Notes: June 2012

Horse Stuff

I have been lax in the upkeep of this diary. Much has happened that has gone unrecorded. I shall pour my camera into this space and pass comment on the images. A bit like Magic Roundabout in the 60's for those as old as I. Who will ever forget Brian the Snail, Doogle, Zebedee and Dylan. Off to the Heiloo woods with Merel. A very long walk for me but able to manage more and more these days. Even played golf but realise that I'm never going to be any good at it.

As you see, Katinka has been fitted with a rather fetching ear-protector. It keeps flies off the ears. I am
not sure what the horse thinks about it. Probably thinking "I hope I don't meet any of my friends. I feel a total prat in these woolly ears. Like Bat-Horse, I am". Neatly parked outside the All-Things-Horse-Shop and back again through the high street. I following at some distance in case the horse decides to do a poo. We are not equipped with shovels, extra-strong bin-liners nor a large back-pack. As with dogs, one is obliged to clear up anything left behind ones' pet.

This is Ed, and Merel is breaking him in. Long ago, this was done by riding the horse and trying to stay on until he gave up. Now it is done by weeks of building up trust. We are at the one-stirrup and hang on stage.

Starting low to begin with! They do make a nice pair, don't they.

The Spring Fair

Just to show that things do happen in Heiloo. Not much going on but the photo does show the elegant dome of the GGZ psychiatric hospital Masses of stalls with all the same sort of hand made candles and baskets.Made locally in Taiwan. Millions of people shuffling about like sheep and wondering why they came. We must be mad we all cry. Fortunately the GGZ psychiatric hospital is only 100 yards away as the cuckoo flies.

Ruth's Birthday - and Tasty Tucker at Tidy Tony's.

Off to Tony and Elli at the abondoned school squat in Purmurend. The occasion is Ruth's birthday, and overjoyed to hear that Adam and Caroline will be there. Most young people who go to live together, especially if they live in an abandoned school that is due for demolition, will live in a 'casual' manner. Tony and Ellis home is astonishing. With little money but a lot of imagination and creative talent, plus Tony's handyman skills, they have made a warm and beautiful home out of a discarded school room.

I thought this was a work of art, some kind of sculpture, but it turns out to be the possessions of 3 girls who were staying the night who had simply dumped thier stuff on the table.

Ruth, beautiful as ever, with Adam dwarfed by the gigantic birthday cake. The meal was cooked by Tony and was a delight. A warm and pleasant evening with some wonderful people.

This is a rather illegal picture. Sent in to the lair of the other occupants of this building (a trio of east-bloc female art students) in search of a bottle-opener, I sensed some difference in their interior architecture from Tony and Elli, but could not put my finger on it. Somewhere in there an expensive Ovation guitar cleverly doubles up as coffee table and ashtray.

Chicken Wars

This month I mostly have been defending my garden from chickens. The neighbours are very nice people but they let their chickens run loose. Chickens survive by scratching the earth in search of worms and insects. And bulbs and newly planted seeds and flowers. The nice neighbour woman says that chickens are a great benefit to the garden. They have no weeds, she says, because the chickens eat them all up. So if I had chickens my garden would look like yours, I enquire. Yes indeed says she, not a weed to be seen. I gaze at the dismal garden, like a dust bowl in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. No weeds, nor any other kind of vegetation. Just dust. The chickens come in droves (or flocks, gaggles or whatever the collective noun for chickens may be. A cackle of chickens sounds good) round the back of the hayloft, just looking at the ground so they don't know where they have come from, and run off in different directions when challenged by rude words or the more understandable high pressure hosepipe. It is hard driving them home because I have put wire netting along the boundary that the chickens cannot get through and they can't remember that they strolled in through the back. At first a used wire mesh that was just big enough for a chicken to get his head through, but could not withdraw because the wire got under the feathers of the neck. A sever bout of castigation and abusive chicken insulting and the head will eventually come out. Marvellous. Bald chickens! When the chicks come out, they can easily get through the wire. Until a certain age and then they get stuck. I have designed, built and installed the one-way chicken-flap, so that the chickens can get home but not back, except by the long walk, which, being chickens, they have forgotten and must discover anew. It worked straight away. "Fuck off, you bastards" and they go four-abreast running hard at the plastic flap and bursting through. Being chickens, they attempt to get back the same way, by running at the plastic flap and knocking themselves senseless. Video of the chicken flap will be posted. Here is Merel doing her Lovely Assistant bit to demonstrate.

Emma's 17 Birthday.

The drinks are assembled

The time goes fast. One day they in a play-pen and the next they are 17. A party is called for and tents are erected and pretty lights strung out.

My little studio functions as a bar

Anyway, I can't get this blog to sort photos and put them where one would like, so there is no story here just random comment.

And the cooler is empty apart from some vomit and stuff

The beer is all gone and the crates stacked

Meanwhile this bit of the garden looks quite nice

..and this bit

..and would you believe it, another nice view

Meanwhile, we went to the Art expo at the psychiatric hospital the GGZ. Horrific stuff in the basement, all sharp and shiny instruments for making holes in peoples heads and 1860's electric shock equipment. Igor, throw the switch and give my creation life! I lost lots of photos of the pictures and sculptures.

This bowl shaped strucure was in a little room of it's own as part of a group of porcelain objects. I could not see where the sculptor was taking us, in any case it all smelled of pee and poo.

Merel bought this giant birdcage on the Internet. It is incredibly large and only came up the stairs when most of the stairs, bannisters and lamp fittings were removed. It is in the style of the Crystal Palace built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, only it is slightly smaller. And what was this to be the home of I hear you cry. An ostritch, dodo, turkey, flock of geese? No. A budgie. Only the budgie died. Probably starved to death because it managed to get to the other side of the cage and couldn't fined it's way back to the food tray. Cage dismantled again and onto Marktplaats.

Now its back to Emmas birthday. Blogger has completely gone mad and I can't move stuff around.

Here we see the party tent up - and then down

...and an intelligent looking youth wondering where the water is coming from and why his tongue is wet. It was a great party but the lights kept going out because of the overload of lights and sound system. The best thing was that everyone was a bit drunk but stayed to clear everything up.