Hello!
Today I’d like to take you along for a bicycle ride. The traffic signs can be slightly confusing, but don’t worry, I know the way.
My foot injury is healing really well now, and I’m able to go for short walks, but my daily exercise still mainly takes the form of cycling. I’m so glad I’ve been able to continue doing that – it keeps me fit and healthy.
The countryside around here is not as flat as most parts of the Netherlands.
It is slightly undulating and riding an ordinary (not electrically assisted) bicycle like mine, is a good workout.
While I’m cycling, I love looking at beautiful houses, like this one basking like a cat in the late afternoon sun.
Or this one with its cheerful shutters.
Or this one in a lovely sheltered spot.
Or this one with the day’s washing drying in the wind.
My family is always laughing at me, when I show pictures of beautiful houses like these on my blog, saying, ‘People around the world reading this will think that we lead charmed lives and all live in picturesque thatched cottages or farmhouses!’
They are right, we don’t. Our house and most others are more modern and modest, and we get our fair share of woes and worries. Only last year a crystal meth lab was discovered in a picturesque house along today’s route (not in any of the photos) and a cocaine laundry in a farm building along one of my other routes.
But I’m not fooling you. It IS true that there are a lot of these lovely houses around here. Just like it is true that we really have windmills, although most of them are no longer working.
It was late afternoon. Taking pictures along the way slowed me down, and in the end I had to hurry to reach the best house of all before the light had gone. It’s not just a beautiful house, but a downright spectacular one!
This is its front door.
And here it is in its entirety.
From a distance it looks like an age-old castle, but it was built in recent years. From reclaimed materials.
The castle has lots of whimsical details – let’s zoom in on a few of them.
Here is one richly decorated turret, with coloured bricks, tiled squares, a spider’s web stained-glass window, and a couple of golden ‘girls’.
A fierce looking bird on another one.
While I was looking at the castle, I was wondering what the things sticking up in the air on the battlements of the north tower were. Zooming in on the photographs at home made me laugh out loud – they were the legs of upside-down mannequins.
I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it was spectacular, was I? The owner/builder must be a person with shedloads of focus. And a great sense of humour!
On the way back, I saw the first newborn lamb of the year. I don’t know what breed it is.
The light was fading quickly.
It was good to come back to our own unspectacular but beautiful-to-me house.
In addition to working on, ahem, ‘several’ other knitting projects, I’m knitting rows of beautiful blue-green houses for another Thús 2. More about that when it’s finished.
Thank you for coming along!
Such lovely photos! I also enjoy cycling around the nearby villages here in Limburg and seeing so many charming homes and beautiful gardens, even at this time of year.
Ah, yes, Limburg is so special, too, with a very different style of houses. A friend of mine lives in Maastricht, and I’m really looking forward to the time when we can visit there again. Happy cycling!
Och wat leuk, het kasteel van Halman! Van binnen ook echt prachtig!
Ooo, ben je binnen geweest? (Froukje says that the castle is also beautiful inside!)
O M G. What a lovely bike ride – rather, what a spectacular bike ride!
Hahaha, well, I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Marjke – I would call it spectacular – please take us on another ride soon – I love to see the scenery – we get to see beautiful areas, but we don’t have to travel. Lovely pictures. Kathie/frogsalot
The weather forecast says: Snow, temperatures below freezing and strong winds, so I don’t think I will be cycling much or at all this week. But I will certainly take you along for another ride later.