A boat on the canals

The Netherlands is a country full of canals and rivers. In winters these canals are perfect to skate on while in summer many people fish in them or else enjoy an afternoon on their boats. While living in Amsterdam I even saw post being delivered from barges on the canals. So once we moved to our current house, which has a garden directly at the canal it was obvious that I wanted a boat of my own.

So we scoured the internet for a small boat to start calling our own and a few weeks ago we finally got ours. We were also lucky to have a perfect weekend to use our boat.

The boat

It's so lovely to check our neighborhood from this angle. I even got some ideas on how to improve our back garden!

An evening ride

Hemelwater 

And obviously cold beer or a glass of rose wine makes the trip even more idyllic.

Successful climbing

Climbing last weekend was successful. I went there feeling much more scared than I was during all the weekend. In fact I'm really proud of myself. Sometimes it would also be nice that I don't worry so much about everything!

I learned a lot and I now know how to secure myself on top of a climb, how to secure a partner from top while he's climbing and I also learned how to create an abseil for the team and also for myself. These steps are the main steps one needs for climbing outdoors.

We were lucky and had good weather all weekend, so good that while climbing I was feeling really hot. It might had to do with all the exercise though!

Michael at the top

Michael abseiling

At the top

Me climbing

My body might be slightly confused at this point since in the last couple of weeks I trained much more than usual. I have now started jogging a few times a week in the country side around my house. It's so nice to be able to be away from the city's hustle and bustle in a just less than 5 minutes. And even though the weather in Holland hasn't been what one expects at this time of year many evenings have clear blue skies, which makes everything look like a picture on a postcard.

Spiders

Our garden is definetely a spider nesting area! In the first months living in the house I used to try and remove the spider webs regularly but they always came back the next day. I never minded spiders until I saw the size they can grow into. We've got mutant ones who make huge webs and in turn prey on large mosquitos. Sometimes it's fascinating seeing them prepare the web, mostly though they're just a nuisance.

Spiders are protected insects, thus we cannot buy something which will kill them. However we did find a more humane solution. We got a spray that will not allow the web to stick on the surfaces, so the families of spiders have to move somewhere else. We're going to try it out soon, I really hope that it works out, otherwise we need to get the Spinbusters (aptly named like Ghostbusters).

 
You would think why is our house full of spiders? There seems to be a reason which is not related to us living directly by the water. The newly built areas in the Hague were green areas before they were built on. They were areas where spiders lived. Once the building process started, the spiders relocated in the buildings structure and never moved out.
 
[Image Credits: http://pinterest.com/pin/275502511/]

The move is done

Yesterday my life was literally packed into boxes. A life which was moved 6kms across The Hague.  It felt somehow sad to see the apartment, my home for more than a year, being emptied. At the same time I was also worried that some piece of furniture or a box full of glassware was going to fall off from the movers lift. Luckily the movers worked hard and didn’t do any damage, if you ignore the speaker which fell from around 1 meter height. In the end though this speaker was delivered all in one piece but we didn’t dare yet to try it out. Overall though I had a huge smile plastered on my face.

By the end of the evening we had unpacked half of our belongings. As the hours of unpacking went by frustration ensued but luckily my great boyfriend was there to help to rummage in boxes in dark rooms to locate my lost bathroom products. Once found, I could take a much needed warm shower, whose immediate relaxation effect was more than welcomed.

Now that the big days of February have just passed, I can look forward to my birthday just 9 days ahead. And even though 30 doesn’t sound great at all *come on who wants to turn 30, really, and leave the amazing twenties behind?!*, I always look forward to my birthday like I did when I was a child.

[Image Credits: Staff Room Project]