We received the stones of the driveway Sunday, 21-Jun-26 20:51:28 CEST

Sunday, 28-Jun-26 22:54:14 CEST

More driveway material

This week the rest of the material for the driveway were delivered.

Monday 22 June

It was lovely weather this morning.

So last week I called the doctor, and she talked about light effects. If I get light effects in my eyes, I should call her again. So, in the morning, can you imagine I got myself light effects in my eyes? DW was working from home, so we had lunch together, and I told her about my light effects. DW demanded I call the doctor immediately. I had time to go to the doctor 45 minutes later, so I went to see her.

The doctor's office is within walking distance of where we live, so I walked there. I could bike, but what would the doctor think if I arrived by bike? "That guy is not having any issues with his eyes."

The doctor wanted me to describe the light sensations I had. It was very important whether it happened to one eye or both eyes, and I am not sure about that. So I think I had it mostly in my left eye, and I stuck to the story. I had no idea if that was of any specific importance, and it turned out to be absolutely vital. But I’m not a professional, so I just went with the flow.

The doctor sent me to the hospital to have an eye doctor look into my eyes. She said that it would be better if I could go with someone who could drive me home because it would be difficult to drive from the hospital. DW canceled her meetings, and we drove to the city center.

Was I worried? Not really. But that was more due to my incompetence than anything else. DW was worried, and my doctor was worried. She said that things like these are taken seriously. I had a feeling it was not going to be anything terrible, that’s what I felt.

I mean, there was a lot at stake, like most probably I would not be able to live the life as I live it today, or it was just some glitch. Anyway, we entered the eye doctor's office at the hospital. It is amazing that you can go from totally healthy to sitting in the waiting room or a doctor's office in just a couple of hours. I am absolutely sure it won't be expensive because this is the Netherlands.

When we arrived, the waiting room was full. Slowly but surely, people left, and DW and I joked that at some point someone would turn off the light and they would ask us, " Are you still sitting here?

The doctor looked deep into my eyes; she dripped stuff in my eyes that would widen my pupils so that she could see all of the inside of my eyes.

Long story short, there was nothing wrong with my eyes. I had experienced a light migraine. So now we know that. DW drove home, and I was sensitive to light the rest of the evening.

We got many tomatoes this season. DW had fallen in love with spiral-shaped tomato pins and ordered these online. The promise was that they would be delivered the next day. Here we were two weeks later, and the pins had been delivered!. She was as excited as a little child receiving presents for her birthday.

In the evening, I finished last week’s blog. I used AI to suggest improvements to my writing. I let it point out boring and unengaging paragraphs. That works quite well. I never let it write sentences for me because I don’t like that. Either there is my writing, or there is no writing. No pain, no gain.

Tuesday 23 June

Good morning! The chichory plant at the atelier is still producing over one hundred flowers every morning. We also have other chichory plants in the field that start to produce flowers.

On my commute to work, I passed a couple of farmers' fields. I can see he is growing potatoes on one of his fields, and from the flower, it looks like Twister. I grew Twister last year. I really like those potatoes, but I couldn’t get any of them to plant on time, so I planted Alouette on 22 April and another variety, Frieslander, on 12 April. By pure chance, it seems I forgot to harvest one potato from last year's twister, and it’s coming up in the cucumber bed.

There is also a field with beetroot!

The office was warm today, but my brain worked properly. My eyes did really well today! I did not use any drops. Not all is fine. My bike is ticking again, and I hate it. Last summer, I got the ticking sound to vanish, but now I have it back.

Wednesday 24 June

DW went to the office today. She has been having Wednesdays off for about 22 years. Now, for the first time, she went to the office on a Wednesday. Her employer is rebuilding offices, and during a transition period, DW will need to be in the office on most Wednesdays. Sometimes it hurts to change habits.

I worked from home in the morning. After lunch, I figured I should work in the atelier because it was a nice 24°C. I finished all the metal-enforced corners. I did not use an angle grinder to cut the metal corners. Instead, I cut the corners with tin snips. Then I started applying scrim bands to the seams. I finished three of the walls, and that was it for the DIY today.

Thursday 25 June

In our garden, we now also have a blue edible flower!

Good morning! It is 24°C and a completely clear sky, and I’m not biking to work. The weather forecast says it will be 32° in the afternoon, and DW preferred having me take the car.

This evening we went to the first gathering of a community center association. Just like we are members of a road association, we are now also members of a community center association. This was one of the first gatherings of the association. It was hot in the room. DW had paid 50€, which entitles us both to membership and a small sponsorship. I went there with a blank idea about the gathering. DW was interested in creative activities. I was thinking that perhaps I can do a DJ gig, set up an art exhibition, or find a place to play Swedish folk music with others. The more I thought about it, the more ideas I got.

We presented ourselves. I listened to what others had to say, and there was a lot of enthusiasm in the group. It was great! I was not ready to take on a leadership role. I listened to what people said, had questions, and even said what I thought. It will be great to see this grow. We received pamphlets, and I will make sure that neighbors get them. If there are any questions, I can answer them based on what I learned this evening.

When we came home from the gathering, I moved the car and the trailer to create room for the delivery truck tomorrow.

Friday 26 June

This morning, the concrete slabs for the driveway project were delivered. While waiting for the truck, I took some photos of our flowers.

The butterfly shrub is also in full bloom.

The truck arrived. It was a fancy truck with six pairs of wheels. It could turn the back wheels, and the crane could run along the rails in the bucket.

 

The packing slip said we received 21 thousand kilograms of material. That is roughly equivalent to 3 or 4 full-grown elephants.

When the truck had left, it was still early morning. I opened up the area on the west and north side of the house. I could do that by just opening and closing a gate, so that was convenient.

This was a really hot day. The temperature reached 40 degrees, and we are not used to that here. Inside the house, the cooling did its job, and we stayed at 24 degrees Celsius inside. On the second floor, we reached 25 degrees Celsius.

The experiment with the canvas outside the large doors is really successful. We have been able to keep the temperature in the house under control. We are absolutely happy with this result. We still have something to do, though: we need more curtains in front of our windows. You cannot imagine, but we have been talking about curtain solutions for a couple of years. We have now decided on this solution. It is a product from Eminza. We just ordered these, and we will need to find the pipes from another company. We are considering black aluminum pipes for these. Then we need the curtains as well. It is a lot of work.

Another thing that happened today was that a bid came in on the PILs' old house. MIL accepted the bid, so now the selling process has entered a new phase. It is mostly the MIL and the BIL who are busy with this part of the project. I think most of the work on our part is done here: emptying the house and bringing things to the recycling center.

Saturday 26 June

Today it was not that warm. It was merely 32 degrees Celsius. It is funny how easily we adapt. In Sweden, people are just now freaking out over 30 degrees Celsius, and here I am happy it is only 30 degrees. We are slowly adapting to higher temperatures, especially when we have it under control in our house.

It was the last time I drove the lawnmower out from the barn with the help of the temporary ramp. To mark this special event, I filmed it and used the new microphone. In the film, I did not use the word "ramp" because I was not sure whether it also carried an ambiguous meaning, and I was correct. I called it a contraption, fair enough.

After mowing the parts that the sheep had been grazing, I put the mower in the barn via the ramp for the last time. Then I started dismantling the ramp and piling the wood up out of the way of the driveway construction, beside the barn. When the driveway is finished, I will take that pile to the recycling center.

We received the news that FIL was not feeling well today. The doctor said it was not good. It was decided that we will go and see him and MIL tomorrow.

I discovered small roots on two of the plants I recovered from the basket at the garden center mall. I moved these two seedlings into their first pots. This is nice!

I also discovered today that the vine cuttings I put in a bucket of water while moving the grapevine on 19 April had roots. I cut down the grapevine so that the root system would not need to support as many stems. That strategy worked well; new stems are growing now. I was standing with the old cut off in my hands, and I could not make myself discard it just like that. Would it be possible to grow new roots on them? It was possible! Now I will try to put them in pots. Who knows, maybe I will have a whole grape vine forest?

A thunderstorm rolled in over the Netherlands. The sky was lighting up at the horizon. When looking at the forecast, it did not look like we would get that much of this over us. We went to bed pretending we could sleep, but not long after, we got our share of the thunderstorm. It sounded like we got hailstones as large as fists by the sound on the roof, but I am not sure because I stayed in bed.

Sunday 28 June

It was a peaceful morning. The birds were singing as if they had a singing competition. Our sheep were regurgitating. It did not look like we had any damage from last night's thunderstorm.

A chair had put itself on top of the herb's bed. I need to help some corn plants stand straight, but otherwise, we are fine.

DW cut my hair this morning. Then she continued with sowing beetroot in bed B1, where she harvested the garlic.

I continued working on clearing the area around the barn where the driveway will be constructed. The ramp is gone, and all the stuff around it is, too. I removed the construction at the south door of the barn. I also got a pile of bricks to remove near the door to the atelier. I could not finish that because we had to go to see FIL.

DS came with us. When we arrived, FIL was sleeping. He was snoring. Not a loud snore but a calm, peaceful snore. He had a wonderfully deep voice. MIL was happy that he had gotten medicine. He was much more relaxed with the medication. He had a tough time with difficulties sleeping last week, and the heat did not help much either. Now he was sleeping peacefully.

Outside the apartment, the madonna lily was just about to open its extravagant flowers.

I think FIL might have realized that there were visitors who could take care of MIL? We will not know. We were in the living room while FIL was snoring in the bedroom. BIL arrived as well. He had brought cake because he was having his birthday yesterday. The cake was delicious, with some kind of lemon-tasting cream that had been burned, so the pattern was beautiful.

We had tea, and after the tea, DW checked on her dad. This was about 3 PM. He had passed away peacefully.

A nurse from the apartment complex was called. She had a pulse-measuring device. FIL looked like he was sleeping really deeply without snoring. The nurse called for a doctor, who arrived at 4 PM. The doctor had a laptop under his arm and an assistant with a large bag. The doctor confirmed that FIL had passed away. The SIL and her husband, the other BIL, arrived as well.

A coroner was called, and he wanted to know what coffin to bring. A coffin was selected, and there were many questions that needed answers, but we could look into them tomorrow. The coroner would arrive at 6 PM and bring FIL to the morgue.

We went home; there wasn't much we could do, and the two BILs and SIL were helping MIL with practical matters. It was decided that we would all meet up tomorrow to arrange the further practicalities. In Sweden, it may take longer. Here in the Netherlands, these matters are handled much more quickly. I arranged for two days off. That might not be all, but I know more after tomorrow when the funeral will be.

When we came home, I had to clear my mind. I transplanted the celeric in bed D5. I do hope we get some celeric this season.

All celeric plants received their own slug fortress.

Here ends this weeks blog. I wrote 2517 words this week.