It was now nearing Xmas, and the fruit were ripening beautifully, my roses were a joy to behold, and my mouth was already watering for a taste of the apricots that would be ready first. My plums were also getting red cheeks, as they were ripening just after the apricots had given us a last sweet taste. The birds were quite a menace, as they are so clever, they waited patiently till the fruit were soft, and then they move in, swoop down and take pecks at just about all the softest bits. I don't mind them having some, but if left we would not have even one apricot without their beakmarks. So like the previous year we again hung old cd's on the trees, and as Haarlem always has a breeze, the birds were scared of the shiny things dancing merrily around, and just sat on the fence watching for their rivals to leave. We did leave one tree for them, as we could definitely not use all the fruit, and like us, I think they also waited the whole year for this time, but oh no, they preferred the trees with the cd's.
Then Karel, Irma's beau from Belgium arrived, and they came to stay in her house till after Xmas, as Jan and Family were also coming and also Trienkie and Stefan.
Karel is of course a true Europian, and he just could not get used to everything being skew, and were offering advice about how to tackle the problem, but as I had implemented many plans to straighten a few doors and windows, without success, I just smiled and left him to work out the problem. We christianed him Karel Waterpas (spirit level)!
When he saw my window, which I had made a frame for, and me not good with the measuring, made to small, then nailed a piece of pine in on top, and covered this frame with calico, painted it with acrylic paint, and still had to get a decent frame and glass, he almost had an attack of the vapours, and told me that before he went back, he was making me a frame, and then I could take it into George to have the glass put in.
As the house was so old, it had sagged here and there, leaving a gap of about five centimeters on the one side of the door, and the bottom was then sawn off  to fit into the door. So was all the other doors, but there was nothing to do with the windows, and when the winterwind blew in through the huge gaps, I almost froze to death. However, I now hang all my winter scarves where too much wind sneaks in, and that help a lot! So poor Karel Waterpas walked around their house with his spirit level, as he just did not know where to start, him not used to skew walls, and skew doorframes, and lots more skew things, he had a permanent frown on his face! It did take all of us some time to accept the skewness, and try and live with it, as the houses were about a hundred years old!
When he started on my window frame I could see that the poor man was actually very much rattled, as he had to make the frame skew to fit in the opening, and I just don't think he knew how!
Jan and Nina came, and had to sleep in my down bedroom, as they had no furniture in their newly finished bedroom yet.
The first morning after their arrival, Nina told us that she almost died of mirth during the night, as just when they were cosily in bed, a huge spider crawled out of the thatch and sat looking down on them with it's beady eyes, just about right over Jan's head. If their was one type of thing that my son really feared it is spiders and moths, and he apparently got into a panic, and as the roof was too high too reach, he got hold of the child's pea shooter, but this thing was shooting out little arrows, and bombarded the poor spider with that, almost trampling Nina and the small Andreas in the process!
Luckily the spider seemed to know what was good for him, and left out of his own free will, but Jan slept with his head under the blankets the whole night!
We then drew a piece of calico over the rafters so that mr. Spider could not sit menacing my boy by stationing himself again right above their heads!
Irma was blooming, and I was so happy that she had found someone, but also fearful, as she would have to move to Belgium if they got married.
Irma's kids were almost guilty of the early demise of Karel, as they put a dead spider on his shoulder, just to see how he would handle it, and Kiana stood ready with the camere to capture the moment.
Tembi, the Madam of the canines, was looking terrible, and even more like something from a horror movie, as the mud had a great fascination for her, and she was for ever either taking a mud bath, or rolling in Skramunkels dung!