Relatives galore

Andrew is fortunate in having so may relatives in The Netherlands.  Doubly so, as his father and his four siblings were orphaned at a very early age and the five children were fostered out to many different and distant relatives and had not much contact with each other, only establishing contact, in many cases as adults.  But they have since maintained strong bonds with each other, once again a wonderful thing as Andrew' s parents were the only ones leaving The Netherlands for Australia.  Many relatives came to visit them over the years.  Andrew has numerous cousins on both sides of  the family to visit when we come to The Netherlands.  And Nikki is lucky, as an only child to have found that Andrew's family has welcomed her as part of them.

Alex is Sieska's nephew.  Sieska is Andrew's cousin with whom we are staying.  Alex's wife is Aline and as well as May, they are expecting their second daughter.  We had a very nice morning and lunch, where the highlight was some delicious herrings yet again.

Afterwards, we drove a short distance to visit another cousin Gerard who lives in a delightful community at Epe where many of the houses have traditional thatched roofs.

The material for repairing thatching.

The roof being repaired.

Gerard is a talented pianist who gave us an impromptu recital. He is very good and an intelligent and well informed man with many interests. He is also a great repository of knowledge and he has told us many things about the orphaned siblings that Andrew had not been aware of. His mother was the oldest of the five children and she probably remembered more than the others.

We then continued on to Monika's house.  Monika is Gerhard's partner but they do not live together.
We had a delightful meal with them.  Monika is a wonderful hostess.  We enjoyed her hospitality five years ago at her previous house, full of her artwork.  She sculpts, paints, and creates all sorts of works of art.

The dinner party.

The dessert which was in itself a work of art.

Relaxing in the garden.

Monika only moved into this house about a year ago and the garden was absolutely bare.  All this has been created since her occupation.