Greener than ever

Being empty for about a year our house was nearly taken over by the adjacent forest.
Four years ago the new owners were overenthusiastic. I was satisfied believing the house was in good hands.
It would have been better if we cherished old memories instead of seeing the current reality. The house was rather in shabby state as well as the neglected garden.
I must admit it was a bit of a disappointment.

However, driving to Villance was a good excuse for visiting my favorite Ardennes, even in the rain!
But still only a few drops of rain fell and even it stayed cloudy, the weather was not bad at all.

We went for a hike starting in a small picturesque hamlet of Lesse. Even though supplied with a guidebook we were already lost in the first kilometer.

No reasons to worry, the woods of the Ardennes don’t seem to be that wild and deep, so after a while we miraculously found our route again.

The flooded streams and puddles were traditionally irresistible for Maarten. If only he would wait with wadding until it gets a little warmer!


The puddles were full of frog eggs. This was again something interesting as they learned about amphibians and even observed a frog's life cycle in Maarten's classroom.





We crossed the Roli Brook several times. When we entered the wide open fields, it was obvious. This was not amusing enough for Maarten. Here we cheated a little and didn't follow the suggested trail. Instead of that we took another path back to the woods and continued alongside the wild Our and Lesse Rivers.


Here, this should be one of the most beautiful and peaceful places of the Ardennes.
I can only agree.

Yes, I have always enjoyed this area. Despite the negative remarks of some Czechs comparing the Ardennes to Czech mountains. As for me I wouldn't compare it to any mountains, since I don't consider the Ardennes to be mountains at all.

I like this region for its rural character with authentic villages, farms, historical abbeys and castles, its gently rolling hills covered by pastureland and extensive woods.

Even though the gloomy fir woods are one of the most dominant features of the Ardennes, they are actually not native to this area!


The present vegetation pattern is the result of the local history.
150 years ago you would hardly find a single fir tree here.
In the Middle Ages the monks were first who started the deforestation of this densely wooded area. There were even more woods cleared in the 18th and begin of 19th century for the benefit of industry and agriculture.
Period of recovery and growth followed as man needed wood for mining and railway sleepers.
This meant comeback of oak and beech trees and also planting pine trees.

Nowadays the timber industry is still active in this area but so are the forest nurseries.
The forest recovery is not yet complete and maybe never will be.

Nevertheless, I hope the Ardennes forest, once destroyed by human activities, will continue growing!

Hospicebossen

Our Wednesday trip to the Hospicebossen was a real bummer!

The traffic noise of the nearby freeway was completely unbearable. And regarding the "forest" itself, we have more trees here in the village.

Maarten even didn't want to get out of the car.

Is this an adventure, mom?

Maybe we should stick to our municipal forest of Deurle.

Albijn Van Den Abeele walking route

Well, I didn't walk it but went on my MTB. I was too "lazy" to drive to the trail head, and moreover, by bike I can get even further in a short time.


I didn't exactly follow the route all the way but rather went exploring around the Leie river and the Latemse Meersen.
Actually there is not much to explore since most of the paths would end up with a sign "Keep off" or "Private Property".


It still surprises me that here in Flanders they would protect every tiny meadow or swamp as a nature reserve.

However, in such a fully developed area one cannot blame them.

Poekekasteelroute

Today we hiked/biked in the nearby Poeke and its suroundings.



The beautiful Frenchstyle castle, an adjacent forest park with small streams and even a 'Pooh Sticks Bridge', car free paths through the Flemish countryside made this a surprisingly nice and relaxed family outing.



Highly recommended!

Kluisbos

I grew up surrounded by forests.
Long time ago my Dutch biking buddy used to be lyrical about all the lush greenery of the Czech countryside.
At that time I didn't understand. As a real landlubber I was rather interested in the sea and loved his stories about beach parties.

Later when I came to Holland I never thought the woods would ever be so important to me.

Only now, years later I understand my friend. I miss my trees, woods, forests, you name it.
Especially because there are no (big) woods in Flanders!
Yet, there are nice nature places here but it takes some effort to find them.


I promised Maarten to take him into the woods today. He was very excited. Obviously we both miss it.
It was quite a trip. We got stuck in a traffic jam and finally found ourselves in a different direction than planned.
Maarten was about to lose his patience pointing to every hill with a few trees on it.

Here! This is it, mom! Just stop the car!

A friendly cyclist advised me to take a shortcut. He probably didn't notice that I'm not on a mountain bike, neither I drive a sturdy jeep!
What an adventure! After a long, slow crawl along this bumpy dirt road we finally reached our destination.


And Maarten was right. It really is one wooded hill!
Moreover, this hill is even cut in two parts by the linguistic border.

The interpretative signs promise an amazing display of wild hyacinths in early spring. But even though it was already nice and warm today it is still way too early for anything to bloom.

Why won't we return in a couple of weeks?
Now, at last we know the way.

Multilingual Kids Wanted!

Maarten is fluent in both parents' languages. He still speaks pretty good English and since we have been living in Belgium he gets French classes at school.

It wasn't our intention. That's just happened to us.

Despite all skeptic remarks we occasionally get, Maarten is doing very well so far.

Compared to Czechoslovakia, where I grew up, in Belgium being bilingual is nothing extraordinary.
Also in California most of the children in Maarten's class spoke a second language at home.

I was already informed by his teacher that Maarten and his best friend are speaking English together while playing at school.
For them it comes naturally.

Our society has still many perceptions and prejudices about raising multilingual children. Advantages and disadvantages, various methods, approaches and ideas are permanently discussed not only by the concerned parents but also by the scientists.

This morning we received a message from our school principal promoting a recent study which explores the effects of multilingualism on children's brain development.
This research intends to investigate whether there are significant differences in the brains between one- and bilingual children.
The tested children need to perform three tasks while under a brain scanner. This way the scientists will localize and compare the children's brain activity between one- and bilinguals.

My first reaction was, of course! Maarten will participate!
Till Rob expressed his doubts about the scan's harmlessness.
The tested child will undergo two MRI brain scans over a period of 3 years.

I did a little research on the internet. According to the most Dutch websites the MRI scanning is completely harmless. Nevertheless I got deeper information in English.
I'm usually interested in the actual experiences of involved people. I found this discussion about the safety of MRI scans and I was quite shocked reading their experiences.

Most of the patients were tired, nauseous and got migraine headaches afterwards. Many were complaining about discomfort, pressures inside their head, hearing bad noises, dizziness and some even had affected balance and memory and bad dreams!

Hmmm. No fun! It even doesn't sound harmless to me!
I'm not sure Maarten would appreciate his participating in this experiment.

Believe me, I'm still a big fan of multilingualism and I want to support the scientific research regarding this matter, but not at any price!

Or am i exaggerating?

Ooidonkroute

Today’s weather forecast was wrong and we were lucky.
It hasn't been raining all day and we could finally get out for a warm-up stroll. Even the sun peeked out from around the dark clouds now and then.


Through the picturesque Ooidonkdreef and along the nearby castle, farm yards and wintry empty fields we reached the old side branch of the Leie river.






The river is teeming with bird life of all kinds.





Who knows where the winding path along the river bank will lead, but what a beautiful view along the way!

The breaking news

Yesterday Rob came home with a "breaking news" about his company.
The quotation marks are used for a reason here.
Simply, we get similar breaking news on a regular basis!

I still recall the evening we drove through one of the Brussels tunnels on our way to dinner. At that time, about 12 years ago, I heard this "breaking news" for the very first time.
I have no idea how long we'll end up staying in Belgium but I have the feeling it's not going to be for a very long time.

Is it a feeling or longing?!

One week after my accident

and I'm starting to recover, although I still get tired after just a few minutes of physical activity. The idea of "eating" liquids only for another 6 weeks is less tempting but in general I'm doing much better. Hopefully the severe migraine headaches and night chills will also diminish soon.

I recently took a quiz in one of the popular women magazines, my sister regularly supplies me with. I learned about myself being a hopeless pessimist! This because I believe, somehow, that an event is beyond control.
Would this accident convince me of the opposite?

Anyway, I had no idea that I'm doing so bad.
I don't think that everything is going to be worse. But it's the truth that I always consider both options. Everything I have and enjoy can also get lost in the future. It can get better but also worse. This way I'm rarely disappointed.

Since the accident I'm extremely cautious. I'm scared. It made me realize again how vulnerable our life is.
The sad thing is, that we usually need accidents or misfortune to realize how good life we have had.
For example, my unemployment frustration has almost disappeared at the moment.

The sun is shining even here in Flanders and I can't wait to get out of this crappy place into nature for my usual workout soon.

I only hope you won't encounter me! You might get startled!

What a bad dream. The pain is unbearable. I want to scream and suddenly I hear myself screaming very loud. I wake up.
The pain is still there. In my head or in my jaws?
But where am I?!
My face is cold and wet. I find myself lying on the concrete floor down in our cellar screaming in pain.
I don't understand what's going on.

I manage to come upstairs. Maarten begins hysterically yelling, crying and running around.
One look in the mirror and I know why.
My face is covered with blood and dirt.

I don't want to describe the time spent in the Emergency Room.
Little by little I am able to reconstruct what could have happened down there in the cellar...
The CT scan shows several cheekbone, orbital and jaw fractures. All on the left side.

While the surgeon is busy with the cheek wound... the moment of sewing Maarten's forehead years ago comes up so clearly again.
My poor baby and what a chicken am I!

@@@

I'm even a more awful sight today. My face is bruised and very bad swollen showing all colors of the rainbow.
I hate the idea of Maarten seeing me like that.

You are not allowed to go down there anymore, mommy!


~~~
PS: "When Maarten saw your face a mess you should have told him you thought it was Halloween!
hope i make you smile !!!!! love Jim" ~ my dearest Uncle