Back again

I have been home now for a few days now, but they have been very hectic. Just before Laurence left for the airport to pick me up, he got a message that his uncle, his mother's only surviving brother had passed away at the age of 98. Then later we got the call that his aunt, grandma's only surviving sister had passed away 14 hours later at the age of 92. We have been spending time with grandma and made sure she went to the visitation and funeral. It seems, that this is my first day at home and I have been busy catching up with the chores around here. Now about my trip to Holland. After 2 plane rides, 5 train rides, visiting 4 museums, 6 fabric stores, 2 bookstores and visiting with my siblings and a cousin I made it home in one piece. And a 2 day visit to Amsterdam, where we did a lot of walking. The start was a little shaky. I know now, that yes, you can fall on your head out of a still standing train! I still have the bump to prove it. That was the beginning and low point of my trip. After that I had a great time. On the first afternoon my sister took me to this cheese store, right on the farm. Too bad I could not take any of those cheeses with me. Then it was on to the first fabric stores in the old town of Staphorst. I was searching for old looking white and blue fabrics and I got some nice ones. This is the church in Bozum. I used to teach there for 2 years before I came to Canada. Where I'm standing used to be the play area, where the kids spend recess. I lived in this small house , kind of tacked on to the bigger one with just one room and a small kitchen. You can see it on the right side of the bigger house. And yes, it was very small. I would sleep in the old fashion way, in what looked like a closet. During the day you would close the doors and at night open them again. It still looked lived in. In our early years of farming we would have students from the Agricultural School in Leeuwarden staying with us for the summer. Later on we needed help for a longer period and we would get help through another exchange program. One of the fellows, who was with us 2 summers was Johannes. From him I learend a few years ago about a big quilt show at the Frisian Museum, where he is working in security. Last week one of my stops was this museum and as you can see, we had a good time catching up on all the news.

Bad news there was, that this museum will be moving to a new location and all their textiles had been put away, so no quilts.

Before I can think of starting on a new quilt I will have to finish a few. That will be my goal for the coming week.