Autumn Apples and Halloween Ornaments
October 13, 2006 at 10:42 AM
by Ashleigh
Lizzie*Kate Best Witches
You know how people have those 'weekend cat blogging' or 'weekend dog blogging' events? At the rate that I post I should have 'weekend stitchedinholland blogging'.
The golden rule, if you read any article about how to attract visitors to your blog, is that you should post often. Sadly, I've failed ;)
This week has been chock-a-block (lovely saying, that!) with things we've done.
Last weekend Brad was away at a work function held here. They walked through the caves at Valkenburg. Brad says it wasn't so much walking, as crawling. I was alone with the kids for football on Saturday but we met a friend and had patat en frikandel for lunch.
On Sunday we did a nature walk at the 'groengebied' near us. I can't translate exactly what a 'groengebied' is - it literally means 'green area' but ours has a farm and the polder and lots of nice trees. It's more like a sort of wild park.
Then on Monday Brad found out he would be flying to the US for work. We quickly arranged for him to visit his sister and parents while he is there, thus (theoretically) killing three birds with one stone. He will be gone almost two weeks, in Seattle and then in Union, SC before returning home. He left yesterday and is safely in his hotel room where he has the luxury of a kingsize bed and no cat or kids to bother him at night, but the misery of no high-speed internet connection without paying $10 a day.
I had my first Dutch lesson, and although I speak fluently, I have an awful lot of grammatical errors in my speech. It's been interesting to learn the rules and to work out why I get quizzical looks from my audience sometimes when I speak. My Dutch teacher is very nice, but the lessons are gruelling. Basically I talk and he corrects me. I would have said before that 'hij corrigeert mij' but I've been told to say 'hij verbeterd mij' instead. Dutch speakers will know what I mean! After my lesson I felt very tired, just mentally exhausted! I'm determined to get this right and to be able to talk to my educational level instead of sounding like an uneducated buffoon.
On Wednesday I met Barbara at an apple farm. It was so fun that it really deserves it's own separate post, but see? This is what happens when you don't post every day ;) Her kids and mine had a great time. We plan to meet up in the autumn vacation for a day together. Hopefully we'll have more of a chance to talk and do handcrafts than we did on Wednesday watching our five kids play together, but we were blessed with beautiful weather, and a huge open plan playground with logs and apple crates for the kids to play on, in and around. What more could a handful of kids want?
Applepicking was great but now I have all these apples, and my fruit basket from the coop scheme came with about 2 kilos of apples in it too! So I get to look through all my recipes for anything containing apples. We've have apple pie and baked apples already. I'm thinking of apple cake to freeze, and this gorgeous cheesecake.
In crafting news, (don't I just sound like a newscaster!) I've been knitting, which I will talk about in a separate post, and my SBEBB Halloween exchange was received at it's destination so I can show you the picture above. I sent to Myrna, who wrote such nice things about me. I stitched a Lizzie*Kate design and finished it with the fabric you see in the background. It was fun to stitch.
I received my Halloween exchange from Sylvie, and very beautiful it is too! She sent me some lovely goodies too - a Stoney Creek Halloween booklet and some Six Strand Sweets thread as well as the cutest little ghosts ornament. I am looking forward to hanging the wallhanging as soon as I get a dowel cut and painted.
So, hold tight for an unprecedented two posts in one week. The next one will be all about knitting and my beautiful son.
Comments
Those caves look beautiful! How did he like them apart from the crawling thing? (I'd probably opt for the train tour cuz I'm lazy)
I'm jealous of your fluency in Dutch, I really should start learning some more soon!
I'm also jealous of your craftiness, I think I might have to barge in on you some day and get you to teach me a few things!
Hi Ash!
Good luck with the Dutch lessons. My neighbor from Estonia is taking lessons after living here four years, and so is my German friend, a new arrival. Tough language--kudos to you for improving your skills.
You are so lucky being able to speak Dutch fluently. I would say I can speak it 'redelijk goed' though others say it's 'heel goed'
Hehe at sounding like an uneducated buffoon. I know exactly what you mean! Actually, it's made me realise how awful it must have been for all those people from India and Pakistan, that used to visit our store back in the UK, and try to utter a few decent English words to an English native.
If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have raised my eyebrows so many times lol
Whew, Ash, I'm out of breath reading about your chock-a-block full days!
Apple recipes, yes ....
Your halloween exchange ornie is gorgeous - that L*K design is too cute :) And the finishing is awesome as always :D
Wow! I get tired just reading all that you do!
Thank you again for my lovely Halloween exchange! I have 'Lizzie' --yes, we named the witch! -- hanging right here where I can see her when I am at the computer!
Have a great weekend! :-)
What an adorable exchange from Sylvie :)
October 13, 2006 11:23 AM