MOVED

This is the last post for this blog. 

All new post will be written down here:

http://twotreesblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Annemiek

Dutch Plums

My brother has an orchard and is one of the top 10 plum growers in the Netherlands. Last week they started picking the first plums of this years harvest.

This year he will be one of the selected sellers by GIJS, they select the best of Dutch fresh fruit, vegetable, dairy, ... suppliers. The website promotes their wares which are sold through the supermarket chain named PLUS in the Netherlands. They already came to interview him and take pictures, but his profile is not online yet.

Anyway of you see plums in the PLUS supermarket with this card on the crate you know they come from my brothers orchard :-)

Looking for something to bake with plums, there's several recipes on my blog, just type plum in the google search bar which you find on the right hand side of this blog and you will find them all.

Remembering Max

Max went missing on Monday the 27th of June. For days we searched, called and handed posted flyers in the whole neighborhood, put them up in shops and put pictures on lost and found animal websites. Yesterday our neighbor was working in the garden and did a sad discovery, Max had been lying there all along. Several times I had had the urge to look there, but thought it would look strange if I was looking in the neighbors bushes. Maybe it's better that I did not find him, maybe it would have been, than we might have been able to bury him somewhere else, at my parents place where he was from. Now the neighbor buried him there as he was to far gone to move. I have not seen him, my hubby had a quick peek and I asked the neighbor for Max's collar so we would be sure. Don't know why I asked, I guess because I somewhere hoped it would be a different blue collar from a different grey cat.

I never felt so sad after loosing a pet, others died of old age, but little Max was only 14 months old. He had been born the 22th of April with 4 sisters and brothers behind the pig stall of my parents's neighbors. His mum is the neighbors cat, but they were happy to find new places for the kittens, so my mum took care of 3 and I took 2 home with me on Sunday the 13th of June 2010

We named them Max and Sientje.

Our two older cats did not much like these lively youngsters, but it did get a bit better and once I found them all on the bed together, a rare occasion.

It was so cute to see Sientje trying to connect with Sam and Mol when Max was still alive, 

now it's just heart breaking.

-------

These are the things I want to remember about Max, in random order:

he loved water, he had to have a drink from the bathroom tab the last few months 

and was utterly fascinated by it

he would come and wonder at the washing machine when I was there to switch it on

he was fascinated by the ice on our pond

he was always happy, even after 5 visits to the vet in a months time he was not cross with me for always taking him there and having to give him tablets

he would always come sort of skipping home on his long legs when you called, 

we nicknamed him long shanks for a while

he would be waiting behind the scullery door in the morning, were he slept with his sis

in the evenings he would be waiting to be fed and than go to bed, 

if it took longer than expected he wouldn't start meowing,

but just go outdoors and than be back when I called him

he would lean against your hand when you would pet him, sometimes nearly falling over

he loved chasing flies and eating them

when we stepped from the shower Max would go in to drink the water

he was afraid of cars and would often still choose the backdoor even if we went in through the frontdoor

he had his own favorite chair, of which I don't even have a picture of him in it

he loved to bite your fingers and nose

he would lie and watch with his front paws crossed at the world

he loved playing with his sis and she with him

if you woke him from sleep his eyes would open in a special way

he would sometime sleep with the tip of his tongue sticking from his mouth

he would follow me often from the house to the atelier and sleep near where I worked

he would purr at the slightest attention and could "type" like the best

he loved to play with feathers or little ball shaped plants he had found outside

when we came home by car often he had been waiting under the hedge beside the parking

when it was hot he found himself a place in the shade under the lavender 

or would lay with his belly flat on the cool tiled floor

he would talk to flies, bees and birds

he was patient and would hardly ever meow, or else very softly, 

like when we took him and his sis in the car to stay at my parents house

he was just absolutely cute, sweet and funny

he was curious, full of life and happiness

Below is the last picture I took on the 1st of June, he had curled up beside the garden table were I was taking pictures of some jewellery. It is hard to believe he is not going with us to our new house, where ever that may be. The last thing I remember is him pressing his paw against the door to open it, to go out with hubby who was leaving for the train.

Notre petit copain, you are dearly missed and you will always have a place in our heart. 

Friday Find - Spoons

For a while I've had somewhere lurking in the back of my mind the idea to do something with spoons. When I came across this shop I was convinced, I am right, there is more to spoons.

KADO KADO

A while ago a fellow crafter, Lief Van Rosendaal asked me if I would like to participate in a temporary shop near Antwerp in October. Of course I would :-) I have just finished designing the flyer for this event.

The location is an old train station, so we named our shop KADO KADO, it has the rhythm of a train and KADO means present in Dutch.

The link to the facebook page is not yet the nice short version, as we need 25 fans first, so feel free to like this page so we can change that soon. Thanks!

Straw Bale Houses

Last Saturday I went with my hubby to a course and workshop about straw bale houses organised by Casa Calida. As we are looking to move we want to keep all options open and had come across this affordable method for a new built home.

Each straw house has a window of proof,
a large one in this case.

We learned that:

• mice don't like these houses, as the straw is mostly cellulose, which they don't eat. It too tightly packed and enclosed for them to built homes in.
• straw houses breath, they take in extra moisture if it is too damp and evaporate this dampness once it gets to dry. So very nice air inside these houses :-)
• you need little heating, a large house can be heated with 6kW wood burner
• you can do a lot of the building work yourself
• your house can be spacious, with large windows and mezzanines, last are good for air circulation
• it is strong, some houses dating back from 1914 or so are still around and in good condition

Want to see what a straw house looks like? Have a look here. You see there is no typical straw house. But the basics are more or less the same everywhere, stacking straw and sealing it with loam:

So after a day looking at straw bale houses and getting to grips with the basic building techniques, we were convinced, now all we have to do is find a bit of land to built it on ...... and make our wishlist:

• an open plan kitchen with an AGA or similar heat storage cooker, this will give a nice background heat, besides great food
• an open plan living/dining room with a Bullerjan woodstove, the smallest Bullerjan is enough to heat the hole house :-)
• lots of large windows, facing south
• sun-heated water
• a warm bathroom, so if need be (electric) underfloor heating in the bathroom
• a mezzanine
• a windmill to make electricity
• lots of room for books
• open bicycle storage, always ready to go
• large light atelier
• large garden with room for vegetables, fruit, chickens, ...
• a special window of proof
• outside is clad with a mix of wood and a natural chalk-mixture
• straw in the floors and roof too, maximum natural insulation!

Happy Stats

Another week passed, do not know where the hours went, it was over in a jiffy.

But now time for some happy stats.

• Going on a workshop learning about straw bale houses, how to built one and finish it with a layer of loam.
• Seeing a full rainbow and start of a double.
• Firing the kiln with many custom orders and all coming out just perfect.
• Listing many new items in my etsy shop.
• Seeing a hummingbird hawk-moth, rare site in our parts of the world.
• A new handmade cat collar for each of our cats.
• Bug ring in the post from Renathe, so special. I'll wear it today.

How was your week? Hope you found lots to smile about too.