A day of rest

Sunday, 7/24

Sometimes you choose a day of rest and sometimes it chooses you. It rained steadily throughout the night, so we took our time and lingered over the breakfast that was delivered to the hall outside our door. Soft boiled eggs direct from the hen house (served in a hand-sewn cozy to keep them warm), fresh butter, goat cheese, breads and rolls, homemade berry and apple jam with various cheeses and meats and a large pot of coffee and fresh milk. I felt like Shirley Temple in the Little Princess when she and her friend/ fellow servant Becky are freezing cold and being kept in the attic (imagine with me people, we are in a room over the garage...sort of an attic) and a kind soul provides them with an amazing tea complete with warm rolls. Remember? Well that's how I felt and me and my Becky (a.k.a. Greg) sat and stuffed ourselves joyfully. Later that morning we tried to brave the day and took our umbrella outside, dressed in all of our warmest garments to stand in the driveway and stare at the animals beyond in the field. The cold was so severe that we were shivering, and the wind was so fierce that our umbrella was turned inside out in a matter of minutes. The rain was relentless and hitting the ground at a 45 degree angle, so that even after we righted the umbrella, it was still useless in keeping us dry. We huddled in the stairwell and Hannie joined us to declare, "Well, this is Holland." She offered to drive us to the bus station and we could tour a different town today, however the idea of going anywhere in this weather seemed dangerous to us and certainly unpleasant. The other option taking the bikes out locally would have had us soaked through in minutes. (Besides my grandma doesn't like the idea of me riding a bike in the rain, I'm sure she wouldn't be a fan of us mounting up on wheels in a storm and we aim to make grandma a happy lady!) So, we opted to stay at the farm today. Greg surprised me by eagerly starting work on the windmill puzzle. It is very cool to learn new things about your mate after five years of marriage, and today I learned that Greg is a puzzle machine! He worked constantly and strategically on the puzzle until lunch. I helped occasionally but often poked my head out the window to see how the animals were fairing in the weather. Despite the pouring rain, the horses grazed, the ducks swam, the heron fished, and the bunnies looked for shelter. We discovered two giant rabbits on the property today. They are super big; a breed called Flemish Giant! I've never seen a bunny that large, at first I thought it was a cat but in fact it dwarfed the cats. We pieced together a lunch of instant soup and cheese and apple open faced sandwiches. The storm continued to rage and Greg completed the outer circle of the puzzle. I did some yoga to warm up. When we peeked out of our room in the afternoon, Hannie had left a basket of plums just picked from her tree and kissed with dew as a rainy day afternoon snacks for us. Don't you just love her?! Finally around dinner time the storm began to slow down. Hannie volunteered to take us to pick up some Chinese Take-Out since she knew it would be too cold and wet to take the bikes out tonight. We enjoyed chatting with her on the car ride to the next town over and learned some more about her and the land. Satisfied with the most bland Chinese food we had ever had, Greg settled in to finish his puzzle. Around sunset (which wasn't until well after nine), I noticed the sun had actually made an appearance and the rain had seemingly stopped. I ran outside to visit with the geese, goats, bunnies and ducks and to take some photos not knowing if this might be my one minute in the sun to do so. Back in the room the light was growing dim, Greg was still trying to piece together the blue sky in the puzzle. All the pieces look the same, so it takes great patience to find which ones match. As he was searching out his blue sky, I was hoping that we'd see some in real life tomorrow and have a chance to explore this beautiful countryside before we have to leave. My time with the animals has been precious to me. Even watching them through the window is so entertaining. At dusk, we heard a ruckus in the hen house and peered out our bathroom window to see what was going on. The geese were being scolded for trying to come in the door by an obstreperous hen squawking on the fence, the goats (not Billy, but two others I call Hansel and Gretel) came over to investigate the scene and those two were allowed to enter the shed full of chickens without complaints from the brood. It's like a soap opera at times! With so many unique personalities there's bound to be drama. Though this was not the way we expected to spend our day in Holland, I think it is a day we will each remember fondly and it was a well needed rest from our busy and active travel schedule.