such sweet memories !!!

Today we had a lovely
"long-time-no-see" friend with her daughter
visiting us !

Sixty eight years ago I first met Karin.
We were both having our summer-camping-holiday in Austria :
we were from The Netherlands (Rotterdam)
and they came from Germany (Nürnberg)
We were both single girls away with our parents
(my much older brother never went with us)
Not speaking the language
is no big problem for children :
we played, we talked with our hands
or asked the grown ups to translate for us.
We had a click were very happy together.

On our way back home we stopped by their place
and that was the start of a loooong friendship
and many many letters
after I started German in the second year
in secondary school.

In August 2020 the Stitch Club workshop by Anne Kelly
was about making a leporello booklet
and I decided to make one about my long friendship with Karin.
I unearthed ephemera that I didn't know I still had
and had such great fun making the booklet !!!

My dearest Karin and daughter Jana
(who, with her brother, made this trip possible)

THANK  YOU  SO  MUCH

for this lovely visit !!!

I hope we can still repeat it in the future !

memorial day

In a sober ceremony
these family members,
and many others
were returned home to Dordrecht.

19 - 2 - 19

A VERY VERY PRECIOUS DAY :

today two long-time friends

(mother and daughter)

visited us.

  

A good forty (!) years ago

they lived in our village and we became friends :

the mothers and the daughters (mostly)

(because the mothers and the fathers had the same names, we always

referred to each other as "the other ..." , our children called us at 

our first name instead of mom and dad )

They moved somewhere else in Holland

but we still kept in touch though not as frequently ...

And then the parents moved to France

(without their (almost) grown children)

But from time to time we wrote.

After some sad time

now my namesake is visiting lots

of old friends in Holland.

For the "girls"it was about 30 years since they

had seen each other !

WHAT A SWEET MEMORY-DAY IT WAS !!!

(the connection)

a special day

17 - 3 - 17

For quite some time now

March 17

is a special day for us :

on this date, on a Sunday,

our dear daughter was born !

(we always look at the daffodils :

are they in bloom, just as they were at that day ?)

Such a sweet tiny thing she was

(and sweet she still is, now proud mother of three !)

(4 weeks, on my birthday)

(never can resist daffodils in the shop ...) 

Though the real birthday party

will be next Sunday,

I could give her my present this afternoon.

I worked on it for a long time before I was satisfied

(and had to hide it every time,

so the surprise wouldn't be spoiled)

Portrait number three

So now all three kids will be next to each other.

Now I have time to continue the flower drawings I made earlier.

*

I still had time to do the knitting

(of course, she could see that

and didn't need to be hidden ...)

One is halfway the foot

and the on other I can start with the special "Strong" heel ...

I'll take them tomorrow when we go to the Rotterdam St'nB.

It will most probably be raining ...

but, we're going anyway :

we plan to go to the Farmer's market too.