This weekend we did an historic excursion to the Biesbosch national park leading us back to the forgotten lifestyle of the griendworker: the men who harvested and collected the willow branches. The men, mostly catholic from surrounding villages like Drimmelen and Made left their families during the weekdays to sleep in circumstances rarely seen in our part of the world these days.

When watching the video of the pics, you may think this is nature you see. No. Every square meter of this area has been cultivated by humans. Trees, trenches, water systems. Only the beaver lodgeBeav is non-human

Before the days of the tie wrap, the men also used willow branches to tie up their piles. The technique to fold these wraps is shown by our guide Toon on this video. In the galleries you will see pictures of:

• boat trip from Drimmelen to The Deene Plate, where it all happened
• our excursion group, overcrowded by students from Utrecht.
• guide Toon and captain/host Jan, both grandchildren of original griendworkers.
• The hut (keet), restored to 1934 conditions

[Show as slideshow]

The works of a Griendworker, the old crafts of the Biesbosch, The Netherlands.

In order to reach larger branches, first remove the small ones. Bind them together with one of the self-made willow tie wraps.

In response to the Dutch Governments policy to ban the psychic mushroom (Paddo), we went to visit the natural parc of Meijendel, north of The Hague. And guess what we found…

[Show as slideshow]

Suzanne’s colleague Marjan had it organized: going out to dive in the Grevelingen. Sunday 9:00 sharp we entered Sublub in Rotterdam Kralingen. Trying on all the equipment, see the Padi.com video (typical commercial-American style) and another talk from the boss Willem. He knows how to run the show.

Real-life wasn’t so easy. The dicing itself started off like hell. Every time the diving glasses leaked water. Me up again. You can do it like this. - Do you really think I try to lift the goggles at 2 meters below? And then try to talk like that with a breathing automate in your mouth. After the 3rd try I thought: forget it, I’m out.

After my buddy had tied up the goggles a bit tighter, it was okay. Had a good dip and saw whatever the loco had to offer: crabs, cancers, all kinds of fish, jellyfish, plants. Later on even the sun came in. Even started to like it!

Theo and Jenny celebrated their sixties in a wonderful way. About 30 friends came over to Liempde for a game of minigolf and a couple of drinks. The food was great too. Too bad I blew up my bike type, but for the rest it was great. Nice to see al my nieces again and all the people who have known me for years but who I still don’t know by name.

[edit: all pics are now straight-up!]

Show All Pictures

(more…)