Week 44 Autumn Colours
Week 44
Around the Farm
Seemingly countless little jobs...
Fix the drop saw...the cord had become frayed/damaged...easy to pull apart - not so easy to put it back together...(hence the photos)
A mini-project for Tjeerd - all his own work...a curtain (from Birdaard - saved in good condition for 28 years!)
Outside stuff has to come inside...
...after more than 20 years, I finally decided to make a rack for them đ
(finding a spare spot is the difficult part)
Rudy and Tjeerd on the job...(Rudy has his own workshop at our place - part of the care plan).
(This was the site of Rudi's workshed in 2015 - when we started building it...Rudi has been a "collector" of tools and machinery over his whole life - I keep offering to help him tidy it up - including his cherished Mercedes - but "not yet" ...I remind myself that I would probably go kicking and screaming if I had to get rid of the boat and/or this place, I suppose)
Janny bought a 2nd hand 3D Printer to make some plastic holders for a church project - won't be long before we upgrade, I think
First trial print
(this one only a few weeks ago...)
The view out our front window
This week - seems to be changing daily now.
(A story about the naming of bridges in Amsterdam - my favorite is the Kortjewantsbrug)
Municipality of Amsterdam
Source published: 31 October 25
Roaring Water Monsters and Cheap Beers: What Are the Amsterdam Bridges Named After?
There are over 250 bridges in Amsterdams city center. Many have quite special names, some dating back centuries. Examples include the Kortjewantsbrug, Scharrebiersluis, Bullebaksluis, and Bullebak. But how did these bridges get their names?
The Scharrebiersluis is a drawbridge between Rapenburgerplein and Foeliedwarsstraat. Amsterdam is the city of beer and brewers, home to Mannenliefde, Oedipus, and IJwit, and of course the famous Heineken on tap. But you wont often order a scharrebiertje in a café. Scharrebier is thin beer, or as Amsterdammers would say: flat beer. The English might like it, but here in Amsterdam, we dont. Yet we named a bridge after it.
Mediocre Beer
Scharre is believed to derive from the Middle Dutch scherve, meaning shard, wrote professor Jozef Vercouille in 1925. A shard was once half a penny: incomplete and thus of lesser quality. Just like scharrebier is of inferior quality. Because scharrebier was diluted with water, less tax had to be paid on the beer. A scharrebiertje could therefore be sold cheaper and was the beer for people with little money. At the lock, skippers waiting to pass would buy cheap beer of mediocre quality. Scharrebier.
Café
For a bridge located in the city center, the bridge is relatively young. The connection between Rapenburg and Kadijk was only built in the 19th century. Today, not only the bridge reminds of the flat beer: the former Café Keijser at Rapenburgerplein next to the bridge has been named Café Scharrebier since 1990.
Amsterdam Bridge from Rotterdam
The Kortjewantsbrug, which connects the Schippersgracht and Kadijksplein, is a concrete giant weighing over 130 tons. The massive structure was made in Rotterdam and transported by ship from the Maas city to Amsterdam. It is a special bridge, with a basement where music concerts are held. And a pedestrian tunnel that is no longer in use but still accessible to the public.
Bridge with a Hole
Although the bridge is quite young – it was placed in 1966 – the origin of the bridges name goes back several centuries. In the 17th century, there was an oorgatbrug (ear-hole bridge) at the same location. This is one of the smallest movable bridges, consisting of two sloping bridge parts with a piece of roadway about one meter wide in the middle. That roadway could open, creating a small passage, the oorgat (ear hole). Boats could pass under the bridge without lowering their masts.
Shorten Your Rope
The oorgat was quite narrow, no more than a meter wide, causing the rigging of boats to sometimes get tangled. That rigging was called a want. Therefore, the bridge keeper would shout Kort je want! (shorten your rope) when boats passed by. The bridge got its name from this.
The Devil or the Bullebak
The bullebak was an icy water ghost living in the canals of the Jordaan. It had fiery eyes and would roar fiercely during storms. Unsuspecting children playing on the canal banks were mercilessly pulled into the depths of the water, while parents watched helplessly. It was the devil, or the bulleback, wrote Gerard Adriaenszoon Bredero in his play De Spaanse Brabander. The water monster was the terror of Amsterdam and surroundings. The story of the bullebak was apparently so scary that not one but two bridges were named after it: the Bullebaksluis at the end of the Bloemgracht and the Bullebak at the end of the Brouwersgracht.
Who Was Mister Bullebak?
Texts and city descriptions show that the Bullebaksluis has been called that since at least 1613. Head teacher Jan ter Gouw wrote in 1874 about the Bullebaksluis and the associated water ghost:
Who was Mister Bullebak? A creature from medieval mythology, whose terror was still among the people in the 17th and even 18th centuries. It was a dreadful water ghost living in deep pools, always lurking to grab the careless who ventured too close to the edge by the legs and drag them into the depths.
This lock vault was also considered a hiding place for the Bullebak: on dark evenings one could hear it roar and the water rustle from its turmoil; yes, there were people who saw its head with fiery eyes peeking over the lock door. Of course, when the quay and vault were demolished, the Bullebak moved away, though no one knows where to.
The Bullebak of the Brouwersgracht got this name much later. Perhaps the water ghost moved there in the 18th century when the quay at the Bloemgracht was demolished. Waiting to haunt again. Watching over playing children.
Some reading about the election and Europe in general
Europe’s white working class which formed the support base for democratic left-of-center politics between 1920 and 2000 has vanished. It was based on battalions of men who fought in two world wars and rebuilt Europe between 1950 and 1980.The white working-class vote that emerged from two world wars and forced employers who needed their skills and hard work to concede good pay, time for family life, as well as old age care and treatment has disappeared. Trade union membership in Europe in the private sector has dropped to single figures.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-european-social-model-key-to-competitive-growth
From the outset, as explicitly stated in the Treaty of Rome, European integration included fundamental social objectives. Economic progress coordinated at EU level would drive social prosperity to support the creation of more equal societies, combat poverty and exclusion, and lead to the improvement of living and working conditions for all. Driving social progress across the EU has been supported by a host of EU initiatives from funding to soft law, common goals and directives. But is this still possible in the current context?This story was in The Guardian
It caught my attention as walking and working are my greatest sources of "exercise" (and enjoyment as it turns out)...I can easily do 5 to 8 kms a day just walking around here, with an occasional "out with Boeke".
Even modest amounts of daily exercise may slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in older people who are at risk of developing the condition, researchers have said.
People are often encouraged to clock up 10,000 steps a day as part of a healthy routine, but scientists found 3,000 steps or more appeared to delay the brain changes and cognitive decline that Alzheimer’s patients experience.
Results from the 14-year-long study showed cognitive decline was delayed by an average of three years in people who walked 3,000 to 5,000 steps a day, and by seven years in those who managed 5,000 to 7,000 steps daily.
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