fifth home) but I think we will stay here at least until we retire…