Kerstbrief Henri en Suze
1 december 2005
Dear Friends and Relatives,
I just noticed that this is going to be issue nr.10 of my end of year letter in its current shape. Not much has changed since 1996 and everything has changed. Today I read that the polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinsky always travels with Herodotos Histories in his knapsack. In his most recent book:"Travels with Herodotos", Kapuscinsky says that nothing much has changed in this world in 2500 years.Philosophy Schphilosophy.
Anyway, we are one year older. 2005 Was and is Susan's year. Susan completed on the 4th of May her 75th year of living. I have been there.
You are old but you feel young or as usual. I believe that it is a rermarkable point in a person's life.. It is not over yet but you are getting much closer. The remaining years are bonus years. We had a big party in May with children and grandchildren .Susan is as energetic as ever ; painting has slowed down, fitness is number one. Internetting/emailing/webwailing "in statu nascendi" but coming.Therefore is Susan the main feature of the picture gallery.
The end of year bang 2004 came too early and it was called tsunami. A truly catastrophic event with too many poor victims. We had booked a three week tour of South India beginning 15 January. We tried to cancel because we did not want to be disaster tourists. However we were persuaded to go because the income from tourism is very important for that region. We arrived in Chenai (Madras)on the east coast. Yes ,fishing boats and enormous logs high on the beaches and coastal roads and nothing else. No fish in restaurants. Otherwise life went on as usual. As Julian in Delhi used to say , India is wall to wall people. Often true but mostly not. India is mysticism enchantment bewildering temples jungle spices tropics. The hotels were mediocre, traveling across a continent by bus is hard on the buttocks. Up to about 2000 meters elevation, tea plantations, coconuts galore , down to Cochin on West coast.Inland waterways trip on houseboats covered by palmfronds.Archaic graves of dutch sailors of 1600.
With Lufthansa from Bangalore back to Amsterdam. India boggles the mind. On February 15th, I had to appear in court in 's Hertogenbosch,
capital of province Brabant , to defend my objection against the hight of real estate taxes of the Swier farmhouse. I won a substantial reduction.
In my good feelings , next day in Swier , pollarding an old willow tree which had not been pollarded for about twenty years , a huge branch took revenge on me , whipped me out of the tree. I landed on my back with the electric saw next to me.I must have been out for a minute or so and then checking all my bones , I felt like Walter Mitty. It's nothing , just some broken ribs and and a badly bruised upper right leg. I crawled to the house and doused the pangs of pain with whisky anesthetic. I considerr myself a reasonably experienced woodsman but the cause of my accident was simply carelessness. Familiarity breeds contempt.By the end of May , I was as good as new. End of April , early May , lots of birthday aniversaries , queensday , Susan's day.
And suddenly it is summer or warm sunny weather at least. Time to get the khaki breeches out of the attic and see the lettuce seeds sprouting in the vegetable patch. I am happy to say that we eat the first greens from the backyard in late may and the last often around Christmas time. Its is an addiction which infected me in the first years of the '4o-'45 worldwar. I started to grow vegetables for the family , 13 years old , and have never stopped since and still like it. And then came the berries and the fruits and the nuts and the whatnots. In June ,my oldest and wisest sister Tonny reached her 80st birthday. She threw a splendid afternoon /dinner party on an estate in the east of the Netherlands. Loving feasting togetherness.
And my "jaargenoot" in starting the study of Geology at Amsterdam university in 1946 , Jaap Schermerhorn had also his 80st.birthday party at Chateau Heemstede.. Birthday parties are definitely an important cultural event in the Netherlands for social cohesion.Jaap became Professor in Geology at Luanda University and Berlin University. I did'nt.Old geologists do'nt die , they become fossils.
Most of July and August were whiled away in dry hot and sunny Ardeche. Fruits were cheaper than ever. Peaches and Bruges are sold per "plateau".
A plateau is a small wooden flat case which holds about 20 fruits. Two plateaus for 3 €. Apricots about 1€ per Kg. Being an amateur farmer myself , I pity the growers because they are loosing money at these prices. I made more confiture than in previous years and because we could not even eat half of it , it goes to children and grandchildren and others who appreciate my products. Strawberries and blackberries from our own efforts and Susan's "ramassages". How are we ? well fine I believe. Healthy as far as we feel and know. We just decided yesterday that we would give it a try for the next ten years. Hang in there, you too! Children and grandchildren doing as well as we could hope for. Jessie , Linda and Milan now in Highschool. Sharona is very happy with her Director function in the dutch hunger project. See www.thehungerproject.nl or www.thp.org and send more money.Get rid of your pangs of guilt when you see the other half of this world die from hunger.
Julian with family have moved to Moscow for Schlumberger, helping the ruskies find and produce oil. From the Kaspian to Sakhalin Island.
Flora is not as happy with the schools as she used to be in Gatwick.However, Moscow is a very large very international and now very cold , but interesting city. Cairo,Riadh,London,NewDelhi,London, Moscow , she should write a book. I know people with more boring lifes. Stephanie is still helping out in schools for very small children.Not just kiddies , also organizing planning and managing. Willem and Henk ,good housefathers, still earning plenty bread and peanutbutter.Just enough paper left to wish you all a very peaceful healthy and hopefullyear twothousand and six. And the wisdom of this year , I heard from my grandson Alexander, special for periods of drought in summertime :"When it is yellow let it mellow, when brown flush it down. Lots of love and kisses and keep your emails coming, Henri and Susan .
Technology.I installed Skype (voip) telephone (www.skype.com) and a new brother printer but I did not manage the planned computer photo collage for this letter. Still learning.
Dear Friends and Relatives,
I just noticed that this is going to be issue nr.10 of my end of year letter in its current shape. Not much has changed since 1996 and everything has changed. Today I read that the polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinsky always travels with Herodotos Histories in his knapsack. In his most recent book:"Travels with Herodotos", Kapuscinsky says that nothing much has changed in this world in 2500 years.Philosophy Schphilosophy.
Anyway, we are one year older. 2005 Was and is Susan's year. Susan completed on the 4th of May her 75th year of living. I have been there.
You are old but you feel young or as usual. I believe that it is a rermarkable point in a person's life.. It is not over yet but you are getting much closer. The remaining years are bonus years. We had a big party in May with children and grandchildren .Susan is as energetic as ever ; painting has slowed down, fitness is number one. Internetting/emailing/webwailing "in statu nascendi" but coming.Therefore is Susan the main feature of the picture gallery.
The end of year bang 2004 came too early and it was called tsunami. A truly catastrophic event with too many poor victims. We had booked a three week tour of South India beginning 15 January. We tried to cancel because we did not want to be disaster tourists. However we were persuaded to go because the income from tourism is very important for that region. We arrived in Chenai (Madras)on the east coast. Yes ,fishing boats and enormous logs high on the beaches and coastal roads and nothing else. No fish in restaurants. Otherwise life went on as usual. As Julian in Delhi used to say , India is wall to wall people. Often true but mostly not. India is mysticism enchantment bewildering temples jungle spices tropics. The hotels were mediocre, traveling across a continent by bus is hard on the buttocks. Up to about 2000 meters elevation, tea plantations, coconuts galore , down to Cochin on West coast.Inland waterways trip on houseboats covered by palmfronds.Archaic graves of dutch sailors of 1600.
With Lufthansa from Bangalore back to Amsterdam. India boggles the mind. On February 15th, I had to appear in court in 's Hertogenbosch,
capital of province Brabant , to defend my objection against the hight of real estate taxes of the Swier farmhouse. I won a substantial reduction.
In my good feelings , next day in Swier , pollarding an old willow tree which had not been pollarded for about twenty years , a huge branch took revenge on me , whipped me out of the tree. I landed on my back with the electric saw next to me.I must have been out for a minute or so and then checking all my bones , I felt like Walter Mitty. It's nothing , just some broken ribs and and a badly bruised upper right leg. I crawled to the house and doused the pangs of pain with whisky anesthetic. I considerr myself a reasonably experienced woodsman but the cause of my accident was simply carelessness. Familiarity breeds contempt.By the end of May , I was as good as new. End of April , early May , lots of birthday aniversaries , queensday , Susan's day.
And suddenly it is summer or warm sunny weather at least. Time to get the khaki breeches out of the attic and see the lettuce seeds sprouting in the vegetable patch. I am happy to say that we eat the first greens from the backyard in late may and the last often around Christmas time. Its is an addiction which infected me in the first years of the '4o-'45 worldwar. I started to grow vegetables for the family , 13 years old , and have never stopped since and still like it. And then came the berries and the fruits and the nuts and the whatnots. In June ,my oldest and wisest sister Tonny reached her 80st birthday. She threw a splendid afternoon /dinner party on an estate in the east of the Netherlands. Loving feasting togetherness.
And my "jaargenoot" in starting the study of Geology at Amsterdam university in 1946 , Jaap Schermerhorn had also his 80st.birthday party at Chateau Heemstede.. Birthday parties are definitely an important cultural event in the Netherlands for social cohesion.Jaap became Professor in Geology at Luanda University and Berlin University. I did'nt.Old geologists do'nt die , they become fossils.
Most of July and August were whiled away in dry hot and sunny Ardeche. Fruits were cheaper than ever. Peaches and Bruges are sold per "plateau".
A plateau is a small wooden flat case which holds about 20 fruits. Two plateaus for 3 €. Apricots about 1€ per Kg. Being an amateur farmer myself , I pity the growers because they are loosing money at these prices. I made more confiture than in previous years and because we could not even eat half of it , it goes to children and grandchildren and others who appreciate my products. Strawberries and blackberries from our own efforts and Susan's "ramassages". How are we ? well fine I believe. Healthy as far as we feel and know. We just decided yesterday that we would give it a try for the next ten years. Hang in there, you too! Children and grandchildren doing as well as we could hope for. Jessie , Linda and Milan now in Highschool. Sharona is very happy with her Director function in the dutch hunger project. See www.thehungerproject.nl or www.thp.org and send more money.Get rid of your pangs of guilt when you see the other half of this world die from hunger.
Julian with family have moved to Moscow for Schlumberger, helping the ruskies find and produce oil. From the Kaspian to Sakhalin Island.
Flora is not as happy with the schools as she used to be in Gatwick.However, Moscow is a very large very international and now very cold , but interesting city. Cairo,Riadh,London,NewDelhi,London, Moscow , she should write a book. I know people with more boring lifes. Stephanie is still helping out in schools for very small children.Not just kiddies , also organizing planning and managing. Willem and Henk ,good housefathers, still earning plenty bread and peanutbutter.Just enough paper left to wish you all a very peaceful healthy and hopefullyear twothousand and six. And the wisdom of this year , I heard from my grandson Alexander, special for periods of drought in summertime :"When it is yellow let it mellow, when brown flush it down. Lots of love and kisses and keep your emails coming, Henri and Susan .
Technology.I installed Skype (voip) telephone (www.skype.com) and a new brother printer but I did not manage the planned computer photo collage for this letter. Still learning.
posted by HenriBC at 12:46 AM
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