Hello! No knitting today, I’m afraid. I ran into a problem with the sweater I’m knitting for our daughter and ripped back quite a bit. I’m working on a solution and hope to tell you about it next week.
Instead, I’m taking you for a stroll round my village. It isn’t the village I now live in, but the Frisian village of Grou, where I grew up and that still feels very much like my village. It is also the village of the famous Frisian doctor, poet and storyteller Eeltsje Halbertsma.
He wrote in 1856, “ik beëagje neat mei myn skriuwen, as om myn Fryske lânsljuwe in noflike pear oeren te besoargjen.” (I have no other aim with my writings than to give my Frisian compatriots a few pleasant hours.) That’s my aim for today, too, only in my case it is people anywhere and minutes rather than hours.
We’re approaching the village centre through a narrow alley. In the second house on the left the friend who taught me finger crochet used to live, and on the right was the baker’s where we spent our pocket money on sweets.
This is the main street, where I have some shopping to do.
And this is the front door of the shop I’m taking you to. It used to be the police station, but now it’s a yarn shop (where else would I take you?).
With its new glass roof it is now a beautifully light space. No yarn shop is the same and every yarn shop reflects the taste of the person running it. In this case a very cheerful and colourful taste.
In the workshop space a beginner crochet workshop has just ended. Crochet seems to be more popular now than ever before.
Unfortunately, I can’t show you what I bought. It’s something very nice, but it’s a birthday present for a friend who’ll be reading this and I want to keep it a surprise.
Now, let’s walk on to the end of the shopping street. A tiny garden shed, an antiques shop and a gate.
And behind the gate the 13th century church. In the 1970s a new minister arrived. A hippie from Amsterdam, with a long beard and long hair. He introduced a circle of meditation benches into the church, where we kneeled and sang Dona nobis pacem, pacem, dona nobis pacem. Give us peace, peace, give us peace……………………………………….
Today’s stroll ends by the lake that seemed enormous to me as a child.
My village has changed in many ways, but many things have stayed the same, too. In the same spot where they have always been, there are still einekuorren (traditional nesting places for ducks).
It’s a lovely time of year for a stroll, with tulips flowering around the Eeltsje Halbertsma bust and kingcups along the waterside. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope to see you again next week. Bye!
What a lovely stroll! Thank you for taking us along. I love visits to villages like this. I always think about what they would say if the walls could talk, and you shared some of that with us. How fun!
It always feels good to be back “home”, although my real home has been somewhere else for many years. It’s been a pleasure to share some of it with you.
It has been a pleasure to see the village where you grew up. A place full of stories! And I love the nesting sites for ducks.
Cheers!
The techniques for making the duck nesting sites now officially belong to our intangible cultural heritage. I’m glad you enjoyed seeing my village.
So lovely, thank you for sharing this!
My pleasure – I’m glad you enjoyed it!