The photo above is the first view we got of the place we were staying in in the Netherlands, you can see the stables straight ahead where the four horses live, there were five but one died a few months ago – old age, she had a good innings.

As you can see, the house itself is thatched although not completely thatched, in common with a lot of Dutch houses. The tiles are shiny black ones, very different from the orange terracotta tiles which are common in Scotland, and those ones came originally from the Netherlands too, as ballast in ships. All of the houses in the area are different from each other. The farmers just seem to have drawn houses and got local builders to put build them. It’s just as well that the houses were individual as it helped me to recognise places, otherwise the very flat landscape bamboozled me, I need hills and natural outcrops to help me to know where I am.

The wee house which you can see to the left of the main house is completely thatched and in the past it was used for cooking and eating in. The farm workers weren’t allowed to trail their muck and mud into the house so the farmhouses all have these structures. Now the mini house is used as a laundry room, like an updated wash house, very handy as it keeps all the washing machine noise out of the house.

The photo of the stained glass above is one of five windows which were in our bedroom. I love stained glass and I think this design would transfer really well into a patchwork quilt design. Maybe one day I’ll get around to doing it!