Janson's Temptation

Post Christmas Lunch at Birgit and Oystein eating delicious leftovers and a special dish called Janson's Temptation with potatoes, onions and anchovies...

LANFERMEIJERTJES

This one is in Dutch!
Herman was in de buurt en kwam een middag langs met zijn dochters Noor en Pien.
Zij vonden dat we voor de kerst niet genoeg versierd hadden en zijn meteen aan de slag gegaan met de hokken van Boy en Sien.

Het resultaat: Mooi!
Ik geloof dat Pien wil blijven slapen....

Pien.

Sien.

Het duurde even voordat Boy over zijn verlegenheid heen kwam maar daarna was het dikke vrienden!
Was gezellig!

boxing day lunch

We had Mike, Zulema and Rebecca over for lunch on boxing day.
Here you can see the difference between a real photographer and ... me taking a picture.
Here you see that I didn't notice that Chris was hiding behind the candles


And Chris just waited untill I moved into the picture (although Zulema looks pretty funny here....)
Had a lovely lively afternoon with lots of cava and conversation.

XMAS

Willow has made personalised christmas cards for all her friends and made our choice for a card easy this year... Merry Christmas!

willow

Willow relaxing in a hammock-chair with Joshua (left) and her son Indigo.
These cosy hammocks are super-comfortable and you feel like you're in a womb.
I want one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMMA and JOCHEM!

ANNE SARAH MYRTHE

Born today, daughter of Anneke Bots and John van de Weg

second harvest olive oil

Because they had such a big crop our neighbours Birgit and Oystein decided to harvest olives a second time and try out a new mill. We helped them pick and this time we harvested 666 kilo's of olives. The oil tastes devilishly good!


The olives are poured into a big underground container.


Transport belts bring the olives up to be washed and weighed and from there into the mill.


The actual press and machines look impressive here.


Everything is computerised.


And at the end liquid gold pours out.
We had 90 liters of olive oil this time: not bad!
The quality was tested and the PH value was 0.5 which means it is 'extra virgin'...

CUMPLEAÑOS FELIZ

Happy birthday daddy!

REMY-MARTIN

left- Remy right- Martin

together they are as heady as a good french cognac: giggle time for the boys!

GIRLFRIENDS

Saturday evening at my parent's place. Lotte (with Tessel) and Anneke and Gisèle came all the way down south to catch up on the latest gossip from Spain.


We had a classic winter dinner: boeuf bourguignon and ofcourse some lovely wine to wash it away...

Anneke due in about 3 weeks...

Everyone stayed the night and the next morning we went to see Koen (and Thijs and Cerise ofcourse)

My nephew Koen

Went to visit Koen in Eindhoven, he's so cute!
(photo stolen from Koen's blog)

And tiny...

And loved...

Olive picking time

It's olive picking time again and this year JP and Ingrid are here to help.

Some of the trees are in tricky places but Ingrid is a reincarnated mountain goat so for her it was no problem!

We cleaned the trees up to the last olive.


And had a break in between with an outdoor lunch.
It is sunday the 19th of November and 25 degrees celcius.
warm enough for shorts and... nothing else for JP!

Antonio

Our neighbour Antonio passing by our house, he's herding his flock of sheep and always loves a chat. Usually about the weather...

Viktor&Rolf

Viktor&Rolf love H&M and I love Viktor&Rolf...

RAIN!

Yesterday... it has been drizzeling for 2 weeks now, the plants are happy, the sky is grey and reminds me of Holland.
The weather predictions are pretty gloomy.



The weatherman was right!
Last night it rained with a vengeance...
Our pool as you can see from the picture taken this morning has risen to the rim (about 8 cm) and I needed to 'backwash' it to prevent it from overflowing.
As we live on top of the mountain all the water that falls finds the shortest way down as fast as it can: the road. Our road is partially a dirt track and now has a mini grand canyon right in the middle.
This is why 4x4 cars are made and why we have one.
(In Holland 4x4's are now called PC-Hooft tractors because they are seen a lot on Saturdays on the most expensive shopping street in Amsterdam.)

KOEN

Welcome to this world: KOEN!
Son of my brother Thijs and Cerise, born on the 1st of November 2006.
I am a very proud and happy aunt!

We're down at our Norwegian neigbour's house again and this time for a photo shoot for Christmas.
Chris is using his special 'underwater-photo-box' with a camera weighed down with diving weights and a camera mounted inside on a sliding rail.


We managed to trick Oystein into being Santa Claus and I must say, he has talent and gusto!


Getting into position...


Merry Christmas! 'Everyone needs a break sometime'

concrete again...

Back to work! Just to prevent ourselves from forgetting... once in a while we start that engine again and make a nice mix of concrete.


I don't think I'll ever forget how to make this stuff, it's like riding a bike, it sounds scary and you fall off a lot but as soon as you get the hang of it there's no turning back...


This time we helped our neighbour Oystein to fill some trenches in his garden to help keep the ground together when it rains.
We're glad to be able to help him out for a change!

40 year wedding anniversary

On October the 1st Oystein and Birgit were happily married for 40 years (just like my parents... how do they do it?) must be true love!
They celebrated it in Spain with all three sons who came over (with their loved ones) and friends. It was a lovely day!

Norwegian Lunch

Oystein and Birgit are back from Norway and came over for lunch with two of their sons; Tor Magnus and Hans and Christine, Hans's wife. Lazy Sunday afternoon...

One of Christian's oldest friends (since highschool) was here this week and even managed to get him to help out. Digging trenches and putting up scaffolding board together with Chris to make a low wall behind the pool.
(He's trying to hide his belly behind the shower pole...)

Chris's birthday, celebrated with a small drop of sparkling wine and...


CHOCOLATE CAKE! yummy!

the youngest person to swim in our pool up to now is Laurens: 16 months old and well protected... this must be the smallest size lifevest that you can get, and the cutest!

with his dad Michel he was brave enough to try the water without vest (and diapers) as long as dad held on to him tightly!

the complete family, aahhhh... sweet...