Jelsum - Cornjum : 11 December 2005.

Today we started walking from Jelsum through to Cornjum. (North of Leeuwarden, in the direction of Stiens).

It was most strange,  walking along the road that leads from Jelsum through to Cornjum, you come across a row of houses aligning the right side of the road and opposite on the left was a building that was once used as a school,it was a very nice old building (pity it is not in use anymore), or perhaps it is under renovations as there was indications that there were people working inside, as we saw ladders etc;  but strange why?, as you came across a board from the Municipality (Gemeente) on the side of the road, painted on one side Jelsum and on the other side Cornjum ( you see this when you walk back from Cornjum), this made you feel as if you were walking across a border (grens), I guess in a way you are.

Actually,  as I compare this to Westeinde in Leeuwarden , you have railway tracks running through dividing Westeinde from  Valerius Quarter, this  also feels as if you are walking or cycling over a border (grens).

We continued to walk through and by the houses aligning the right side of the road, made you feel as if you were living on top of one another and little space to move in, though looking through the houses windows you could see there was a great expanse of farming area where sheep were grazing.

We then entered Cornjum.

Cornjum, is located under the municipality Leeuwarderadeel (province of Friesland).

When we first entered Cornjum, we came across a fork in the road, one of the forks in the road led to the church in Cormjum, so we started from there first, we visited the graves, (as we always do this on our walks and I also give a prayer for the souls), we look at the names and years,  as one can get a lot of information about how long a place has been occupied from around what year, also I love reading names you get so many unusual ones and the 'Friesians 'have some lovely ones.

Like mine for instance I am called Grace, but that is a nick name, my real name is 'Fries', it is Gatske Lieuwina (nee) Schaap.  As I said before I got carried away with names, we came across the church, the church was built on a mound (terp) and was built around 1873, the site of an early medieval St Nicholas Church. It is now an Nederlands Hervormed Kerk (reformed). We found at the back of the church a gate, which we passed through, and came into a lane which brought us to the Martenastate.

The original medieval Martenestate was demolished around the year 1899, in its place in around the 1900, a small castle (or Mansion), was built in its place.

The original home belonged to the family, Martena and later to the famillies, Burmania and Vegilin van Claegbergen.

The last male descendant of the Martena family was Admiral Doeka Martena.

Martenastate is on a small island and is surrounded by a canal and park, with rich flora and also has a family grave yard next to the mansion.

Martenestate is owned by the Martenastate Nature Reserve Foundation.

The mansion is not accessible (as it has inhabitants), but the grounds and the camping area are.

The grounds the mansion stands on is lovely and the park surrounding the mansion, is beautiful even in autumn, but it must be most breathtaking in the summer as there are plaques (signs), dotted all over the grounds indicating what flowers are grown there and where they come from, in the summer I think we may go back there to see it.

We then came to the main entrance to Martenstate and above the portico was the coat of arms, two lions and a shield, with a crown above the shield.

Walking back we came across some lovely free standing houses.

I recommend this walk as it is very pretty, interesting, and very relaxing, it is also a nice cycle route (if you like cycling).

After this we walked back to Jelsum to the car.

Isn't this horse beautiful, it is a frisian horse, they are very big.

I have a uncle in 'Bergum' who also has horses like this and when I stand next to them I really realize how short I am. These horses are magnificent, though sad to say I cannot ride a horse. I wish I could.

We passed a house that had a swing attached between two very large trees, this reminded me of my childhood, my father had made a swing with a car tyre and a piece of rope and tied it to a branch of a blue gum tree (eucalyptus tree), my sister and I had a lot  of fun on this.

When I saw this swing I thought how much fun the children who swing on it  must have. When I was on mine I used to pretend I was in a aeroplane going to some exotic land (not knowing one day I would fly to South Africa and then to The Netherlands to the origins of my family).

We came across an empty house and had a look inside (as I love looking at houses), and when one is empty, well I just have to have a look.  It was a tiny house big enough for two people, and on the side of the house  it had an ivy creeper growing, what I did not know was that the ivy stem was round on the top and flat on the underside which was on the wall and it had little roots growing under the stem on the branch so it could grip the brick on the wall, this reminded me of a caterpilla, (duizendpoot).

Till our next walk.