Author Archives for Ellen

Monday 23 August 2021

In the morning i woke up around seven. I went to the loo and got back in bed. I might have read a bit, but i am not sure. I did fall asleep in the end, once again. Next time i woke up around nine fifteen. I got out, went downstairs and took my double espresso with some butter and cream. Yum.

The morning i spend watching news and youtube on my iPad. I also did some warcraft playing on this private server ChromieCraft. Been playing for two weeks there and enjoy it. Early in the afternoon i went outside and made a walk. I went into the Essenburg allotments and watched the late summer splendour. All the pumpkins! I chatted a bit with Faroek and a bit with the men who was working there. I got a courgette! On my way out i said hi to a woman working there in one of the individual allotments. She gave me some basil.

After i visited the Albert Heijn supermarket i went back home. Some more iPad and warcraft playing. Eric called me, he asked me if i wanted to make photographs of the Swimming event this Sunday. I said yes. I hope i can manage that! Once he got home we drank some coffee downstairs and talked about it for a while. I still hope i can manage it.

I made some chicken thigh for diner together with baked courgette. Not the one i got from the garden, i still had half one from the shop. I did use the basil i got today. It was really nice.

Today i was thinking about my future. I am not sure where i got the certainty i felt a few months ago from. The certainty i felt for the past seven years. I will still give it space. I still feel something developing in my mind. But it is difficult. Yes, very difficult.

That is it for today. Enjoy!

Published on August 24, 2021 at 6:00 by
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Schools

School was for me very enjoyable, a pleasure. I enjoyed algebra, math, writing. It wasn’t a problem for me. But i do realize now looking back on my school days in the 70s and 80s that it was not a complete picture of what you can learn about life and all the activities you can do. I did have swimming while i was at school, and gymnastics. But we never had a school garden. It was simply not mentioned. I didn’t miss it at all, but i also didn’t know that it was a possibility for me to have that. I was simple a child, adjusting myself to what was given to me.

I do come across articles which do interest me. I will give a list here, with some short comments.

  • Wat als… ons onderwijs regeneratief zou zijn?
    This article talks about what makes school something which makes you learn so many more things besides the cognitive skills. Not just your mind, but also your heart and hands are important. It will teach you to think about nature inclusive solutions.
  • Steiner free schools
    The Vrijeschoolonderwijs or Waldorf system has at its main focus the development of the child as a whole for his or her personal development and for the relation of the child with the world surrounding him or her. A balance between thinking, feeling and acting.
  • Laterna Magica
    A school delivering education for each child separately.

These are just three examples of different methods of learning. I wish i would have experienced this so much earlier in my life.

The examples i give here are the good kind. Well, good in my opinion anyway. I still think most of the schools are not of this kind. Predominantly most of the attention is focused on math and language. The CITO test pupils do at around 11 or 12 years old gives an overview of language skills, math skills, geography, history and nature knowledge. This is all tested inside a classroom with multiple choice questions. This give a limited view on the child. This continues over the later years in high school. More so even.

I’m still skeptical about the Dutch system of education. Some schools have a well rounded educational lesson system, but i do think they are in the minority. Most are scraping by, trying to mold the children to a general accepted way of thinking. I’m sad to say.

Published on August 23, 2021 at 6:00 by
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“Hope” is the thing with feathers—

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)

Published on August 20, 2021 at 6:00 by
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Talasbuan

Talasbuan is a channel on Youtube i found a week ago. Talasbuan is from two people living in an off grid small holding, a fäbod, in the middle part of Sweden. They are building up a small farm, with sheep, pigs, chickens and a couple of roosters and some rabbits (which might have been gone now, not sure). I love the style of the videos they are posting, about nature surrounding them, the work they do, building up the wooden small houses for themselves and their animals, their little kid Ivar and so much more.

I’m in the process of reading all the information they are giving. The Weston A Price foundation website is a new thing for me. I do see many similarities with my ketogenic diet. They both put the emphasis on cooking your meals yourself, not using any premade foodstuff. I will come back to this subject.

That is it for now. Enjoy the videos, and please, check out their youtube channel Talasbuan and their website Talasbuan yourself.

Published on August 19, 2021 at 6:00 by
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What i do not want

I enjoy watching Escape to the Country. I do think earlier, a couple of years ago, i would like to live in a house like those shown in there. Especially the above 600k pounds one of course. But lately, for the past couple of months, i do realise i do not want this. Not anymore. I do not want the peace and quiet. I do not want the lazy drawn out afternoons. I do not want to walk outside over the fields and the footpaths. Not anymore.

I put on weight. I drank a bottle of wine each day. This lasted until 2011, when i got the diagnosis of diabetes 2. I didn’t think much about it at first. I took my medicines. I did stop drinking that much, but still a bottle of wine each week. I have lost around twenty kilos, i’m happy to say. The final ten are a pain, but i do hope i will manage somehow. And around two years ago i stopped drinking alcohol pretty much all together. Two bottles a year, one for Christmas, one for my birthday. And i might even stop with those. Together with the ketogenic diet i do feel i’m stopping the development of the diabetes somehow. And getting healthier at the same time.

I haven’t been working in the garden for the last few months. I’m not sure why. It does feel like i should take a bit more distance, decide what i want to do there, if anything. It feels like i should make some important decisions. Some decisions i can not talk about with other people. Yes that is it. I do feel something looming over me. The past two weeks i have not been my usual cheery self. I am stuck in front of something. I do need to determine what direction i want to move into. It is all a bit muddy inside my head. But it should clear up over time.

Published on August 17, 2021 at 6:00 by
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Ketogenic diet

On June 12 2019 i wrote my first post about the keto diet, called Keto chocolate chip almond flour cookies. I am on this journey for around three years now. From low carb to keto. And now i’m quite strict with myself. I don’t drink any alcohol, i buy a 90% chocolate bar once or twice a week, i stopped putting erythritol in my coffee, i don’t eat any bread. No pasta, no rice, no potatoes. I have some chorizo in my cupboard upstairs, walnuts. I make my own dressing for salads. I breakfast with a bulletproof coffee, a double espresso with a knob of butter and some cream. I lunch with a salad with mushrooms, bell peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, and either an egg or feta or smoked salmon. My dinner is usually a baked sausage or chicken thigh and veggies like spinach or cauliflower or another salad.

I did measure my glucose before i wrote this post, it is 6,0 mmol/L, which is fine. A month ago i measure it for around a week multiple times a day, it was between 5 and 6 the whole time.

In my room i have some tea, walnuts, chorizo and chocolate.
In the kitchen i have some eggs, anchovies, peppers, aubergine (eggplant), tomatoes, apple vinegar, olive oil, olives and coconut oil.
In the fridge i have a cauliflower, spinach, chicket, cucumber, bacon, ham, cream, butter, cottage cheese and cream cheese.
My dinner this evening: aubergine fried, then a whole tin of anchovies, three gloves of garlic, chicken, green olives, bell peppers and a tin of tomatoes. Stewed for around 45 minutes. Lovely.
Published on August 13, 2021 at 6:00 by
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