SPECIAL SPRING BABIES

When was the last time you had a front-row seat at the birth of baby pelegrine falcons?!

In the left tower of the Saints-Michel-et-Gudule Cathedral, on the lefthand side, up at the very top, a mother pelegrine falcon has made her nest ...

and given birth to 5 babies!  And how do I know and how can I observe them?  Aha!

At the base of the cathedral steps, a camera truck has been parked.  There are web cameras placed high up on the cathedral and on a neighbouring building. We can go into the truck and watch the babies on computers!

They are two weeks old.  I'll go back in 10 days- just before they learn to fly - and take another picture so you can see them again.  Amazing, isn't it?!!

NEED A CHOCOLATE FIX ??

Trust the Belgians to think up something new.  They are artistically avant-garde  in designer fashions, cartoons and painting, so why not stamps?

Last month, just before Easter, five new chocolate-flavoured stamps arrived on the market.  They have pictures of chocolate on the front, the essence of cacao oil in the glue at the back for taste and in the ink for smell.  A complete fix !!

It was not easy to get the scent and flavour of the dark chocolate right. In the end, people from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland all worked on it.
It is not the first scented stamp … but this is the first time it has been combined with a flavour.

THE ROOSTER

That's the name of the little town I went to on the Belgium coast.  It sounds much more romantic in Flemish - De Haan - don't you think?

I took the train over the flat countryside, through the well-known cities of Ghent and Bruges to the coastal city of Oostende, a trip of about 1 1/2 hours.  Oostende is a bustling port and tourist vacation spot so there's lots of activity and highrise apartment buildings.

From one end of the Belgian coastline to the other (a distance of about 68 km from the French border to the Dutch border), you can ride the "Coast Tram" or the "Kusttram" for 5 euros a day.  It's the longest tram line in the world and it stops at all the little villages along the way, like ..... De Haan.

De Haan is the most beautiful village on the coast, utterly charming.  Of course it has a seaside promenade but behind it you discover a delightful maze of green, meandering avenues and a Belle Epoque area, well over a century old, an Anglo-Norman residential area.

 The weather was grey and chilly, more like winter than spring, so I thought it would be fun for you to see what I looked like as I walked the beach, enjoying the sound of the waves and the gulls.  (I told the Flemish lady who took my picture that my friends in Canada would never believe that I was walking on the beach in a winter coat!!)

And the sea...the endless sea with its never-ending waves. And then the beach in all its simplicty, with no frills and no people.

                 Beaches like this are where the Allies landed on D-Day in 1944.

The round park in the centre of the beautiful downtown residential area was coming to life!

                      And there was even a coastal forest I could meander through.

My hotel was quaint, my bed comfortable, the seafood delicious and the peace ...exquisite.  I came home relaxed and ready to pick up my responsibilities again.

                                               Thank-you, little rooster!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Ohhh, but it's been a long, cold winter here in Brussels.  We haven't had the mountains of snow that Quebec has had, but we've had more snow than usual and temperatures have forced people to continue wearing longjohns, thick scarves and fleece coats right to the end of March.  There was a snowstorm on Palm Sunday!  Having an apartment that has relatively little insulation doesn't help.

No sitting basking in the sun on terraces, no snowdrops or crocuses pushing their way up through the soil, no reappearance of short shorts on the long-legged Brussels beauties. (Well, that's not completely true because they have reappeared...but with warm tights!!)

Ahhh, but here comes April and spring and blue sky (well, at least some days) and the promise of warmer days!  And flowers ...

Yesterday, it was beautiful so I took the rattlely old tram to Tervuren, a suburb of Brussels, to visit the Africa Museum.  The tracks followed large boulevards where the grass was turning green on the lawns surrounding mansions housing embassies, ran alongside an expansive park where swans were floating on a little lake, and wound through a woods (Forêt de Soignes) where the soil was pushing up purple and yellow and white crocuses and snowdrops.  Everything is waking up again!

The Africa Museum was built by Leopold II to house his enormous collection of artefacts from Africa, particularly from what was the Belgian Congo, now DRC.  There were many objects that were familiar to me from having lived in Nigeria, but the exhibit that allows the visitor to follow the meandering Congo River from its source in the south to its mouth in Kinshasa was fascinating. 

There were photos and newpaper articles about Stanley meeting Lingstone, and monkeys, elephants, deer, zebras, fish, hippos, lions and birds in their habitat, that the taxidermist had prepared for us to admire.

 I was glad to see that the museum also chose to show the visitor that there was a very dark side to all this: the exploitation of the Congolese people in the ivory and rubber trades.  Much of the beauty of Brussels - its parks, large boulevards and grandiose buildings - was built on their backs, with the money from these trades.  It's a sobering thought for me, as I walk around this city of Brussels and enjoy its beauty....

                                         hands cut off because the quota of rubber
                                      exacted from those men had not been reached

Next week, I'm going to escape for 3 days to the Belgian coast, to a little town called De Haan.  I have never been to the coast so I'm looking forward to the sand, the wind, the coastal vegetation and some "down time".  I'll take you with me ..... :)

THE BLESSING OF LOVED ONES

I surprised myself by being eager to come back to Belgium.  While in Quebec, I was talking to a dear friend, Mo Umran.  Mo is from Syria but has lived most of his adult life in Canada.  We talked about the difference between one's 'homeland' and one's 'home'.  Syria is his homeland but Canada is his home.

That helped me understand the mix of emotions I was feeling on arriving back in Brussels: Canada is my homeland but Belgium is my home right now, so I was delighted to hear "Welcome home, Nancy!" when I arrived at church on Sunday morning.

How do you put into words that warm, comfortable blanket of feelings that flows over you when you are once again with dear friends and family that have known you for ages?  That's what going back to Quebec for two weeks was like.  I was able to be in my home church, see all my siblings, stay with my grandchildren and visit some dear friends as well.  It filled up my love bank and propelled me back to Brussels with wind in my sails.

                                                    my siblings John, Stephen and Kathy

                                my grandchildren Donovan and Gabrielle having fun with me

                                              some of my special young friends at church

                                            and I got my wish: a fullblown snowstorm!! :)

BIKE OR PLANE ?

                                   Guess how many people are taking the train this morning!!

Well, I'll be taking the plane, not a bike, tomorrow morning (Thursday the 14th) for a 2-week holiday in Quebec.  Going home to see family, friends, my church, my dentist, my doctor, my accountant and look after some business.  It's not long but it will be good to touch base again with my life in Quebec and my loved ones.  Bye for now!

BOODSCHAPPEN DOEN .... what?

I thought it might be interesting for you to see where I do my grocery shopping (that's what the Flemish title means).  Since I live in the centre of town and have no car, I don't have access to the large malls with large grocery stores in the suburbs.  They do exist here ... but I've never been there.

However, I love my little Delhaize store on a narrow street near me.  Delhaize is a chain of grocery stores.  It's never open on Monday mornings or Sundays and they stock the shelves on Wednesday mornings.  You bring your own grocery bags, or pay for the ones you need to buy.

 Outside the store, there is a "permanent" beggar.  He has his little tin on the sidewalk just by the door, so when you go in, you have to be careful not to knock it over.  On the cold and rainy days, he often comes into the store and sits on one of the chairs by the entrance.  The manager lets him do this to keep warm and I suspect he gives him food every once in a while.  He's a rather permanent fixture around the place.  (You'll just have to imagine a middle-aged 'grey' man, ravaged by time and drink, wearing tattered clothes, and smoking when he can find a cigarette. I'm uncomfortable photographing him...)



This is the first aisle - fresh produce and fresh meats (This is the length of the store.)

This is the beginning of the 2nd aisle - breads and cakes ...

... followed by dairy products with a frozen section at the end

On the other side are ... the eggs ... on a shelf!!  You can buy packages of 4 eggs.

canned and packaged goods in the 3rd aisle ...

... including cereals: this middle section is the only choice there is! (Jams and honeys on the far left)

the last aisle - and the biggest selection!!

and 4 cashdesks squished in near the door

This is where I do my 'boodschappen' about twice a week because I only buy what I can carry home in my two arms.

An interesting thing I discovered: many companies give their employees meal vouchers of a fixed value that are good all over the city.  This is to pay for their noon meal.  However, lots of them bring their lunch to work, save their vouchers and turn them into the grocery stores or bakeries to help pay for their groceries.  I had wondered about these pieces of paper that clients in front of me in line were handing over along with cash.  Now I know!!