14-20 May 2011

Last Saturday we went for a walk along a canal about a 10 minute walk from where we live.

Notice the little receptacles to put the dog poop in! Quite a difference from Belgium and some other parts of the Netherlands where they just use the sidewalk and leave it.

A smaller little canal on our way home from our walk. How would you like to have your own dock in your backyard?

A huge, pretty house across the canal from our walking path.

A wooden shoe factory and demonstration at a place called Zaanse Schans, a Dutch village that has been re-created from original homes, shops, and windmills. We went last P-day with the Assistants.
The shoes in this picture are all unique to specific geographical areas in the Netherlands. The designs are influenced by the needs in a particular area. A shoe from a fishing village would be different from one on a farm.

They had so many different kinds of wooden shoes. Some decorated for fancier dress.

Even wedding wooden shoes.

And more.

Windmills along the canal.
(Loel) I've developed a real love for windmills. Some of these date back to the 1600's and were dismantled and reassembled here. They are all operational. There's one for grinding grain; one is a sawmill; one for grinding mustard (and they make some really good mustard on site); one for grinding paint pigment into a powder and another for grinding seed to produce linseed oil - together producing the two primary components of paint.
I'm intrigued that they understood the physics required to shape the blades (sails) to the required configuration to capture the wind. And how, at that time, did they understand the gearing required to transfer the wind power to a machine?

You can see it was pretty windy.

I had to have this picture in honor of my kids.

This is the original Albert Heijn, a major grocery store chain that is very popular. We have one within walking distance of our apartment now. Here I am with the Assistants - this store was built around 1882.

Mike and Ruth Stevens, friends of the Brubakers who came to visit. They attended a zone training with us in Leiden. They are delightful people.

Zuster Kremer and Zuster De Groot, with Elder Garrett, one of our zone leaders.

Three cute sister missionaries in our zone; Zusters Garvin, Harrington, and Welch.

All of us who had birthdays in the last few months are at the front of the room while everyone has one minute to say things they like or appreciate about each one of us. People were very kind - one of the office elders said I was a "rose among a bunch of thorns" in the office.
Our zone training was so inspirational - the President spoke a lot on teaching the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity - not easy subjects in the Netherlands.

We traveled back to Belgium this week to do some errands - I had to get a picture of our favorite kebop place just down from the old office. There are so many of these all over Belgium.

He's one of my favorite workers - even though he hardly understands English and I hardly understand French, I can make my wishes known - "frites with curry ketsup and mayonnaise." Notice the piles of fries behind him with the two deep fat cookers - they double fry them in beef fat - makes them better!! We miss the frites in the Netherlands!
We drove about 8 hours today, checking on an apartment in Kortrijk, then to the base for major shopping, then to Brussels for lots of errands and then back to the Netherlands.

We bought these flowers at a stand near our apartment and then I made a nice dinner of chili, rice, and bruschetta. Yes, I am becoming quite domestic. It's nice to have a little more space to cook.
We are getting to know more people in our new branch - it's English speaking, which makes it nice. We were invited to dinner at President Sterri's home last Sunday and had a wonderful meal with their darling family. He's from Norway and his sweet wife, Camilla, is from Sweden.