Greetings from the contintent

[Jandra]

Greetings from the Netherlands, to be more specific. I've heard talkabout the great yellow thing in the sky. I can tell you: it's gone missing here too! Lots of water from the sky, though.

Anyhow, I'm 38 years old, married, 4 cats, work 3 days a week and am not particularly striving for selfsufficiency. But since 2 years I have an allotment with veg and fruit and I like baking bread, making jam, dehydrating food (apples, jerky, yumm) and all sorts of other things that would interest me if I *were* going for selfsufficiency, I guess.

We just came back from a holiday in Scotland, which we enjoyed tremendously. Except for the midges and the rain, of course :-) We were often the only ones in a tent and were looked upon with a mingling of admiration and pity (from behind the camper windows).
Upon coming back I discovered that it is entirely possible for tomato, cucumber, bell pepper and melon plants to completely 'explode' in a fortnight's time and for weeds to take over the allotment. All this has been remedied in the past week since our return. Well, mostly... I don't think it is actually possible to get rid of all weeds on an allotment. Not for me, anyway. I was surprised to find that on the Ida Gold tomatoes I already have some full size, though yet green, fruit. I put two plants in the poly tunnel and they are definitely earlier than the ones I put outside.

Well, I hope this is enough info to officially have left lurkdom behind me. I hope to learn lots more here and maybe contribute some too. And I'm curious... any other Dutch people here?

See ya around, Jandra

[Annpan]

Welcome to the forum

Look forward to exchanging tips

[red]

hoi and welcome

(that is about the extent of my Dutch.. sorry... ik geen sprake nederlander... no that went wrong....... anyway welcome!)

[ohareward]

Jandra

There are a lot of Dutch people here in Christchurch. Most of them came over in the early 1950s.

Robin

[Jandra]

Thanks for the welcome. How come you have some Dutch words, Red?

Yes. In the fifties many Dutch emigrated to NZ and Canada. Mainly farmers. Post-WWII Netherlands wasn't the place to be, I guess.

Jandra

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Jandra and welcome!

I think you are our first Dutch member! We did have a few people who are English living in the Netherlands who registered here some time back.

I lived there 10 years ago in Soest near Hilversum but ik denk dat ik heb de taal vergeten! (Apologies, that is probably awful!).

[Andy Hamilton]

Yes I think you are our first native dutch person, welcome to the forum.

[red]

Thanks for the welcome. How come you have some Dutch words, Red?

I visited the Netherlands a few times and realised that actually my French was not as bad as I thought! ok let me explain that.. in France... I am able to ask for the toilet, order from a menu, understand simple instructions etc

then when I took my (then young) son to the Netherlands, I found I did not know many words and more importantly to my son, did not know the word for 'chicken' on a menu. I set about learning. - I didn't get very far I'm afraid.. but do at least know how to say 'hi' 'thanks' 'chicken' 'beer' and a few other essentials!

I am better with the written word though, as find the pronunciation difficult, and as soon as i start.. the Dutch person starts speaking back in English..... and it all get s a bit silly....

[Jandra]

I'm actually surprised to find that I am the only Dutch person around. I'd expect fellow country(wo)men to have found this great great resource and welcoming community.
And also surprising that several non-Dutch people are speaking a at least a few words of Dutch. That's great!

Jandra