It's Tuesday, already

The days are going past quickly and I keep being behind on my blogging.  So, here we are with another catch-up post or two.

On Saturday morning our friend Dieuwke picked us up and took us to Tante Joke's.  (her aunt Joke's) in Dalfsen.  While we started with rain, it improved as we went north and east.  We arrived in mid morning and had to have the requisite tea/coffee.  They live in a marvelous home,

filled with quilts and antiques, porcelein and linens - just a treasure trove.  Then the five of us (Dieuwke, Caro, Joke, M & E) took off for Rouveen.  Rouveen is quite a conservative town, filled with gereformeered church members - many of whom still dress in the traditional costumes all the time.  However there is a magnificent store, Stegeman's Textiel where we scoured the shelves and nooks and crannies.  I only purchased a few souvenirs and some fabric from London,

a wonderful 'electric' blue color.  Caro found some fabrics she loved from the 1950's (that's not so old in my book!) and Joke found some very nice ribbons.  We then drove on to the ultra-conservative Staphorst.  Staphorst is reported to be one of 3 churchvillages.  Over 16,000 people live here and approximately 600 women and children still wear the traditional costumes.  Only 6 men still wear the traditional outfits.  The colors worn were listed as: white for deepest mourning, only on Sunday.  Black is for deep mourning, blue for mourning and red means not in mourning.

  Here we visited the Museumboerderij Staphorst - The Staphorst farmhouse museum.  Buildings here are painted in green (the color of nature's youth), white (purity) and blue (to keep out evil - or sometimes it is said to keep out the flies when painted on window sills)  The metal tree of life was an old Germanic fertility symbol, above the front door.

[no weeds are allowed to get a start in these gardens]

In the museum is an example of a living room.

 One of the particularly fascinating items was the arrangement for how to "manage" toddlers just learning to walk and wander (and get into trouble).  The child was placed into the wooden frame.

The frame is then connected by rope to a wheel on a track that ran across the ceiling [avoiding all troublesome items like stoves, etc.]

right next to the sausages hung to dry.  Here I found a pincushion done in the traditional stipwerk method.  These designs are painted using a nail dipped in the color.

Georgous, huh?

We returned to Joke and Marco's for a delicious Indonesian dinner, visiting and pleasant drive home.

Thank you Joke and Marco for all your kindness and hospitality and food (and many gifts).  Thanks Dieuwke for driving.  Thanks E for most of the fine photos.  More to follow.