Week Three is Almost Gone

The rain keeps on falling every day. The fields of grain are ripe and ready to be harvested. We take walks in the evening with the guys. Sometimes we even walk during the day when the rain lets up a little. I guess the rain is why everything is so green over here. Monday we did laundry at the laundromat. The man there gave us a eruo off the cost because all but one large machine were busy. We combined loads and spent over an hour waiting for it to get done then drying took sixteen minutes. Tuesday we went to find a store where we could buy a tie for Dad. Then we drove out to see where Michelle's house is going to be. They are going to be moving the first of August. It is across the street from an old church so we had a look at their house and went inside the church.

Laurene and Michelle on walkway beside church grounds

Laurene has been wanting to see windmills and as we were walking around the church we spotted one down the street. Off we went to get pictures of it. It sat right out in some fields.

Somewhere Laurene had seen where there are several near here. We often drive country roads just to see what we can. Laurene has a great sense of direction to get us back home but sometimes we have to break out the map. There is a lot of farming in this area with many fields of sugar beets, potatoes, corn and oats.

Typical narrow country road where we walk

Corn field next to our apartments (roof in rear)

Wednesday I made cookies. It took me a while to look up metric coversions to get the job done. Then we took another drive to look for a grocery store that was supposed to have lower prices. We found it but were not impressed. I guess we will go back to the old standby, Delhaize. We like it because it has a good variety. Thursday was a little better weather wise but it sill rained off and on. It was a national holiday here similar to our fourth of July so everything was closed. Dad and Dave worked so we met them for lunch and went to McDonalds. After lunch Laurene and I took a drive to see what we could find and ended up at the town center where the open market was just winding down. We found a fruit stand still open so we bought some large sweet cherries. We also visited Liedts Castle in Liedts Park in downtown Oudenaarde. It is closed for the month of July but the building and grounds are beautiful.

When the guys got home they wanted to go for a walk on a country road near the apartment where we see these big-butted cows. They are Belgian Blues and have massive muscles on shoulders and buttocks. They look like body-builder cattle.

Laurene and Dave went ahead of us while Dad finished something. We didn't find them so we went another way. When we got home our neighbors Michelle and Silvio,
invited us to go for a walk around a nearby lake with them so, what the heck, dinner was turned off and we went on another walk with them.

Michelle and Silvio

 

Dave and Laurene were already eating so they didn't go. The trail around the lake was over a mile long. The lake was beautiful and the trail was well groomed. Kids go to a camp on one side. People were fishing and we saw a lady catch a small fish which she kept. Maybe all the fish are small but the poles they used were quite big for what was being pulled out. The weather held out until we finished the walk and then it rained again. Friday started it out with a bang when I dropped a glass cinnamon container on the marble kitchen floor with no broom, mop or vacuum cleaner to clean up. I just had a roll of kitchen paper (paper towels) but I managed to get it cleaned up.