We just got up and decided to go. This time it was Quarry Bank Mill. It’s a National Trust property. I’ve been with a work group of new students who can’t believe the conditions a 10 year old child might expect to work in.
Quarry Bank is special because it was the very first “ideal village” in that Mr Greg (not the pasties) built housing and two chapels and a pub for his workers as well as housing. Paying them with one hand and taking it back in the shop or over the bar. This is one of those properties that gets more visitors in the week because it’s popular with school parties.
What an amazing place.
Park signOak Cottages Inside the spinning shed
Engels visited this place. He found it to be better than central Manchester but couldn’t speak to the residents privately so was pretty sure there was stuff to hide all the same. Yep model.villagw ties directly to the Communist Manifesto. Bear in mind that although the village had a school and a library the Greg family very much controlled what people could learn and read.
It’s good to see these growing in the little woodland near the house. It means the woods are mature and well managed. I do wonder how many people walk past these and never notice.
So I randomly opened my secondary mail…. a sort of dead letter box… hundreds of things you forgot you subscribed to. Over 8000 emails unread and not needed. Let’s say even at 100 a ti.e it took a while to get rid of them all. The trick being to unsubscribe from each new service I spotted on the list. For a week or so I’ve had nothing in that inbox. I’m now on to email two, the main e mail.
I suppose I’ve signed up to things because, one one occasion, I was buying a gift and wanted a discount … or maybe it was something that interested me, but I’m done with that thing now. I’m sure the odd ‘newsletter’ or ‘warning’ will pop up unwanted in future. I’ll unsubscibe from the first and report the latter as a matter of course. It’s a joy opening my e mail and knowing that its not full of things I’ll never read. Sadly, I can’t entirely get rid of unwanted e mails from the Student Union in my PhD. email inbox. That’s OK. They are infrequent and who knows? I might need them one day.
Family stuff, as they say. One such was a wonderful visit to my second home in the Netherlands. Utrecht is one of my favourite cities in the world. Thus year I had the chance to take my young nieces to visit and explore the city.
Our first meal in Utrecht
Of course they had never tries Dutch food so day one, meal one gad to be traditional ‘borrelhapjes’. To be honest, the wee one can be a touch fussy, so bar snacks offered the widest opportunity for something to be OK. Butterbollen. Kaarstengels. Loaded fries. Loempias. And the best baked apples ever. We ate, we collapsed.
For anyone planning a visit, I’d recommend the Strowis. It’s a workers collective run hostel. Clean. Quiet . It even has a garden…but no sharks.
We stayed in a shared bathroom twin in the attic. Showers are large and clean and there are plenty of loos on each floor. There’s a kitchen too for making your own food though sadly breakfast is no longer available (covid). There’s a bar and coffee available. Games, art materials and they own the pub axcross the garden too. We chatted to Aussies, Koreans and Americans. That’s the joy of hostels you never know who you’ll meet. The staff are great and proved very helpful on this occasion.
Day two with the small people and a visit to the Museum Speelklok which is a personal favourite. Noisy and full of grandparents and grandchildren. We were in there for hours watching and listening to the huge circus organs and making our own musical books to play. Of course there was coffee and apple pie
A ‘straatorgel’
After dad had gone off to the dance music festival in Amsterdam we carried on to the library. I love this building. It was once the Post Office. I’ve been trying to get inside again for ten years, and now it is gloriously open. Go to the library.
Utrecht library
It’s like something out of Dune. I just feel like lying on the floor snd staring at the ceiling. Now there’s a lift so you can get above it to see the preservation work they’ve done. Seriously, go to the library. They also have a play post office which took a chunk of time and an excellent cafe.
Day three saw very tired youngsters peek up at the sight of a playground and a petting zoo in Grift Park. Word of caution here. If you’re an Uber fan don’t expect to find them much outside of Amsterdam because the Dutch use cycles so much so why get a cab?
Day four. Amsterdam. A stroll from Centraal Station to Rokin for a trip on my favourite boat (Reiderij Kooi). By now, the young ones were flagging as evidenced by the question (from the 4 year old) “When are you going to stop showing us things?” To be fair we’d made each of them an age appropriate scrap book to use whilst we were there and these had been used enthusiastically throughout the trip. Daddy was spotted on the bridge awaiting our return. Lunch and off to the airport for us. Naturally, it is more bitterbollen at the Hoppe.
Showing them things
Twi weeks later and our chums from the Netherlands arrived on the doorstep.
Saucy? Well, whilst the Netherlands can provide a very ‘adult’ holiday destination in my case, I’m off to see an old friend. We met in the North of Ireland about 40 years ago, and there’s pretty much nothing we don’t know about each other. We haven’t seen each other since pre pandemic and even a chunk of time before that, but you know what, after all this time he’s still my friend. This is the guy who flew in for 24 hours to be the witness at our wedding. He’s pretty special.
The town of Brummen is nowhere. Tiny. Rural and not on the map for most tourists. They’re missing out. It’s on the edge of the Veluwe, near Arnhem and encircled by forest and fields. Beautiful. Not only that but classic car fans would flock to The Gallery to browse, buy or hire a Delorian or a Porche just like James Dean’s. There’s a cute little ferry across the river and a walk taking you to Bronkhorst which styles itself as ‘Dickensian’ and has no cars allowed in the villages where artisan craftspeople ply their wares.
Day two a zoo adventure. Its a 20 minute drive to Burger Zoo, an amazing place. It’s designed in habitats so the people are kept more co fined and the animals (except large or dangerous ones) mingle in the biomes. There’s desert, rainforest… you get the picture. Wow! Their conservation work is impressive and they started the idea of habitat based zoos way way back. I’m.not sure we saw everything but we came close. A relaxed evening meal with a little wine and conversation that went too late as our host had do leave stupid early for a work trip giving us the keys to the house and time to ourselves. We rested from our journey (How many stag do’s (Bachelors parties) can you fit on a plane?) and took a gentle walk to the local thrift store as you’ve seen in a previous post before shooting off to the next village over for an evening meal with some other chums. I noticed in the free newspaper that Hall (where we were for the evening) was expecting a Lancaster Bomber fly past for VE day.
A not so early start the next day took us by train (and the trains from Brummen are excellent) took us via Zwolle to Deventer. It’s not a place I’d ever been and I have to say its a stunning medieval city. I think we found the pinkest cafe there for lunch which was excellent and a book store which took up a chunk of our time before hopping back to Zwolle to meet someone I’ve known since they were six for a coffee and ice cream in one of the local game cafes. We left as a serious game of Magic the Gathering began in earnest. Zwolle is also an amazing medieval city with the walls still visible and a ‘moat’ around the town centre.
What I didn’t mention earlier was that this was the week on Kings Day. The Dutch, like the UK, have a monarchy but unlike the UK make the monarch’s official birthday an excuse for a huge party and a public holiday. Brummen kept it low key with a small market and flea market (swap meet) and, of course a lot of orange clothing. My favourite part of the day was ‘King William’ ice cream, the joke is King Billy ice cream as Erik and I had met in Northern Ireland. We didn’t stay long and aerik took us into the Veluwe to one of the many national park properties to spot wild deer in the forest. What a magical evening. Please venture out of Amsterdam next time you’re in Holland.
Friday we took our leave and headed to my favourite city, Utrecht. It’s a university city equivalent to Oxford or Cambridge in its size and tone. No rivers but the Oude and Niewe Gracht (canals). We had an air b’n’b in what has become the Moslem area of town …. oh yes great food! Usually we visit the Straat Orgel Museum but we planned something different this time. One of my favourite buildings in the world (alongside Battersea power station which is on the list since it has been refurbished as a shopping centre). 10 years ago I tried to take Em there only to find it closed!!!! Noooooo. There were various rumours as to what it would become … thankfully my worst fears were not realised. Welcome to Utrecht Library, formerly the Post Office. The joy of the refit was that we could work our way up to the rafters to see the stunning glass roof from both inside and out. Honestly people go in to lie on the floor and look up. I’d borrow a lot of books if this were my local library. There’s a really cool coffee shop too.
The next day we spent wandering the town. Being a University city there’s a lot of places to eat and drink fairly cheaply and lots of board game shops (we found 4). We had to buy licorice, salty licorice, for my dad and visit the excellent handmade chocolate shop we found lst time we were here. sad to say some places had suffered and gone through the pandemic. We found the most chill bar of the trip close to the cathedral (the Dom) and partook of some Belgian beer before a visit to another of my favourite little men, a tiny statue of a monk in the cloister. It was a sunny day and the place I’ve so often had to myself, was packed. Excellent busker in there too. I said a quick hello to the little fella and we headed out to the air b’n’b to feed the cats. Yes, this one came with critters and a small yard/garden.
Homeward bound we stopped in Amsterdam en route for the airport. There was a book I wanted and the American Book Centre had it in stock which is lucky since its around the corner from one of my favourite bars on Spui. Now the Hoppe is famous and old and usually rammed with tourists but its sister bar (the one with the toilets … if you know you know) is used more by locals. Finally we set our teeth on bitterballen. They’re hard to explain. Kinda like a thick soupy but not liquid middle of meat and potato (ish) in a breadcrumb coating. usually eaten with mustard. As ever I had the house speciality, Jenever, a sort of Dutch precursor to gin. next we hopped on the subway to avoid the crowds (Yes, read that again the subway is the least crowded mode of transport) and headed to NSDM one of the newer, trendier areas of Amsterdam. It’s in a former dockyard and holds a lot of arts workshops, cafes and the Street art museum (which we didn’t have time to visit). On a hot sunny day we were grateful to grab the ferry back to Amsterdam Centraal to head out to Schipol.
It’s been too long and I miss my friends. Not too much time will pass before I’m on Dutch soil again.
Well the clocks change tonight. Tomorrow we will be a)up late or b)up on time and grumpy. Twas ever thus. Today, however, is the planting of the food crops. To be fair the rhubarb stays out all year and garlic gets planted in November but all those delicate veg need to go outside now. Today we plant onions and broccoli and peas and beans, beetroot and carrot but only for the tiny shelter/greenhouse (only it’s not a glasshouse) with just a few things directly into the earth. Lettuce, this year, is going in the chest height herb bed to attempt to avoid slugs.
Planting Literally a greenhouse
Last years food crop was amazing considering we only completed the raised beds in late April, so this year we have organised a bit better and hope to have more food available. We also took the opportunity to put some fruit bushes in February, though I doubt those will fruit this year. A gooseberry and a blackcurrant. Hopefully the last frost has been and gone but in the UK who knows.
Rhubarb
The compost has been fed through the winter. We have a vermicompost system buried into the raised bed thanks to Subpod (no money has changed hands) a New Zealand based company. The nice thing about worm based compost is that it doesn’t smell. You don’t need to spread it either because this system has holes for the little fellows to wriggle in and out taking the nutrients with them.
I’m not a garden expert, I’ve just realised that we can make more from what we’ve got… cost of living… pension.. blah. Between last years jam, sell by date boxes from the supermarket for soup and pickles, even marmalade. We compost anything that’s too far gone and use ash from the wood burner to add carbon to the soil. It’s all going rather well.
For those of you not from the north of England, ‘manky’ is a description of things not at their best. Frankly, past their sell by date. It applies to all things, not just food. It can apply to people.
You can make soup from pretty much any food…. not that I think ice cream soup sounds good, but.. our local supermarket has begun to sell boxes of the less attractive fruit and veg cheap. Sometimes, the bag split. Sometimes, it’s close to their sell by date. Food that would otherwise go to waste. Either way, it’s £1.50 for a box you might pay up to £10 for in the normal run of things. They are available most days but in limited numbers. Lots of people ignore them. Others are embarrassed to admit that cheap food may be exactly what they want. Now, I retired, and my monthly income was cut in half. I’m still doing OK, but I dont mind sorting through the veg boxes, and soup is always a simple,quick food option
Today, it’s root veg. Carrots and parsnips and a bit of onion mixed with the schmaltz from our last roast chicken. Pinch of salt, little bit of pepper. That’s four each servings for two people for a bit of time. Of course, some excellent bread with a thick slathering of butter.
Well, more, in the process of decorating. Over the pandemic we began ‘project renovate’. one of the things people were still allowed to do here in the UK was have building work done. So the kitchen was refitted and a new garden scheme with raised beds to grow food became a reality. The log burner went in … then things kinda stalled. Between the holiday season and a sort of hibernation mode very little was happened over the last weeks but with the arrival of more spring like days and the utility bill came the realisation that something needed to happen to stop us heating the whole house and inhabiting easier to warm spaces. The kitchen table serves as an office and the living room as my den, which is nice because its south facing and catches even the slightest sunlight and warmth. I do have to say that once the curtains were removed it got a lot cooler in here.
We’ve gone mad and decided that this is not a cash cow but a home. Ignoring the current TV fads for flip and resale beige nightmares we decided we are living here so mad colours it is then. the living room will be purple. First coat applied and second on it’s way. This development has been somewhat slowed by my having sprained something in my wrist making holding a paintbrush a short term proposition at best. I’m good at the fiddly edging bits though so it can be done in short bursts. Certain parts of the room need to be finished first so the build in seating can be fitted. We’ve booked the carpenter so a line has been drawn.
ffiftypluses 