After having had some heavy rain early this morning, thinking we maynot be able to go for our walk this week, I phoned Marja, she said"well rain has never stopped me before", so when she arrived to pick me up, armed with my paraplu (umbrela) and goods, climbed into the car and headed for Wiers parked the car and started our walk.
Today we walked from Wiers to Minnertsga.
The weather was absolutely wonderful, the heady smell of rain that hadcome down and washed everything clean, and you have that lovely smellof flowers, trees and rain.
As we walked along, we saw a huge dome in the distance, at first I thought it may be a water tower, but as we got closer we saw a fence surrounding the dome then I knew it could not be a water tower, and saw it belonged to the army (defencie).
We walked along the side of the main road on a fiets pad (cycle track), and next to us was a patch of ground sown with a potatoe crop, with a sign Agro on, (meaning the potatoes are only grown argricultarily), the potatoes were beging to bloom, meaning they were nearly ready to be picked. There were a few laying on the ground, what a difference to the ones we receive in the shop, they were very fresh and had a hard feeling, not soft like you feel in the shops and not with roots all over them.
What is very is attractive is that the farmers advertise on boards that you can buy potatoes directly from them, Dores, Borges, Bildstar (names of the different potatoes you can buy in the Netherlands). They also had a flag above the sign, this was the traditional Friesien flag, (white and blue with red lily pads) only found in Frieseland, North Holland.
when we came to a T-junction at the end of the fiets pad, we could either go right to St Jacobiparochie, or left to Minnertsga we chose Minnertsga as it was 1 kilometer away, as St Jacobiparochie was 2 kilometers according to the board on the side of the road.
When we first entered Minnertsga, it did not give me much of a feeling as, Berlikum or Wiers did, to our left was a field with a crop of potatoes and vegetables growing.
As a child one has read stories and seen pictures of scarecrows put up to frighten the crows away but to see one in real life and in a field was just amazing for me to see.
we then came across very modern houses, (though I have no prejudice over modern houses per se, but I prefer the old).We saw a garden with the most interesting flowers planted in front of the house in the flower bed and as Marja was taking photo's with her camera and we were both cooing and ahhing over them saying how beautiful and unusual they were, and I was asking Marja what one flower was, if she knew the name, a voice from the upper floor window said "horststarr" I think, (not sure how you spell it), after recovering from my embarrasment, the front door opened and the woman of the house came out and told us a story over her plants, saying that the house was built in around 1930, and they only bought flowers from a kwekerij (nursery), that grew green house flowers from that period, and have laid their whole garden with these flowers, well that was very interesting..... did we learn something that one normally looks at ones garden, not thinking anything about it except it beauty or how it is laid out, but there is certainly something behind each garden that is made.
After having had this pleasant exchange with each other, and passing the time, we started to head towards the village centre, came across a church, (which was quite large), which surprised me as after reading the name "Minnertsga, my impression was one of you will drive, walk or cycle through one end of the village and come out the otherside in a minute, how wrong I was proven.We then of course came across the baker (unfortunately not the candlestick maker), but we did come across the butcher.
What amazes me about the villages, is that some people are very friendly, some are not, the people in the baker were Fries and as we entered the said 'good morning' to us in Fries, to which we replied in Dutch 'good morning' back.
They asked if we could understand and speak Fries, (which is a language they only speak in Friesland in The Netherlands), and I said I understood a little, as my parents were Fries, but I spoke Dutch, (which I must say is fluent enough), but because of my English, I get the grammar sometimes mixed up, but beleive it or not, here in Holland, no-one laughs at you, in fact they prefer it if you try, and they help to correct you which I find very nice and hospitable of them.
Now not only in this baker could you buy bread, they also had little knick knacks, much to my delight, I found lovely dienstblads (trays), for my kitchen (as I have a little english cottage kitchen), with a design of little strawberries and strawberry leaves on one, and Friesian cows on the other, so I purchased three, and some bread round in shape called "Zee Bonk" and a loaf of white round bread, (farmhouse style), well then it was time to turn around and make tracks back to Wiers.
On our way back just as we were leaving Minnertsga, on our left was a row of houses that I never noticed when we entered, Minnerstga, but they reminded me of a row of english houses that we come across in England sometimes in their villages.
Well after that exciting and weary trip we got back to the car andheaded back for Leeuwarden. We also came across three pauwen(peacocks), standing on the rooftop of a house in a little group, itreally looked as if they were standing there discussing the weather orsomething, how exciting and just as we finished taking the photographthey flew off. we took the photo just in time.
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