Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Commercial Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html
→ Sunday, the 1st of May was such a lovely day and after Pieter had taken his nap and we ate a light lunch, it was onto our bikes for a very special ride...
Visiting the Horse Farm with small Petting Zoo of our Friends!
Tara owns THEFURGPHOTO ←click link and she also does Horse Summer Camp.
Tara seen here with her cute daughter Charlie–Sue on her right.
Lovely baby donkey, goat kid and silkie chickens...
What a joy for children being able to grow up with animals like that!
Me, holding a lovely Silkie Chicken with blue cheeks!
How fluffy they are and so sweet, they can reach the age of 9.
Pieter with a cute goat kid, asking in Dutch if it knew its people... So tame.
As a teen at the end of WWII while being evacuated for half a year, Pieter and his older brother Toon, were staying with one farmer. The Parents and oldest brother Thé, with yet another farmer; brothers.
Pieter and Toon had a bedroom right above the sheep pens, where several pregnant sheep needed to be watched over.
The farmer told Pieter, that if he would guard one real big–bellied sheep very careful, 'You will get what is inside her belly'.
She was huge and sure enough a baby ram was born and Pieter called him Bokkie.
After the liberation, Bokkie came home with the family, riding in a cage on top of the horse wagon.
Bokkie was his favorite pet and was very tame and playful.
Bokkie followed Pieter like a doggie!
One day however, when Bokkie saw his own image reflected inside the glass of the greenhouse with grapes and tomatoes, he banged inside the glass to attack... cutting deep inside his chest and belly.
Sadly he had to be put down by the vet.
Pieter cried and was heart broken of course.
Tara's husband Jeremy and his Dad admiring Pieter's bike...
This is the 3rd generation of Friendship as we knew Tara's Granddaddy Larry, who passed away in December of 2010.
Also his daughter Lydia, Tara's Mom, has been a long–time friend.
Of course we were at Tara & Jeremy's wedding in April of 2018, me still on a crutch due to my closed pelvic bone fracture.
It was such a lovely 1st of May day with 30°C or 86°F!
Happy we rolled back after such a lovely break in–between. We did not even put our Strava App off, while visiting the Horse Barn and Petting Zoo...
A total ride of 27.69 km or 17.2 miles.
And at home we enjoyed our tea with rice cake for me and mixed unsalted nuts.
In a previous post (see link below this post) I mentioned that my Father–in–law told my husband Pieter when he was a young boy, about a beautiful dark–haired girl at the Café in Groesbeek, The Netherlands.
Just today, I received an email with this photo, from Gerrie G. Driessen chairman from Heemkundekring Groesbeek (←click link) with a reply to my April 8, request for information.
The name of the H. AlbersCafé Boerderij (Farmstead) Altena in Groesbeek, right on the border with Germany, is where Pieter's Dad was seated.
But wait a minute...
The gentleman seated to the right of the door in the above picture, next to the waiter, drew my attention!
It was once more that I spotted my Father–in–law, now seated with a glass of red wine in his hand.
There is a bottle of red wine visible on the table to the right.
But on his left (for the viewer) is the beautiful dark–haired girl he talked about!
The very same tablecloth is on the table as in my post below.
Stories are coming to life!
Guess he met her there, while being a Border Guard.
We still don't know when exactly during WWI he served.
Sadly this very building got destroyed during WWII (1944–1945) by shells.
This morning I had a reply from Archief Well and Marleen Timmermans sent me an image of the location of Café Altena, right on the border with Germany (red markings).
As she wrote: the Internet has many advantages, you can see that again.
For us it sure has and we manage to meet the kindest people!
Yes, today is a very special day as my Pieter turned 93!
Thanks to a great Cardiologist and complete change of medications he lived beyond the grave message we received from our previous cardiologist; who actually neglected him.
Prayers also DO help!
Just to show you our ABUNDANCE of fresh flowers back then...
All varieties of Calla lilies and sweet smelling white Lathyrus.
I used all kind of Baccarat crystal vases for them, also Baccarat perfume bottles.
Below is a 1:33 minute short video from our vases with garden flowers on Pieter's 74th Birthday.
At 0:46 you see our white fragrant peonies.
Immediately followed by pink roses in my Rose China with sprigs of Forget–Me–Not.
A DREAM!
We have no roses left, and if you see how many we had back then...
Guess the competition of the now huge oak trees and others is way too fierce.
And we miss the spent mushroom compost already for two decades!
That was the very best from mushroom cultivation.
A Happy Pieter on his 81st Birthday on Dutch Queen's Day celebration in Atlanta.
This was good 4 months before his heart attack and open heart surgery on September 3. 2010.
Wearing my Escada suit that we saw while in Budapest but could not afford it then, at full boutique price.
Found it later on eBay.
Around Pieter's Birthday, our Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold is at its BEST.
One of our Palm Trees is right in front of it in this photo.
Sadly today was the funeral of the late Georgia Congressman, the Honorable J. Roy Rowland who had a special U.S. flag flown over the U.S. Capitol for both of us on December 30, 1993...
April 23, was Pieter's 29th Birthday as a United States Citizen!
