Sadness in "Het land van Maas en Waal"

G'day Mates,


My sister Rosita and I have been to Druten on the River Waal for a few days last week. Not that Druten is so special but we just wanted to have some quality time together and that we had.

Unfortunately the first night in our little cottage we heard that again a dear member of our family has past away suddenly, she is the third in a row in just 3 months time.

Because I'm not really in the mood for a funny new story now, I today only provide you with some pictures of the region around Druten, the so called "Land van Maas en Waal" and of the romantic little cottage we were in.

Lets start with the cottage;

Waiting for the rain to stop!!

The bed was covered with a huge mosquito net

The one funny thing was that we wanted to do some walking and because my sisters dog Pepper can't walk that much anymore, she is nine, my sister bought her a little buggy so she could join us.

Pepper admiring herself....

Not sure about the quality though.....

But then......, maybe it was too heavy loaded....

A little tea dome on the dike...

This is supposed to grow in Autumn, not in SUMMER!

You can see we also indulged ourselves....

On Wednesday the 22nd of June we finely had nice weather so we could have a decent walk.

We walked 4,5 k's over the dike to "Boven Leeuwen" a small town also on the Waal......

There was a nice cafe where we had a beer......

On the way back we passed these poor Kangaroos, must be in shock from the weather as they look so pale......

and a former Abbey which is situated in Druten itself.....

We walked about 10 k's all together that day and were glad we could take our shoes off..... 

Despite the circumstances and the amount of rain we had, we had a good time just being together.

We wish our family concerned in Australia all the strength they need for the coming difficult and sad time. Fred and I are very sorry we can't be there but our thoughts are with you.

Till next time.

Bronkhorst a historic and smallest town of the Netherlands

G'day Mates!

Here I am, with the first real story from The Netherlands.

If you ever been here on holidays you might have heard or even seen the smallest town of The Netherlands, situated in the municipality of Bronckhorst, Gelderland; Bronkhorst!
It is a town with only 171 inhabitants (in 2006 according to Wikipedia).

The tiny town was established somewhere around the year 1000 as a fortified farming settlement, so Bronkhorst is not only the smallest town but also a very old and ancient town.

In a document dated 13 March 1482, Gijsbert VII granted city rights to the inhabitants of the village Bronkhorst. Concretely this meant, among other things, that they were given limited self-government and were allowed to administer the law to some extent.

Bronkhorst is known for its picturesque buildings, houses and a museum dedicated to Charles Dickens which also contains items purchased from the former Dickens museum at Rochester.

Bronkhorst has about 38 national monuments, including a mill and a Jewish cemetery. All the places of interest can be combined into one short tour.

Bronkhorst has also got a lot of exclusive shops....

Also the surrounding is beautiful....

The old shed; here you can buy ancient Dutch products but also nice cheese, jams, lollies etc....

Monumental farmhouses are all over the place...

Is that all?? No, it now might look like my story is very short and I'm going the easy way but you are wrong there as I putt all the effort into a compilation of the nicest pictures....

While watching this movie will make you feel stepping back in time....

Enjoy;

Cheers!

Time-out !

G'day mates!

I hope you liked my last story about the RDA!

For now I again have to apologise for the fact that I can't provide you with a new story for the time being. It's not that I haven't got any adventures as there are plenty, but I just don't have time.
So many things to do and visits to make and to get but really, I've got a lot of pictures made already and going to as next week we are going to Belgium.

So please be patient, I'll be back as soon as possible.

Cheers!

RDA, Riding for the Disabled Association!

Gday mates!

At first I have to ask you a big favour! Because writing about this association will lead to more readers (I hope) and that's why I want to ask my new readers to also read my previous story as that is a preface of this story. But also important; as you will notice my far from perfect English, it is necessary to also read my featured post at the beginning of my blog, then you will understand!


OK having said that, LETS START!!!

This story is all about the RDA of Bendigo. They provide horse riding and carriages driving to people with disabilities. Their programs have therapeutic, developmental and social value for riders and drivers of all ages.

The RDA is mostly run by volunteers and I must say that both, my hubby Fred and I, were very touched by all the effort these people put in this non-profit organisation.

It's not only the riding on the 1 rst and 2nd Wednesdays but also the care of the horses they give the day before. Jan has to brush and clean the horses who are being taken the next day and put a sheet on to avoid them from rolling in the dirt again. When Jan can't do it, volunteers come and do it.

Spider gets her special breakfast...

Then it's time to get them into the trailers and that's not always easy.

If you have seen my previous blog, you must recognise some names I also going to use in this story.

There are 4 horses/ponies picked up today for the riding so that means that one is staying on his own and that's Zip. He knows it and is the rest of the day very restless.

At the house sitting address, owned by Tony and Jan, 3 of the 5 horses/ponies are from the RDA and because Jan is President and Coach of the RDA a few horses are home at their property.

Arrived at the RDA site the horses are being stalled all in a separate area were they are being fed and cared for...

But not all horses present are from the RDA as there are clients who have their own horses but there are also volunteers who have horses they take with them.

Brushing, hugging, cuddling ......

and even some horseshoe care....

then it's time to start.....

The second Wednesday a month it's carriage day..... 

The volunteers of the RDA are amazing, they care very much for the disabled but they also give all their love to the horses!

Jack was nearly asleep ....

Is this all??? No it isn't!

Like my previous story, the most important pictures and films are gathered in a significant movie;

So here is for your pleasure;

Movie time;

 

Cheers!

See ya,

 Next time we jump to "The Netherlands" 

Farmers Life

G day mates!

What did I say?? It’s raining so here I am, finely back! In the mean time I showed you we are in the Netherlands and the people here are very happy as we brought the sun with us. Not all of course as we cannot imagine an Australia without sun, but at least we had nice weather till now and we are about two weeks here already.

Of course the stories of our adventures in the Netherlands will come later as I'm not finished yet with our last weeks before the big travel overseas.

As I said we had a fantastic house sitting again in Bendigo. It had something really special and that I will tell later in the next blog, for now I just want to show you our daily routine.

First, meet Farmer Fred;

We had to look after 2 ponies......., may I introduce; Jack and Spider....

Jack

Spider

3 horses, Badger, Zip and Jackson.........

Badger a Chestnut Horse

Zip a Strawberry Roan Horse

Jackson a Bay Horse

.....and 7 chooks (sorry, no names) who provided us with enough eggs daily to start a Bed and Breakfast haha!

At first we opened the little gate for the chooks to extend their area during the day. (At night they are locked inn to an area in which the foxes cannot come). Then we give them our leftovers out of the kitchen and we check their food and water and look for eggs.

One of the two ponies, Spider, had a special diet of which we had to mix all the ingredients and give it to her in the morning.

So our round was mix the food for the pony and give it to her, we had to watch the other pony, Jack, as he also liked that food very much so Spider had to be locked up in a special area that Jack couldn't reach her. We gave Jack the nearly empty bucket to lick the left overs out of it.  As soon as Spider was finished, Jack jumped at the empty trough and had special tricks to get the last bit out of it.

Then we check the food and water for the horses, checked some points which were tricky for leaks, as we said that area is very dry and after that we had our breakfast.

You must be wondering why there are not much pictures about that ritual; that's because I made a film for you to enjoy, so don't skip the MOVIE........

Movie time!

On regular base we had to collect the poo from the horses with a special machine and put it in one big heap. There we could put the poo in bags and place them outside the driveway near the road to sell for a good purpose which is the RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association)
We are not asked to do that but we thought it is such a good charity, we should continue that!

Fred is preparing the quad

Nearly empty;

Also for this "shit job" (haha, just joking) and providing the hay bales, I made a funny film;

Enjoy, MOVIE time;

After these jobs we had a well deserved beer at our favourite spot;

We had marvellous weather all 3 weeks, with sunshine mostly very day, approx. 25 degrees and at night nice and cool so we could enjoy the fireplace and have a good sleep.

Jan and Tony also gave us the opportunity to leave our caravan at their place during our overseas "family visit/ holidays", of which we are very thankful.
The original place we could leave our caravan was at Wally and Kay's place, in Barjarg our previous house sitting address, but leaving it in Bendigo saved us an extra trip and day before we left.

This house sitting life gives us a lot adventures and experiences about all sorts of animals and situations but the main thing is that we meet so much nice people of which a certain amount become real friends, and that's what life is for!

Jan, thanks for sharing your horse knowledge with us!

My next blog is about RDA from Bendigo, an incredible story in which you can see how important volunteers are!

Till then,

 Cheers!

Help!

Help!! I'm so busy, still haven't time to create a new story!

In the mean time we are in Holland and just to let you know I'm still around, I herewith put some typical Dutch pictures on the blog to warm you up for new adventures.

But my next two ones will still be of Australia, so please be patient, I'm back as soon as I can......

Sorry Aussies, I took some sun with us to Holland, hope you still have enough over there!

I'm going to set up our caravan......

Cheers and till soon!