Friday Find - VÍK PRJÓNSDÓTTIR

Since the summer is staying away, I real feel like snuggling up on the sofa with a good book. These blankets, if one may call them so, they really are much more than blankets, will do just the job. Made by a local company from Iceland using wool from Icelandic sheep, inspired by myths and stories from the past and the present.

Shield of Wings

Black or White

the Baby Seal

They got the seal also in an adult version, just what I need ;-)

Do go have a look at their website for more products and awesome product pictures and stories.

New Blog Name

My blog has a new name: http://twotreesblog.blogspot.com/. As we plan to move from Belgium, (just no luck so far in finding a house or some land) I thought it weird to have Belgium in the name (was twotreesbelgium).

We're looking for a place in the area called Zeeuws Vlaanderen (marked with a cross on the map below). Zeeuws means from Zeeland, the county Zeeuws Vlaanderen is part of and where I was born and raised. Vlaanderen is named just like the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, where my hubby is from, Brugge (Bruges) to be exact.

It's part of the Netherlands but if you look at the map you would think it to be part of Belgium. The perfect middle ground for a Belgian-Dutch couple like my hubby and me.

Even the flag is a perfect combo of the Flemish flag (black lion on yellow) and the Dutch flag (red, white and blue stripes).

All I have to do now is change the header to say just Two Trees too.

Dutch Plums

My brother has an orchard and is one of the top 10 plum growers in the Netherlands. Last week they started picking the first plums of this years harvest.

This year he will be one of the selected sellers by GIJS, they select the best of Dutch fresh fruit, vegetable, dairy, ... suppliers. The website promotes their wares which are sold through the supermarket chain named PLUS in the Netherlands. They already came to interview him and take pictures, but his profile is not online yet.

Anyway if you see plums in the PLUS supermarket with this card on the crate you know they come from my brothers orchard :-)

Looking for something to bake with plums, there's several recipes on my blog, here's a list:

• Plum Sauce
• Plum Cake
• Lavender Plums
• Plums in Puff Pastry

And here's another blog I wrote about plums last year.

Remembering Max

Max went missing on Monday the 27th of June. For days we searched, called and handed posted flyers in the whole neighborhood, put them up in shops and put pictures on lost and found animal websites. Yesterday our neighbor was working in the garden and did a sad discovery, Max had been lying there all along. Several times I had had the urge to look there, but thought it would look strange if I was looking in the neighbors bushes. Maybe it's better that I did not find him, maybe it would have been, than we might have been able to bury him somewhere else, at my parents place where he was from. Now the neighbor buried him there as he was to far gone to move. I have not seen him, my hubby had a quick peek and I asked the neighbor for Max's collar so we would be sure. Don't know why I asked, I guess because I somewhere hoped it would be a different blue collar from a different grey cat.

I never felt so sad after loosing a pet, others died of old age, but little Max was only 14 months old. He had been born the 22th of April with 4 sisters and brothers behind the pig stall of my parents's neighbors. His mum is the neighbors cat, but they were happy to find new places for the kittens, so my mum took care of 3 and I took 2 home with me on Sunday the 13th of June 2010

We named them Max and Sientje.

Our two older cats did not much like these lively youngsters, but it did get a bit better and once I found them all on the bed together, a rare occasion.

It was so cute to see Sientje trying to connect with Sam and Mol when Max was still alive, 

now it's just heart breaking.

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These are the things I want to remember about Max, in random order:

he loved water, he had to have a drink from the bathroom tab the last few months 

and was utterly fascinated by it

he would come and wonder at the washing machine when I was there to switch it on

he was fascinated by the ice on our pond

he was always happy, even after 5 visits to the vet in a months time he was not cross with me for always taking him there and having to give him tablets

he would always come sort of skipping home on his long legs when you called, 

we nicknamed him long shanks for a while

he would be waiting behind the scullery door in the morning, were he slept with his sis

in the evenings he would be waiting to be fed and than go to bed, 

if it took longer than expected he wouldn't start meowing,

but just go outdoors and than be back when I called him

he would lean against your hand when you would pet him, sometimes nearly falling over

he loved chasing flies and eating them

when we stepped from the shower Max would go in to drink the water

he was afraid of cars and would often still choose the backdoor even if we went in through the frontdoor

he had his own favorite chair, of which I don't even have a picture of him in it

he loved to bite your fingers and nose

he would lie and watch with his front paws crossed at the world

he loved playing with his sis and she with him

if you woke him from sleep his eyes would open in a special way

he would sometime sleep with the tip of his tongue sticking from his mouth

he would follow me often from the house to the atelier and sleep near where I worked

he would purr at the slightest attention and could "type" like the best

he loved to play with feathers or little ball shaped plants he had found outside

when we came home by car often he had been waiting under the hedge beside the parking

when it was hot he found himself a place in the shade under the lavender 

or would lay with his belly flat on the cool tiled floor

he would talk to flies, bees and birds

he was patient and would hardly ever meow, or else very softly, 

like when we took him and his sis in the car to stay at my parents house

he was just absolutely cute, sweet and funny

he was curious, full of life and happiness

Below is the last picture I took on the 1st of June, he had curled up beside the garden table were I was taking pictures of some jewellery. It is hard to believe he is not going with us to our new house, where ever that may be. The last thing I remember is him pressing his paw against the door to open it, to go out with hubby who was leaving for the train.

Notre petit copain, you are dearly missed and you will always have a place in our heart.