Antoon Sprenkeling - 82 The Tour of the Groentetuin

Whenever a group of more than 3 Sprenkelings come together, it forms itself into an expedition to explore the vegetable garden. Opa's birthday, with his seven sisters present, was no exception. After the coffee, cakes and a few beers, sherries, ports, Jaegermeisters etc, they all set off to explore the unknown. The Land of The Bean Bonanza and The Tomato Torrent.

You! Go away with that camera. We've already sold the film rights


















They gather by the Sacred Rhubarb Tree.



















They are excited about the venture


















It won't be dangerous, will it?


















Honest! There's nothing out there bigger than the biggest buffalo you ever saw.
Are those fruit flies agressive?



One group heads north, braving the unknown

Look everyone! I've found an egg in this chicken shack!
Very strange! How on earth did it get here! It's miles to the nearest supermarket!


























Three Dutchmen
and an ethnic minority

Who'd have thought, 140 years ago, we'd be stood here looking at artichokes. Us kids had to pluck tomatoes you could stick your head through!"


















Tomatoes? You were lucky! We had to pull carrots out of the ground, thick as an elephant's front leg. With our teeth.


















Luxury. We had it REALLY tough. We had to dig all night with our bare nails and when we got a potato out of the frozen ground, we couldn't see over the top of it. Then we had to go to hospital to have our fingers amputated because of the frostbite before we went to school without any breakfast because we couln't hold spoon with stump. If we were lucky.


















"Yer right there, Antoon. And you tell that to the young people today, they'll never believe you".
"No, they won't"
"Aye, they'll say you're just making it up. They're soft!".


Aye, them were they days, Antoon



















Aye


















I've just caught a fruit fly. It's in the pot, but the pot isn't strong enough. I think it will break through at any moment.

More horses and things - the Pony Club

Last week we went to the Pony Club where Emma and Merel have regular lessons, and every so often take part in competions to earn points for promotion up the Horsey Ladder of Success. The dressage in the morning went quite well, both earned a point. Dressage, for those not particularly interested in it, is almost as exciting as watching tortoises hibernate. I saved the camera for the jumping, which is a bit like motor-racing. Nothing much really happening, but always the lucky chance of a horrendous accident, a real mangling. Both Merel and Emma were disqualified for not going over the fences, that being the object of the exercise. And in Merel's case, for actually galloping backwards, which I thought was rather clever and should have been rewarded rather than penalised. So no photos of the jumping.

Some children are so poor that they cannot afford horses. The Pony Club lets them pretend and run around the course to help them cope with thier social deprivation.



















Why can't the The Horse do it in the Pony Club? Perhaps it's the posh jacket and the white trousers. The lens of the camera distorts the picture. The fence is actually 2.5 meters high.


















Yes, alright, don't look so smug, just because you can ride a horse and make it jump a bit.























Of course, if you really want to know how to ride:
Such a noble posture! Horse and rider as one, a merging of minds, supreme confidence in thier abilities. A masterclass!




















Meanwhile, this bastard has been sitting on the fence waiting for a power cut so that he can break through my electronic defences. Perhaps he already has. I haven't seen many fish lately

Odds and ends

When making an entry in this blog, We have a look for recent photos, of which there appear to be millions in our camera and on the computer. Sometimes we come across things in the far corners that that are nice to share with you folks in Canada, England and New Zealand.
But first, news from the Groentetuin. Lately we have been eating a lot of tomatoes in the form of tomato soup, spaghetti sauce and salads. Fried, baked, boiled, grilled, poached, roasted and raw tomatoes. Regular readers will remember the vegetable garden offering up the Great Green Bean Harvest. Now it's the Towering Tomato Torrent.
They are Ossehart ('Oxheart') tomatoes and are notable for thier perfectly spherical shape and regular size, clearly illustrated by this photo. Impossible to tell one from another.


















This is Merel being broody with Julius


















Emma reading her poem in the library in Heiloo,
together with other children in her school.


















Ik geef het niet graag toe maar ik ben niet ideaal
Ik voel me niet lekker als ik bij je ben
Voor mij ben je speciaal
Dit is een gevoel wat ik meteen herken
Als je wat liefs zegt dan raakt het me van binnen
Ik zeg het in slechts drie woorden tegen jou
Ik schrijf geen honderd zinnen
Over dat ik van je hou.

Because all the chosen poems were put in a book, we can read them all. They are all great, but my favorite is from Tristan 12.

Een man is wat hij kan.
Vechten dat is wat hij kan.
Of races rijden
Scheuren door de bocht is fijn.
Of films maken, dat kan.

Een man doet wat hij doet.
Hij scoort.
Mooi door het net geboord.
Wat een goal. Scoor! Scoor! Scoor!
Wat heb je eraan?

Dit was het. Dat is een man!
Wat dan?

If you dont know what it means, use Google translator - hilarious result!

Photo of the week - No idea who took it.

Jan's new toy

As the sun sets on Stal Sprenkeling we observe Jan with his new tractor attachment; a dung mover. There is nothing like the glitch of tractor wheels trying to get a grip up a steep hill of wet straw and horseshit, the smell of freshly shredded excrement as it is flung onto the mountain. O, the romance of it all!

































Mine! All mine!

Anna's wonderful project

I will not say much about this except to urge everyone to visit Anna's moving school project.
This is just fabulous for a girl of 16.

Click Anna on the right at the top

More fantastic translation from Google

Sorry! I could not resist this! This is Google's version of the story about the old farmhouse of Bernadet's granddad. So if you don't understand the Dutch in this blog, use Google to give you a perfect translation!

For the farm of my grandfather (and later my uncle and his children) is a sloopvergunning requested. To prevent the demolition hammer with a piece of horticultural history of Heiloo disappears, I asked my father about the history of the farm. The farm was probably built around 1900, the year that my grandfather was born. He started a mixed farm with a few cows, strawberries, apsperges, beans and tulips. Saturday, the farm is about 2 acres of land. The early years were not easy. It was at the beginning of the crisis years and if he had not bought the company, he was probably walk away. It was anything but profitable. The milk was only 3 cents per liter, the peas 4 ct per kilo and a carton of strawberries (2.5 kg) yielded only a quarter on.

It was not easy times. My grandfather and grandmother had 12 children, so there was something earned. In time the crisis was by government or aid given to these firms, not in cash but in kind. Otherwise they would eat or clothes for the children of Buying and that was not the intention. No, you had to return a map and then you got for example a wheelbarrow with a pneumatic tire. This was a whole progress. All these wheelbarrows manure spreading over the country had to be, this was a lot lighter and you could also bring together more. Other "small growers aid" consisted of things such as a manure fork, hoe, pitchfork, etc.

In the stable behind the woonboerderij fit about 6 cows.
Most farmers, as my grandfather had only cows in the winter (These farmers were deliberately backers said). He had in the early period but a couple of cows owned. He borrowed money in the bank for two additional cows. In the spring, then went back to the dealer and the loan was repaid back. The cow he owned had been sold again. There have been at this farm is actually never walked out of cows. I think the ground is too expensive for washing. In the crisis years, my grandfather lost the right to grow tulips. There was an oversupply of tulips, they yielded very little on it. My grandfather therefore decided to halve its tulips construction of 400 AW to 200 AW. Then came the association of growers however bulbs with the measure that all tulips farmers still only half of the year could grow. The kids had to stop completely. My grandfather had therefore decided too early, because now he could therefore have only one quarter of its original volume grow. That he was such a small grower become, that he no longer received authorization. His confidence in this organization had a considerable toll. He thought he was much wronged.

The pump house

The pump house next to the farm was built after the war. The land surrounding the farm was becoming drier, probably by the water from the dunes. The growers tried first by zandafgraving the ground again to get a little less dry. The sand could they lost to contractors for the houses. This brought only temporary relief. Because all neighboring gardeners went to do the same, thus destroying the effect was made. After the war, there was the Marshall Aid for the reconstruction of the Netherlands. Many gardeners in this area have received a subsidy when source store and a pump to buy, so they could irrigate the land. at a given moment, however, there was so much water diverted from that too little water for drinking water remained in the dunes. There was a rule that when the farmers had to start paying for water that they took from the ground. This, however, as they were wrongly, that it was massively rejected. The rule was tacitly abolished. For the drinking water was extra water from the leak through the Zuiderzee, the dunes been inflated.

Lunchtime drinking

Not much to report of the last two weeks, but some snippets for your enrichment. Today Emma came home during the school lunch-break. I've brought a friend home. We only have time for a drink. Oh! and she's brought her friend. And her sister. And that friend has brought two of her friends... and her friend has....
When all 11 of them were assembled in the kitchen, I just had to make a picture. If you counted nine, one is in the toilet and the other hid herself. Doesn't like being in photos. Drains your ectoplasm or something. See you all again soon!

















By the way. thanks to Anon who put a reaction against one of my cartoons. I have never had any reaction to a drawing before, so few people know they are there ( about 10 visits a day). The comment was in English, so I assume family. Thanks.

By the way, those who speak both Dutch and English, try translating stuff using Google's translator for web-pages. It's hilarious. Bernadet had a story about crossing runner-beans and green beans, and about the two horses with foals out in a meadow. It translates to English as.....

Bean or snijbonen?
Never knew that if you cut and green beans too close to each other plant, an intersection of the two can get. My father always shows what beans "thick" which he then harvest as planting for the year thereafter. A few times this go wrong. As this year. Between the sperziebonenplanten, were this year a few plants that yielded beans that you do not snijbonen but no green beans can. But like the nature of some slack!

Horses and foals online
During a fietsritje by Heiloo I could not ask for even a few pictures of the ponies and foals of Stal Sprenkels to make. They are delicious this summer outside on the country. The 2 mothers with foals, very nice to see.

Opa and the mellow plants.

Strange goings on the in Opa's garden!

Your humble reporter was admiring the preparation of seeds for next year's runner bean mountain.........














And the amazingly tall tomato plants.....



















.. when he noticed something strangely familiar - a blast from the past as it were...














... and took a closer look...














By the cringe, these are getting quite high, as indeed shall we all at harvest time!



















For the reserved English in the family, this is all quite legal. It is the right, in Holland, for every citizen to grow five hash plants as 'botanical specimens'. This a project between Opa and Tineke. A joint venture one might say.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Scooterman!.

What with the scooter accelerating away from the house every morning at amazing velocity, with large passengers aboard and tires squealing like stuck pigs, it came as a total surprise and a dreadful shock to learn that it was buggered. It started to liberally spray petrol around as if the stuff just came out of the ground. Fortunately Kees is a wonder at scooter repairs. Watch and learn as he completes the delicate alignment of the crankshaft using a micrometer and a crankshaft alignment sledge-hammer. The carburettor was wrenched off violently, mercilessly dismembered, the parts shaken up in a petrol-filled cocktail shaker, brutally rammed back into place, and it started first kick and ran sweetly.


In this extract from the manual, the correct procedure for replacing the air filter of the Peugot Vivacity Sport 1997 model is clearly shown.

Hay making - The sequel

With the fine weather, it was possible for Jan to get a second lot of grass cut. Just in time. The day after it was all successfully baled and stored, it rained heavily. Here are some totally meaningless pictures of bales of hay. No reason for including them, but all good rural stuff.





















































We are not good photographers, but I am sure that Sara will agree that luck plays a part.
I am not sure who took this, but I adore this photo.

More from the bottom of the camera.

I'm not sure whether you folks down under have got these photos, but I doubt that you would recognise the fact if it were so. More from Christmas.

Anna and Tony















Yes'n how many roads will it take till.....
















Thankyou, thankyou - you're too kind! Really!














Anna with aging git















Mark my words, young Tony!
















God, I was a lovely mover in my day.















Kisses






































No! No! Please not that one! Not the one with the chins!














Thats the one!















Sisters

Girlie Shopping

There are times when growing girls need new clothes. One option is to give them vast quantities of one's hard earned cash (not that I am actually earning anything at the moment, apart from my miserable pension which is just enough to keep the horse). There are dangers here, as what teenagers see as suitable clothing may include tattoos and belly-piercings. The alternative is to load them into a car and go off on a shopping spree without giving them any money at all. The idea is to make one pass up the shopping street in Amsterdam seeing what is available and making choices within the allotted budget. If not, they would be out of money by shop 2 and come to realise that they could have done better if they had known what was in shops 3 - 187. Then we turn around and go back collecting all the stuff in one quick pass, hoping that nobody has a change of heart that ruins the plan and the timing of the quick escape, that the chosen stuff is still available and that we will all still be sane by the time we are done.

Mmmm.. I can't wait to get to the shops! That's why I'm smiling!















Well, I'm in a shop now, and I managed to keep this same smile going for more than an hour!



















This is a bit tight















This is all a load of crap!



















Oh dear! What an embarassment!



















Done! Lets get home!



















Wait'll you see my coat, babe, wait'll you see my coat... (Snoop Dog)