Just a few images from the past few weeks enjoying some time watching World Cup soccer and particularly the work of the Dutch soccer team! Somehow, we've all become rabidly Dutch fans who wear orange shirts, honk at people on the streets and even paint our toenails in flag colours! Why just last night i even had a little "race" (not really - i don't race) but mild competition with a carful of Spanish fans whilst ascending the mountain yesterday! The craziness continues!
So i've compiled a few images that i like from the last few weeks - to get the enthusiasm for soccer stoked up even higher! I LOVE seeing all the Dutch flags poking out of people's cars and feeling the excitement when we watch the games!
When goals are scored, the living room feels filled with electricity and when goals are scored against, great sighs of disappointment escape our lips and hearts beat ever faster, so fast as to nearly want to leap out of the rib's confining holds... maybe we'll bleed orange?
I'm not sure where this crazy patriotism comes from - i suppose it's like being totally Canadian during the Olympics - wearing red and white whenever possible. Now orange is the colour of the day - and i proudly wore it garagesaling this morning - happy to receive nods of encouragement as if i personally had something to do with the success of this team.
Last night, at a concert for the OneDay Foundation, the parking lot was a sea of red, white and blue flags and the Wilhelmus was sung with vim and vigour, as was the Canadian anthem. I'd like to think that there is a curious blend of love for both Canada and the Vaderland, neither of them being over the other. The one being the homeland many left in need after the war, the other being the land that received them and has moulded them into what they are today. I feel a little faux-Dutch sometimes - my Dutch is spoken so brokenly and with such a strange accent that people smile at me when i speak - and i don't seem to know the songs that go with being Dutch - "Mijn Nederland" and such are mostly foreign to me - but other good things are real - oranje hagel, my Dutch umbrella, Suske and Wiske, my klompen slippers, my memories of my Oma and Opa and all the time spent over in Holland as i was growing up - all combine to make a little streak of orange flow through my veins...
And now, watching these boys/men as they play their hearts out for the "beautiful game", the hope is raised again that maybe this time, maybe this year the victory will be for Holland and we can proudly keep displaying our flags. But even if they don't win tomorrow, i'll still be proud to be Dutch, yes, each country has things that are not to be proud of, Holland for sure does as well, but there are lotsa good things too!
So with the words of the song Oranje Boven flowing through my head and heart, i'll leave you with the last of the pictures that i managed to find - i'm sorry they're not displayed more creatively, but i still have troubles with the layout of this thing after writing for so long already - good old technology. I believe also that this is the 200th post! So this is a good milestone to commemorate that event!
GOAL!!!!!!
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I know that this shot is not from World Cup, it's actually from Koninginedaag (???spelling??? i know, have a little chuckle, Mom!) but it is good and patriotic and a fitting foto to end with!HUP HOLLAND HUP
The above two shots show the changes wrought by the capable hands of the ValleyWood landscaping folks in transforming my bunch of brambles into a rocky retreat. There have even been rumors of a little gnome moving in! I LOVE the rocks (being a true daughter of my mother) and have enjoyed seeing things developing. The neighbourhood was treated to lots of fodder for discussion and watching as they worked away to lower the huge boulders into place and arrange the new plants. I think it has turned out well - it will take some time to fill in, of course and to make it's full impact felt, but already it feels so much more grown-up and natural. The roses, in the meantime, are in the back garden feeling out their temporary home in random holes in the veggie patch. If anyone is needing a rose bush to fill in a hole in their own garden, just give me a holler and i'll gladly send one marching your way. 
