MARIETTE'S BACK TO BASICS: June 2022

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Food for Body and Soul in Limburg

Oh, there are so many things that we don't have here in the USA...

Food is different of course and especially the many bread varieties we so MISS here.

Let's start with the SOUL Food.

Friend Ellie thought about The Chapel of Our Lady of Genooy in Venlo and off we went...

Netherlands: Venlo: Os Leef Vrouwke van Genue / The Chapel of Our Lady of Genooy ←click link for short video.

LEEF VROUW VAN GENUË HELP MICH

dialect for Dear Lady of Genooy Help Me

Statue of Dear Lady of Genooy is authentic from the 17th century.

Ellie pinning with her bank card, for candles...

Lots of votives but under a modern exhaust fan!

LEEF VROUWKE VAN GENUË,

HELP ÓS

EN HUËR ÓS BITTER KLAGE;

VERLOS ÓS VAN DE NOËD

EN 'T LEID

EN HELP ÓS DIT TE DRAGE.

AL SCHIENT ÓS SMAEKE

ÓNVERHUËRD,

MARIA ÓNVOLPREZE,

DOOR 'T LEID HEB GEJ

MESCHIEN AAN ÓS

DE GROËTSTEN

DEENS BEWEZE.

SWEET LADY OF GENOOY

HELP US

AND HEAR OUR BITTER CRIES;

DELIVER US FROM NEED

AND SUFFERING

AND HELP US CARRY IT.

THOUGH OUR PLEAS SEEM UNHEARD,

MARY UNSURPASSED,

THROUGH THE SUFFERING YOU MAY

HAVE DONE US THE GREATEST SERVICE

THANKS TO JESUS

SACRED HEART

AND HIS DEAR MOTHER MARIA

Chapel of Our Lady of Genooi is a small Roman Catholic chapel in the north of Venlo and dating from 1423, built on the model of the chapel of Loreto in Italy. The building is a national monument.

The monastery was destroyed in the Eighty Years' War (that was when the Spaniards occupied The Netherlands from 1568–1648)...

Driving from Genooy in Venlo via the Interstate again past the windpark...

Now let's feed the body, and show you some typical food items from my Province Limburg...

Ellie decided to prepare once more fresh white asparagus.

You can purchase them as 'geschilde asperges' which means already peeled!

Euro 4 or 7 for one kilogram = 1,000 gram versus our pound is only 450 gram.

Just along the National road on our way home.

First these highly fragrant floating roses...

Don't you love their sight?

They perfumed the outside terras we were on!

And some more fragrant roses floating with decorative garden leaves!

A stop at the local super market in Sevenum.

Limburgse Vlaai is so typical for my province.

Delicious pies with fruits, whipped cream...

Our Province is more Burgundian, the French influence from years of occupation in the past, certainly left its mark.

You notice that these boxes contain half pies!

Sure there are also whole pies...

Apricot, plum and cherry are some favorite fruit pies...

Sadistic for taking those pictures while Pieter at home no doubt would be mouth–watering when viewing them on his iPad! 😜

Oh and BREADS makes you feel like being in HEAVEN!

This is NOT at a bakery but ordinary supermarket.

MISS these healthy breads here in the USA...

Ellie created a delicious supper with the fresh white asparagus.

Pieter commented that his Mom also used to have this typical china.

It is Royal Boch since 1841 Belgium in Boerenbont.

Boerenbont ←click link

Oh and Ellie persuaded me to try a tiny piece of the delicious RICE PIE WITH WHIPPED CREAM...

It is a family favorite and very much Pieter's favorite as well.

Sometimes chocolate flakes are added on top... some are visible to the right.

Sadistic photos for my poor Pieter at home but also nostalgia.

Hoping you enjoyed this post!

Stay tuned for more...

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Walking in Limburg in Beautiful Nature

Haha, husband Pieter asked me one morning (when we did our video WhatsApp call) if I tended to STAY in Limburg as I sounded so enthusiastic and so in love with it all. It is JUNE he said and go back in January!

True, I realized that, but it was like a dream and together with sunshine, I was almost floating...

Come, walk with me:

KUMS SE MEJ SPÄÖLE?

Dialect for: Do you come to play with me?

Everywhere we found such wooden benches for resting.

The town of Sevenum has the DONKEY as its symbol.

Not to be compared with the political symbols in the USA.

Guess this goes ages back, and has to do with agriculture, as you see also below in above photo, in different symbols.

My birth town of Horst had DREUMEL = lint from the flax weavers ages back.

Each town has a different historic name.

And yes, lots of roundabouts in my province of Limburg!

Roads are often shaded by tall trees.

Do you see the bike lane to the right? In red asphalt...

Roads are rather narrow compared to the ones here in the USA!

Scary driving for lots of born Americans.

We walked with some 18-20 elderly.

Including one widower, who always had his Luna–girl with him.

She loved to walk!

Cows staring at us!

You notice the tall grasses.

And there are huge windmills, not yet in working order though as a law–suit is still going on.

This is windpark Greenport Venlo

Special hotel for bats and birds...

Also along the Greenport Bikeway, bat–friendly and sustainable lighting got installed.

Here they are called bat–bunkers.

Again you clearly see the red asphalt for the double bikeway.

Do you notice the special bat–friendly lights?

Bats suffer a lot from blue light, but are hardly bothered by amber light.

So they use amber led lighting and they are only working when someone is biking or walking there.

Walkers welcome on the Krullevaar path...

A sign with the owners of the private parcel of land that opens with a gate, that walkers are requested to close behind them.

Show respect for the animals, the plants and surroundings and keep your dog lined.

I should have wiped the farmer's mouth clean as some leaves attached to the sign...

They had sheep on their property.

That walk was a total of 6.16 km or 3.8 miles.

Hope you enjoyed this short walk in my Province!

Stay tuned for more...

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Limburg — The Emotional Part

My second brother Piet, came to pick me up for going to the spot where Mom & Dad first met when they both were in servitude.

Also the spot where my eldest brother Martin suggested to disperse Mom & Dad's ashes.

Of course in 2020 when five of my six siblings came together on Holy Saturday, for dispersing the ashes, I was not present.

See post below about that: Dad is One Year in Heaven Now...

My brother Piet and me...

Arriving at this historical spot with huge oak 't Struukske.

Oh how I indulged in all the wild flowers and wild grasses!

Even the long absent Adderwortel, Persicaria bistorta L., that we used to call 'toothbrush or tandenborstel' in Dutch as children.

Common poppy or Papaver rhoeas with bee inside...

Korenbloem or Kornflower in English — Centaurea cyanus that we used to weave into flower wreaths, when children.

Brother Piet's hand and one common poppy is visible here and lots of Margrieten in English Marguerite or Oxe–eye daisies Leucanthemum vulgare.

Brother and sister at this historic spot...

Now approaching the almost sacred area...

In 1915 the cross had been placed out of devotion and in the hope of being spared from natural disasters... see more info in my previous post below.

Close to my left foot, the ashes of Mom & Dad got dispersed of.

Now overgrown by nettles...

An emotional but very special visit!

Brother Piet searched for his long–time friend Ton Hoeijmakers who with his wife Fien have run Landgoed de Gortmeule.

Here I talk with Sandra Cuijpers-Rijs, half of the new manager couple of the campsite.

Ton and Fien continue living on the homestead from 1600 but are only limited involved.

Piet wanted to take me to the Lollebeek, a project where he was involved with, shortly before his retirement...

A beautiful nature area, near the Castenray fens.

The Lollebeek

Me standing near the Lollebeek... captured by Piet Van den Munckhof

Piet later sent me this picture from October 24, 1965 when we together were for the last time at the Lollebeek in 'De Pes'...

Piet on the left, Mom, youngest sister Gerd, Me, youngest brother Jan and younger sister Diny with Dachshund Wally.

Jan still has bad memories of a horse we had to pass on this narrow walking path...

Well, I was 14.5 then...

Next we went together to Restaurant De Turfhoeve, a restaurant that was very close to where Mom was born.

To the left bottom part you see STRUIKEN... that's where she got born.

Fond memories with Mom & Dad, as we often took them there for dinner or for eating a yummy pancake.

Piet and I opted for an apple pancake.

The present owners have only a very limited listing of pancakes, compared to the days when we went with Mom & Dad... Nostalgia!

It was a very special but emotional day.

Took me days upon arriving home for digesting it all.

Never could be in The Netherlands for my Parents' cremation service but this kind of rounded it off for me.

And we did go for seeing Dad one final time; proved to be very well chosen as Dad died only two weeks after our departure back to the USA.

We both said our farewell and did a LOT of talking; felt good.

For Mom it was different, I saw her last about one year before and I knew then, that I never would see her again...

Souls never die and one day we will meet again!

Angels we know by name.

To be continued...

Friday, June 24, 2022

In Limburg with Friends

From Schiphol Airport, I traveled South to Limburg with two Friends that had come with the 5:43 NS Intercity to pick me up...

End station Horst–Sevenum and we're in the South of The Netherlands!

In less than two hours from Schiphol Airport to Horst–Sevenum by Intercity.

Travel by Rail is so relaxed!

Comparing to the hectic traffic and especially on a Monday.

Sure, my original plan was to arrive on Sunday... but some 3,000 flights got cancelled over that weekend.

My happy friend Ellie (friends for 57 years) and her daughter Elvira...

See links below post for reading about our very special relation with her.

This was on May 31 with 17°C or 62.6°F in Sevenum with a maximum of 18°C or 64°F

Yes, that was quite a cool–down for me; coming from Georgia/USA...

Elvira made us a yummy lunch on Wednesday, June 1.

She's a great Lady Chef

After our lunch at about 14:00, we did video WhatsApp with Pieter in Georgia/USA, who had just had breakfast at 8:00 in the morning.

Always great to see, and hear each other over the 8,000 km distance or 4,970 miles!

Pieter enjoyed talking with Elvira's boys.

The youngest, to the right of me, told Pieter that he had to carefully read all the notes...

They'd just overheard me reply to Elvira about her question what Pieter is eating all those days.

I told them that I'd hung sticky notes from the cabinets in the kitchen for each day for getting the meals together from the freezer and such.

Yes, I'd prepared a lot of food ahead of time!

Ellie's granddaughter Famke is into aerial fabric dancing!

Got to see her doing this LIVE.

Quite impressive and don't know if I could do that?!

Weather for the coming days would be lovely with on Saturday as high as 26°C or 78.8°F but on Sunday all rain...

Friend Sissy in her Tesla electric car, took Ellie and me around my home town and we even sat on a terrace in the sun, enjoying a cappuccino or tea.

Also ice cream with some fruit.

Indulging in those things from the past; for me at least, as I'm out of The Netherlands for 39 years.

Next day we met again with Sissy and Ellie + spouses...