Week 17 The Lockdown Continues

Boat trip with Ben and Boeke

3 hrs out with only one bridge to pass under @ 2.4metres

It was surprising that there were so many boats - particularly at the exact spot we were heading for! (that was where all the shelter was from the Beaufort 4 wind).
So we easily found another spot with only one boat (they had a windscreen to sit behind) - we moored so that we could at least sit outside in the lee of the boat.

We're not sure yet that Boeke actually likes it - he found this spot early in the morning.

An island with history...

(My rough translation) In 1914 Johan and Froukje Hoekstra built a "place" on this island - two farmhouses and a workers house - three houses which probably gave rise to the name Trijehus - (three houses).

The property changed hands several times and in 1961 Geert Vaartjes bought the "place" from his father Gerrit. But, Geert didn't want to do the farming, so he rebuilt the  farmhouse and began a Sailing School - Zeilsschool Trijehus.
The business grew and became well known in Friesland. In summer young and old learnt the basics of sailing. A couple of years after they started they also opened a small cafeteria/restaurant. This became so successful thay they stopped the sailing school. Seven years later they sold the business as a restaurant which was run by a succession of owners until a fire ended the business.

From our mooring we walked along the path to the old site.

Located on the (large) Prinses Margrietkanaal we spotted many (I counted 26) large commercial ships - more than the total number of pleasure craft.

It looks fairly forlorn, but we usually prefer the isolation if we can get it.

The island is now a nature reserve within the National Park. One of the signs gave information about how it had been used to dump "sludge" dredged from the many canals - amid protests it all had to be done in a way that didn't contaminate the surrounding area. It all now looks pretty good.

The sand martin or European sand martin, bank swallow in the Americas, and collared sand martin in India, is a migratory passerine bird in the swallow family. It has a wide range in summer, embracing practically the whole of Europe and the Mediterraneancountries and across the Palearctic to the Pacific Ocean.

Scientific name: Riparia riparia
Phylum: Chordata
Higher classification: Sand martins
Order: Passerine
Rank: Species
Kingdom: Animalia

There is a 30 metre long concrete wall with 300 holes for the sand martins to build nests in.

WARM AS TOAST

I suppose I could Google the origins of this saying, but I found my own meaning in the early hours of the chilly morning. Simply by boiling the kettle and making eggs on toast, the salon soon becomes enjoyable to sit in - it's a relatively small compartment, taking only a few minutes to warm up. The rising sun - turning it's attention to our windows - soon took over - it's that time of the year. Interesting to note that only 2 years ago we had record temperatures in April.

Another night on the boat.

Breakfast - porridge and poached eggs -an unlikely combination perhaps.

As usual my mind began to wander - while I was heating the milk, I remembered a device that Mum used to have - to stop the milk boiling over - a white ceramic disk with a ridged swirl. It occurred to me that I have never, ever seen another one - not that one would go looking in other people's kitchens, nor would it ever occur to ask someone if they had one.
So a Google search - 'to prevent milk boiling' and lo and behold, such a thing does exist and with a scientific explanation of how it works.

It was probably this one from Fowler Ware

Now, to see if it is also a Dutch thing...ah, yes it is an overkookplaatje - this one from Pyrex...

So, it must have been a boring week if it has come to this...

We're still under lockdown, but we are going to have the kids again from Tuesday - just during the day. Some of the parents are starting to wilt.

We're setting things up so that we can maintain the social distancing, including plastic sheeting between the workplaces of the day workers - we'll have a few of them back as well.

Before we went away on the boat, Janny rang them all just to keep in touch - they all want to come back to "work"!

Some kids are going back to school on May 11. There will be no entertainment "events" at least until September 1.

The new date for the next decision about extending the lockdown is the 20th of May.

The Prime Minister speaks well (not like that other place). He comes over quite well and has done himself no harm at all, in a political sense.

Janny won't let me go anywhere - except the boat - could be worse, I guess...