vrijdag, november 28, 2025

Books that marked my youth..


So, once upon a time I commited to reading every day in this big book about 366 days. 
The stories (more or less just one page - a whole story) depicts the life of American squirrels and their friends =)

Copyright: MCMLXXXV - first published in 1985 - translated in 86. This book is just 40 years old!! 

Dutch translate: R. Vooren.
Authur: Linda Hayward.  (More about the author)
Illustrations: Amye Rosenberg.
Published by Deltas: Aartselaar/Harderwijk.


It starts on the 25th of December: we meet the family squirel: Not the european tree-to-tree squirrel, but the American Ground squirrel! That looks like this.. 

Maybe coincidence or not, but we once owned a ground squirrel! It lived in a cage in our livingroom at the old appertment in Deinze.. It lived for about 3 years (or 2 years) it escaped quite often (and we had a looooooad of shit (furnture!) and we managed to capture it every time. It died when in hibernation, he just never woke up again. I can't remember when this was.. Must have been somewhere between 2000 till 2004.

So the family squirrel:
Zip (the brother)
Mother Squirrel
Kibby (sister)
Father Squirrel

Buffy the squirrel (tree)
Willy raccoon.
Barend Beaver
Oehoe Owl

It ends on 25th of december!
I was so in love with the black and white pictures of the animals :) and was so invested in their little lives of every day!

Don't know yet if I can toss the book away.. after all this time, it kinda owns that place in my bookcase..

xx
Sara

Ohyeah.. the pages of the book up above are actually the most meaningfull to me! It's the birthdays of me,  my kids, my man and my brother ;)
I kinda read it a lot, it stayed under my bed, it was there always.. 
When I was in my first house, (when my parens were still together) the house, a desperate fix-an-upper who was never treated like that, so it remained a house in bad shape for the many years I lived there.

I have many many memories of my room, my window (1 layer glass) that looked out the garden. The birds (sparrows) who would wake me up with their chirps of a nest nearby) 
the old petroleum heater in the hallway.. the very steep stairs, where my brother got 2 scars from falling down... ... the hours I played with my barbies. The little trinkets I collected (from horses to ballet stuff) the little ballet figurines my daughter had now.. the white desk I had for studying and when the first computer first set foot to the house.. (must have been somewhere in 1996-1997) it was only good for playing a couple of stuff (mentioned on the blogpost about nostalgia day at my brothers place) .. playing with lots of disks.. those were the days: 
where I played CARMEN SANDIEGO (in French) on the commodore 64. The software was allready 10 years old by then. Or alley cat, or nitrogen or all those other things..



oh dear, thank god no children were harmed at my house from the stairs! Yes, maybe the odd falling on their behinds, but never on their head!

I remember T took a fall on a radiator pipe on his head. (at the back) when he was about 4 or 5.. 
I remember A took a fall when playing on her new and big bed and fell on her back - with the head on the head board.. she even played like nothing happend.. when she was about 2..
I remember T making jumps onto something at the EFTELING.. so we rode back to a Belgian hospital (that was about 3 years ago) 

ah wel.. little kids, little problems.. big kids.. you know.. 

My father remained living in the house, only a few years ago he and his new wife purchased another house, about 10 houses down.. Now he has a fishpond and a nice modern house. Good for him and his family. My mother just owns a caravan.. (but formarly she had 2) What's wrong with this sentence?






dinsdag, november 11, 2025

So.. I did it!

Het vliegend paard

I finally got the book from another library! I took me about 1 hour reading :) And it absolutely remembered some things about it! Especially the beautiful drawings. 

Firstly, the details:
Author: TON VAN REEN: (30 augustus 1941) More at Wiki
Writes childrens books and adult novels.
This particular book came out in 1988!
Illustrations by Rolf De Bruin


I loved the pictures! About the story, it's a good childdrens book, kind of chilly, fairytale meets fantasy. Maybe it was this book who triggered my 'love' for the obscure, vampires and stuff..
Liked it ;)

Was quite fond of this one quote: It's just about chocolate milk: here goes:

'Drinkt u zelf geen chocolademelk?'
'Ik houd er niet van. Het is meer iets voor kinderen.
'Nou, mijn moeder is er anders ook dol op!
'Dat kan natuurlijk. Als mensen eenmaal volwassen zijn, verlangen ze weleens terug naar de tijd toen ze nog kind waren. Daarom houden de meesten wel het een of ander uit het kindertijd ter ere. De een spaart poppen om van vroeger te kunnen dromen en de ander drinkt chocolade melk om de smaak van toen terug te vinden....

In English now?

Once people are adults, they sometimes long for the time they were children. That's why most people keep something from their childhood in their honor. Some people collect dolls to dream of the past, while others drink chocolate milk to recapture the taste of that time...

This.. right in the nostalgic feels.. could this be? Yes.

Much greetings
xx Sara 

Dragons dragons dragons galore! (no it's not game of thrones OR House of the dragon - related!)

 Hi Blog.. 

This time another blast from the past,.. with the findings of this little gem!

Some 100 years ago.. (I think it must have been in the second OR the fifth year.. (either way it was with a teacher I had 2 times in my elementary.. ) yuk. Between the ages of 8 to 10.

I got the assignment making something with clay, I desperatly wanted it to be a dragon. Nevertheless i failed miserebly! It was so bad I took the clay home and knowing my mother was a wee bit more creative than me, she actually finished the product. I was soooooo proud of the wee thing! At school I got to paint the whole thing and it stayed on teachers closet (above the blackboard) for like the entire schoolyear. 

A few years later, I attempted another try and just duplicated the thing. (I think when I was in highschool for an art class or so)

Now it's really the time to throw them away, as i'm far to clingy for sentimental stuff.. (in the end it stayed with me till 2025! (and I think its from somewhere from 1993 or 1996) It has holes and pieces missing and it's been put with glue together for too maaaaaany times.. Even today, for recapturing soms nostalgia for this photo! Goodbye youth.


(small anecdote: the claypieces were wrapped in some newspaper from 4th of november 2010) 


Actually, there are like a few things my mom kind of 'finished' for me while in (elementary) school.. I'm not sure that's a good thing really, but she litteraly saved my back sometimes..

Thank you mom.

--> Edit.. you know the little play dragon (Pete's dragon) from a few posts earlier? I actually asked my mother about it AND she did remember this thingamajigy.. from the old days.. how great is this? here's the post about it!!

=) Gotta love my mother!

Hey mama hoe is het?
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Zeg.. zegt dit jou toevallig iets??
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Frida
Dat ken ik
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Ja?
Frida
Zijt ge dat niet kwijt geraakt in de school ?
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Zotjes
Frida
Ja, weet ik nog, hoe komt ge aan deze ?
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Ma echt zot.. ik was maar een jaar of 6 of 7 zeker?
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Af en toe komt die herinnering op van dat speelgoedje
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En had het eens ingetikt op Google met wat kernwoorden.
Frida
Ja zoiets of misschien jonger
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En kvond het gewoon gisteren
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Ik herkende het wel 🙂
Frida
🫧
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Had ik daar dan lang voor gehuild??
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Aangezien dat gij dat nog weet 😛
Frida
Dat weet ik niet meer
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Goh wat een toeval he 😛
Frida
🫧
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Het stond te koop op een website. Maar beetje duur 😛
Frida
T is ook al oud
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Weet ge nog waar het oorspronkelijk vandaan kwam?
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Hoeveel ?
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Neen
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Van papa's werk van teratex?
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Frida
Kan zijn, ik zou anders niet weten hoe he eraan kon komen
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Ja hij bracht wel af en toe zo spullen mee
Frida
Van welk land ?
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Dermee dat ik dat dacht
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Wel ik dacht van uk.
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Maar nu dat ik het merk weet vind ik het wie weet nog elders 🙂
Frida
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eBay ?
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Ewel kga zeker nog keer kijken
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Daarop