Final week at the Bamboo farm

Well the weekend of May 16/17th had me accepting another work away in another location – I guess it was time for a new experience in a new location with new people.

So I am off to Bant, Netherlands, which is located in the province of Flevoland north of where I am now. Flevoland is the newest and youngest of the Netherlands provinces, as it was created by dykes to make more land. I am told by Erwin that the soil is clay (which I thought I was already working in) and it’s true clay at its finest and can be a pain in the butt to work with – so I guess I will have to get bigger muscles!!  Emerlood is the largest city around with around 25,000 residence and Bant is about 6km’s away, a perfect 20 min bike ride. Bant itself only has about 1300 residence, so it will be a bit like Grandview, MB.

I will be volunteering on a biological fruit/vegetable garden/farm – so I am excited to see what the new experience will hold and also excited to hear that I may be meeting up with previous volunteer Rachel (England) again!

My final week on the Bamboo farm has been a good one to end the chapter in this book. We got a lot done with only myself being the only volunteer at the farm and worked hard. I think I even managed to make it into Jared’s (my supervisor) book of best hard working volunteers, yay!!

The weather turned warm this week reaching 25-30 everyday, which made for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms in the evenings, but thankfully I didn’t drown.

Jared and his wife Deanna, we kind enough to invite me over to their home for diner and enjoy a home cooked meal with them, their youngest daughter and Deanna’s sister who was visiting. A great evening out and visit to be had, followed with some great info and pictures.

The following night, I stayed at Kyra & Erwin’s house in the evening to watch over the children while they attended there meetings, thankfully no one went bump in the night and I even managed to make it back to the farm before the rain. Although I think the dog was a bit jealous as I cuddled with their cat for a bit and she could smell it all over me.

A few of the nights Kyra & Erwin let me join them for diners and various salads were had as the vegetable garden (mostly that I planted) is booming and on it’s way! I just hope that it continues to grow.

I also tried to attempt to get my Sofi number, which hopefully will all work out in the end, then I am good to go – hopefully for all of Europe for however long I end up staying. Also picked up my official residence card in Utecht and got to see my horrible picture after being jetlagged at day 3 of being in the Netherlands, but at least I got it!

Friday night we had a potluck at the farm or as they call it “American Party” and good food and company were had by all!

And the weekend found me relaxing, biking, walking the dog by the canal and getting things sorted out before I start my next adventure.

Flower Power!

Well the past two weeks have been amazing, so I will break this down into two blogs.

The week of May 12-18^th was put into flower overdrive, as Kyra and Erwin gave William and myself two free tickets to the Floralien Nederland 2014 Expo – it was amazing!! They both new full heartily that I would truly enjoy the flower show and that it would be a great experience for me and they were right.

We headed off early Thursday morning to S’Hertogenbosch, a hours drive away to see the beautiful display. I think we spent about 2 or more hours there and I took probably over 200 photos of all the arrangements and designs that the 6 galleries held. We were definitely the minority in the crowds of white hair, but nonetheless still to be enjoyed. There were thousands upon thousands of flowers, trees, grasses and other plants displayed from a variety of companies throughout the Netherlands and a few beyond. The colors and smells were overwhelming and there was so much to look at in such little time. The people/companies must have spent countless hours and days getting there plants and designs set up in the halls, especially the towering trees (which I hope survive).

We spent a few hours wondering the streets in S’Hertogenbosch, which is south of Utrecht until we found a lovely place to have diner at. Then a quick stroll along the canal and into which may have been an old fort before heading back on the road to the farm.

A day of relax for the most part followed the next day, with an adventure and bike tour around Amersfoort before planning my Saturday.

Off early in the morning on Saturday to take in the final weekend of Keukenhof in Lisse near the western coastline. Keukenhof is a large tulip (and other flower) garden for tourists to visit in one spot. I read that between middle of March to the middle of May about 800,000 people visit the gardens, at 15E apiece I can see why they can stay in business for such a short period in time. But I knew that the gardens wouldn’t be as glorious as in high season, but I wanted to visit them nonetheless.

So I dropped William off to continue his adventures before Mocha and I headed into the gardens. I think I spent over 4 hours wondering the large gardens and exploring every corner that I could while I was there, entering into a few of the halls to read on the history of the tulip. There was still so much to see and so many areas to visit, even though some of the tulip heads have been already cut off, the other plants alone and the design of the gardens was still an amazing site to see. Thankfully the one benefit of being the last weekend open was that the crowds weren’t too overwhelming and you could still manage to take a few photos without too many people walking through. So many photos were taken and my love for flowers and nature truly beamed that day!

Nearing the end of the day I entered into the final hall that was plastered with Lilies, orchids and other succulents – some of my favorite flowers all in one spot. The smell was overwhelming from the lilies, but I still explored every corner that I could. After exiting the hall I toured the final part of the gardens by the windmill where Mocha and I sat on a bench amongst the tulip fields, me having true Dutch ice cream – Mocha her dog treat, while a live Big Band played in the background by the creek. All in all a pretty amazing way to end the day at the gardens. Then off to tour around before heading back to the farm.

Sunday was spent lazing around the farm, playing patty cake with Lova and jumping on the trampling with her and Muuse, while Muuse giggled as the water underneath my weight splashed through (them being to light of course), so of course Muuse would jump closer to me to get wet. It was a great way to end the week!

(photos of Floralien & Keukenhof)