In Veen

in the garden (left) with Vellah, Lindsey and Berend



Returned yesterday from a wonderful two days in Veen with my cousin Lindsey, her partner Berend and daughter Vellah. They live in a beautiful thatched roof house nestled behind a dyke with a meadow on the other side which is on the edge of a river. On our first night, after a delicious meal of white and green asparagus (god, the asparagus is huge here),
Berend took us out in his boat - it was out of this world. They looked after us so well, feeding us with home grown eggs and vegetables, wonderful Dutch cheeses, delicious wines. Lindsey is a genius cook - on the second night we had turkish meat patties with yummy coriander and beyaz peynir sauce on the side (beyaz peynir is a white cheese rather like Greek feta)
cooked on the barbecue which is the centre of their outside table. Berend makes his own wine, but we didn't get to taste that. He is a sculptor, Lindsey is a ceramics restorer. Beautiful Vellah is now a journalist living in Amsterdam. The house has some wonderful pieces of furniture made by Berendt. We had a swim in the river and on our last morning T and I went for a fast bike ride along the dyke and into the Dutch countryside. The granny bike shape felt a lot more familiar than my racing bike at home.

Cows at dusk



Beautiful Vellah















Lovely Lindsey




breakfast Dutch style








bikes on dykes








Berend's table and wine










guest bathroom


Garden with octagonal henhouse