Castricum is a small place in the north of Holland. Like in our surroundings there is no arable farming either here. There are cattle farmers here and sheep farms. The sea is close by and a line of dunes serve as a natural protection against the North Sea. Between the dunes and the village is woodland.
Here we can see how a windmill works. The water from the polder is pumped away in a large reservoir and from there it will be pumped into the river. During the war, when there was no electricity, all the wind mills of Kinderdijk were used. Long ago the miller and his family lived in his mill. On the picture of the groundfloor we can see the small living space of the miller's family.
In the Netherlands, the drainage system is an important matter. The Dutch need a well developed water control system in order to keep large areas from being flooded, because some parts of the Netherlands are below sea level.
The problems with water became more and more apparent in the 13th century. Large canals, called 'weteringen', were dug to get rid of the excess water in the polders. However, the drained soil started setting, while the level of the river rose due to the river's sand deposits. After a few centuries, an additional way to keep the polders dry was required.
It was decided to build a series of windmills, with a limited capacity to bridge water level differences, but just able to pump water into a reservoir at an intermediate level between the soil in the polder and the river; the reservoir could be pumped out into the river by other windmills whenever the river level was low enough; the river level has both seasonal and tidal variations.
Full control over the water level was never achieved. Throughout the centuries, the residents of the western part of the Netherlands suffered inundations, especially because of dyke ruptures; this is reflected the legend of the floating cradle at Kinderdijk ..
"We sailed our ships
to any shore
that offered the best
hope of booty'
we feared
no fellow on earth,
we were fit, we fought
in the battle-fleet."
Probable causes of Viking expansion.
Viking society was based on agriculture and trade with other peoples and placed great emphasis on the concept of honour both in combat (for example, it was unfair and wrong to attack an enemy already in a fight with another) and in the criminal justice system.
It is unknown what triggered the Vikings' expansion and conquests, although it coincided with the Medieval Warm Period (800 – 1300) and stopped with the start of the Little Ice Age (about 1250 – 1850). The lack of pack-ice would have allowed Scandinavians to go "a-Viking" or "raiding.
On blogspot we try to do the ABC game, started by one of the bloggers. The idea is to post one or more entries beginning with the letter for that week. Our entries have to be posted on Wednesday. Last week we had the letter U, so I sent in the U of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Utrecht in the Netherlands, where I was a student for a very short time. This week it'll be V and I have chosen to write about, among other things, the Vikings.There are about 100 bloggers who join in the game and about 20 who send in their comments, which I like of course!!!.
It is important to bear in mind that not all the Norse arriving in the British Isles came as raiders. Many arrived with families and livestock, often in the wake of the capture of territory by their forces. DNA analysis shows that a major part of the ancestry of English people in northern East Anglia, eastern Yorkshire and in the Lake District is Scandinavian in origin, presumably from colonists around this time. The populations then merged over time by intermarriage into the Anglo-Saxon population of these areas. Many words in the English language are from old Scandinavian languages, showing the importance of this contact. One of these words is the word "mail" which is "mål" in Norwegian, meaning speech or lanquage. Black mail meant :as soon as Vikings started talking, it meant giving money.
Facts:
The jury of English common law was a direct outgrowth of Viking ideas about community obligations and sworn investigations, both vital steps in building a civil society.
Queen Elisabeth II is of Viking descent, because William the Conqueror was a French Viking
Here you see the university building and the Dom Church on the right and the Domtower on the left.
Utrecht University (Universiteit Utrecht in Dutch) is a university in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. . It was established March 26, 1636,
The university's motto is "Sol Iustitiae Illustra Nos", which means "Sun of Justice, shine upon us"
Utrecht University is firmly founded on tradition. The University, which recently celebrated its 365th anniversary, has developed into one of Europe's largest and most prominent institutes of research and education. With 14 faculties, and 70 degree courses, which are attended by more than 20.000 students, Utrecht University offers a wider range of subjects than any other university in the Netherlands.
Since two weeks I have a part time job at the Eastern Eoropean Mission as a receptionist. That means I have to answer the telephone and do something on the computer, I don't know what, we'll see. There is also a souvenir shop where I bought a mezuzah. Now what's a mezuzah?
A mezuzah (Hebrew: "doorpost") (plural: mezuzot ) is a piece of parchment (usually contained in a decorative case) inscribed with specified Hebrew verses from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21). These verses comprise the Jewish prayer "Shema Yisrael," and begins with the phrase "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One."
A mezuzah is affixed to the doorframe of Jewish homes to fulfill the mitzvah (Biblical commandment) to inscribe the words of the Shema "on the doorposts of your house."(Deuteronomy 6:9) Many families place a mezuzah on the front door only, but observant Jews fix one on every doorway in the home apart from bathrooms, and closets too small to qualify as rooms.[1] The parchment is prepared by a qualified scribe (a "sofer stam") who has undergone many years of meticulous training, and the verses are written in indelible black ink with a special quill pen. The parchment is then rolled up and placed inside the case
By 1200, Cambridge was a thriving commercial community which was also a county town and had at least one school of some distinction. Then, in 1209, scholars taking refuge from hostile townsmen in Oxford migrated to Cambridge and settled there. At first they lived in lodgings in the town, but in time houses were hired as hostels with a Master in charge of the students. By 1226 the scholars were numerous enough to have set up an organisation, represented by an official called a Chancellor, and seem to have arranged regular courses of study, taught by their own members. From the start there was friction between the town and the students (Town and Gown). Students, usually aged about fourteen or fifteen, often caused disturbances; citizens of the town, on the other hand, were known to overcharge for rooms and food. King Henry III took the scholars under his protection as early as 1231 and arranged for them to be sheltered from exploitation by their landlords. At the same time he tried to ensure that they had a monopoly of teaching, by an order that only those enrolled under the tuition of a recognised master were to be allowed to remain in the town.
The inhabitants of Cambridge speak about Oxford as "The Other Place ".
The town of Oxford was already an important centre of learning by the end of the 12th century. Teachers from mainland Europe and other scholars settled there, and lectures are known to have been delivered by as early as 1096. The expulsion of foreigners from the University of Paris in 1167 caused many English scholars to return from France and settle in Oxford.
Oxford was also the place where the series of Inspector Morse was shot and where he died . One of the buildings served as library in the Harry Potter books. The authors Tolkien and Lewis lived here.
The people of Oxford never mention the name of the city of Cambridge, they speak of Cambridge as "The Other Place".
This morning I went to choir practise as I do every Saturday. We were practising a Dutch version of the "Ashgrove" . I like that Welsh folksong. It reminds me of Wales where we spent several holidays with our children.. I hope you'll like it too.
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.
He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it.
He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises.
Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally , after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.
It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.
He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.
Walking in our little park I met an ex- pupil of mine. She must have been 6 or 7 when I was teaching, Of course I didn't recognize her, but she told me who she was and we had a nice chat. She told me that the park and the pond are going to disappear to make place for a car park. It's a shame and I am very sorry that every thing has to be replaced by ugliness.
Today I made a bicycle ride in the surroundings of my village.The weather was warm and we enjoyed this ride very much. I took these photos, but I don't know the names of some flowers and birds. I hope somebody can help me!
The day before yesterday we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit, The true Spirit of God. The Spirit Jesus already showed to his disciples : the Spirit of love, understanding, respect, forgiveness. The Spirit that knows no hatred to those who don't believe. and no revenge to those who hurt and despise us. That is the Spirit that belongs to God and to Jesus. That is what we call the Holy Trinity. Three different ways of God to show Himself to this world.
