This Week in Wijnjewoude 2026

Week 4 Janny's birthday today... We had the typical Dutch "Circle Party" last night...just family, but with a big family that is always enough...although there were some missing. Key Elements of a Dutch Circle Party Seating Arrangement:  Chairs are arranged in a closed loop or circle, often with diverse seating types (dining chairs, couches). Gefeliciteerd (Congratulations):  Upon arrival, you must shake hands or give three kisses to everyone in the room, not just the birthday person, congratulating everyone in the circle. Food and Drink:  Coffee and tea are served, usually accompanied by a slice of cake, followed by savory snacks like cheese, sausage, or cucumbers. On Friday night , we took the clients out for a restaurant meal - not something they can easily do themselves. We used the money from our Christmas Fair - which they had all contributed to by making things and/or helping out on the day. Unfortunately, we had a couple of late cancellations due to sickness ...

Week 3  I usually keep my  "interesting stuff" in Google Keep - which now has better searching and functionality...but this week, I started pasting directly into here, just to see what would happen...so it's a mixed bag with headings...and probably too much :-) Kids' Weekend again...and again the feeling of "where did that time go?" After the snow there's nowhere to go, No one's around and I've nothing to do.  Cat on my lap waiting to be fed, I'm thinking, all I want is to go back to bed. (Oh dear, apparently "bedrotting" is a thing these days) So, the latter half is the "keeping informed" bag... ...in the "keeping active" bag were the following items (photos) On Monday morning I got the tractor out to run over all the mole hills and piles I had made when shovelling the snow... While I had the tractor out and it was a dry day... I use the tractor to foot the ladder to tackle the cleaning of the dormer window - t...

 Week 2 This reminded me of the "War on 1034" from so many years ago... Home Battery? Aha, I've been advocating this for years - it's not yet available in Friesland. Good heavens, they were for sale from IKEA in Germany and Belgium - the Netherlands went another route in paying for the energy produced - but that has now stopped and the electricity companies actually charge people to "carry" the electricity that they produce - obviously far better to store it....it remains fairly costly - I  hear people say that it would take "so long" to make their money back...the same people that will buy a car without a second thought about making their money back - some things are just the right thing to do. I have a quote for new solar panels AND a home storage battery - but I also have a quote for a new roof on one of the apartments - so the rules about stretching the budget still apply... Apply for a subsidy for a home battery! F rom Monday, January 12, resi...