Travels with Forty Roses: Moving Forward

Now we ae living in the Netherlands. After three months in Lille in northern France, in the city centre, we have moved to the little village of Lith (pronounced Lit). Language of course is completely different and Dutch can be a tongue twister to us.

For instance:

“Her wer donker en mistig maar zonneschijn verwacht.”

Meaning:

The weather is dark and foggy but sunshine expected.”

There are many languages and dialects between Lith and Lille, French, and Dutch with dialects of Brabantian, West Flemish, East Flemish, Antwerp and Limburgish in Belgium and in the Netherlands, Dutch, Frisian, Dutch Low Saxon as well as some Limburgish on the Dutch –German language continuum. And of course, English which around Amsterdam is an official language secondary to Dutch. Being plunged into a group of Netherlanders in conversation is very different from that of a French conversation. At least there I could grasp (occasionally) what was going on. . . not so here. Fortunately for us, English is spoken more frequently the further north one goes and it is the business language, so we can function. Gotta be careful ordering food though! That is if you have some things you have aversions to eating! What we do know is that everyone we have met is helpful and patient with language. They are pleased if you make the attempt to communicate and will correct you (gently). We feel the pain of being pretty much unilingual anglaise or engels and about 36% bilingual in French but we are working on upping that percentage.

One thing we love about the Netherlands are the villages. Streets are bricked. We couldn’t figure this out but there is a reason; brick is easier to lay in sandy soil and easier to dig up than pavement. In other words, it's practical and in great supply as there are many brickyards in NL. Houses are multi-windowed. The Dutch are like Canadians. We love light and sunshine and fresh air. And the best bit is that almost every front window has a pair of vases, urns, maybe orchids or some type of twined artifacts. Identical urns with ferns is a popular one or now as forced tulips are out in large numbers, two vases with identical tulips. Apparently, it’s all about balance and symmetry and of course displaying some prized decorative “twins”.

The Boat Master is suffering this week from La Grippe despite the flu jab in the UK last autumn. It is a nasty bug which I hope somehow to avoid. Despite all, we have moved and checked in on the final boat “doings”.

This week our photos are scarce and may look a bit harried but that is the state we find ourselves. We meet with the builder Monday to go over the final, final, final, list…we shall see when we can push off the dock. We have taken this place we are in for an extra week …just in case. Grrrrrrrrr