SUNDAY SELECTION

The Hougoumont farm was the place where Napoleon lost the battle against Wellington and his alleys. You can still visit it today. 

Close to the farm stood three oak trees theywere about 300 years old. You can see them below on the picture

The three dead oaks still standing

and the bloody battle at the farm

Here is a picture I took when my friend Nicole her dog Charlie, a golden Redriever made a walk to the farm to watch the renovation of the farm. The tree in the middle had a big hole, but for Charlie it seemed a bit small to us.
 

Before we could hold him back, Charlie had squeezed himself in the hole ! Of course very interesting smells in there. Nicole was very worried that he couldn't get out again, but like Udini he did, when he had sniffed enough.

Last Thursday we had a terrible storm and this time the middle tree fell down after 300 years and took with it  Charlie's hole ! Now the scientifics are analyzing the trunk, pull out the old balls which are still stuck in the old tree and it will probably remain like that as a memory ! We don't know yet.

and here is our tree researcher in his full glory.

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WEEKEND REVIEW April 2

On Saturday it rained and this reflected exactly my mood ! I just did some shopping and then met Nicole to have a coffee together before returning home. It's very hard for her to stay home because she sees Charlie in every corner. The whole week I had a terrible lack of energy.

Sunday was a tourist attraction at the Hougomont farm a whole village of 1815 was built around the farm.



There were many tourists from all countries who walked around and as it was just lunch time they could see what was eaten at that time ! For drinking there was no problem it had always been beer apparently !

Then I went to Nicole who had her daughter and granddaughter there to keep her company. It was the first time that I was in her flat after Charlie's dead. It was so strange, not to hear him barking when I rang the bell, the apartment looked empty ! We sat on the terrace, it was beautiful sunshine.




One of the last pictures of Charlie.

WEEKEND REVIEW July 11 - HOUGOUMONT FARM

The wonderful weather Claudie had brought with her in her suitcase continued and we went to to the Anderlecht market.



Before we walked around and bought 4 Kaftans, we had this Durum a Turkish speciality. It was enormous, and I first thought it was for two people ! Then we returned home, but before we stopped and Claudie went to the hairdresser.

The next day my son arrived with Toby to celebrate my birthday. They came without my DIL who spent the weekend with a friend.  Toby's new hobby is playing football (soccer) ! He probably watched some Euro 2016 matches and was also influenced by the school. He was never interested in football before.



First thing they did was buying a football suit for Toby with the stockings and shoes.



Then fully dressed he posed for his Dad. The whole afternoon they played and he was actually very good. I don't understand anything of the rules and don't know the players either, which of cause was a big handicap for a grandma !



Claudie and I watched them from the terrace



In the evening we went to the Brasserie "L'orangerie du Prince" which I love so much and Toby had a lot of fun with the old machines of the farm and the hey balls. The meal was delicious, the photo shoes Claudie's plate, it was a sucking pig, and she loved it very much !

On Sunday we went to the Hougoumont farm where each weekend a show with Waterloo battle soldiers should take place. On the program was written "Artillery". In expectation of a wonderful show with historical uniformed soldiers, we approached and heard the first canon shot



Toby was first afraid, but then he watched closer and played with the soldier's kids. The whole show contained 5 soldiers, a little canon and 3 shots !





While the tourists went away quite disappointed, we chatted with the soldiers and had a drink with them.



For the first time we could visited the little chapel





This  wooden crucifix survived an inferno during the Battle of Waterloo. It had been stolen and had then been rediscovered in a Belgian flea market after a four year hunt by Interpol !

The 400-year-old cross from the chateau at Hougoumont escaped some of the battle’s most intense fighting

The cross stood in the château’s chapel which was burned during intense fighting between French soldiers and the Grenadier, Coldstream and Scots Guards.



The farm



and tea time !

From there my son and Toby returned to Amsterdam and we went home. It had been a very nice weekend !

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WEEKEND REVIEW JUNE 27

After last weekend's agitated bicentenary Waterloo battle celebrations I wanted to see how the Hougoumont Farm looks without the thousands of visitors.



The new statues which had been unveiled by Prince Charles the week before, stand now at the entrance of the court yard. Inside there are also benches to rest.



Somebody had put a poppy wreath in front of the door, and my friend just had time to call back Charlie who had already lifted his leg !



Inside is a new visitor center and of course you have to pay now to see the farm.



A new (??) or now cleaned plaque was cemented in the wall



I saw the two still standing trees around which the battle took place and you can still see the impact of the bullets from 200 years ago.



At the Lion's mound the tribunes for 60.000 spectators were partly dismantled.



and a new memorial had been placed.

On Sunday Ilona and I went to the Lion mound, she hadn't seen the new site yet.



Some French soldiers were apparently nostalgic, because they had come back for the weekend.



The new visitor center in the underground Memorial museum was now open for all tourists.



 The old one is closed, but the old sign of what you should visit is still there although it is now completely outdated.



We met with Nicole and her daughter on the terrace of the new restaurant and watched the one week too late French soldiers parading by.



There were a lot of tourists climbing up the 223 steps to the Lion and some youngsters were rolling down the hill, which of course is not allowed, but forbidden things are just fun.

We sat there in the sunshine and chatted with tourists from Vienna and the UK, there was a group of Chinese and many French and Belgian tourists too.

We had a lot of fun and finally returned home at 6 pm.

CHARLIE's ADVENTURE

Charlie is my friend Nicole's Golden Retriever and a love of a dog. He often brings us into hilarious situations.

We walked around the Hougoumont farm battle field, looked at the renovated farm and 



arrived at two still standing trees which had seen the bloody battle 200 years ago and were full of bullet holes from this time.



Charlie, as all dogs, loves trees. And discovered a 200 year old hole in it. Of course he had to look inside. You don't find such an old hole every day. Now the entrance was quite narrow and Charlie is not the slimmest dog.



He tried to squeeze himself inside, and Nicole was very worried that he couldn't get out anymore and tried to pull him out by his tail. But Charlie is very stubborn, she could pull as hard as possible, he didn't move, instead he tried even more to get inside. The smells in there must have been delicious.



and he made it ! He was in the hole and we stood outside ! We waited and waited, called and called, but there were so many interesting things to smell at, apparently Charlie was very interested in history !



After at least 15 min, he finally had enough and pushing himself out backwards, he managed to get out after a while ! Nicole was so relieved and I called him Houdini !

MY WEEKEND OF FEBRUARY 7

On Saturday morning we had a wonderful blue sky and I took the opportunity to drive to the Hougoumont farm where Wellington fought against Napoleon during the Waterloo battle. I wanted to see the progress of the restoration works for the bicentenary of the battle.



I couldn't go inside it was closed.  But from what I could see, there hasn't been much progress and I really wonder if they will have finished in time. I will write a post about this later.



Fortunately I had boots on, because the street all around the farm looked like this, I was lucky that the ground was frozen, otherwise I would have gone stuck in mud !

In the afternoon the sun had disappeared and I stayed home. In the News I heart that the Thank you card from the former King and Queen in which the death of Paola still very much alive was mentioned instead of Fabiola who had died in December. In the excuse and corrected card now the poor Queen Fabiola became King Fabiola ! A second misprint. The deceased queen would have laughed her head off, she had a lot of humor. So did the whole country !

On Sunday afternoon I went to Nicole, she had asked me to take some pictures of her new entrance door, which was not placed the right way.



Charlie greeted me at then entrance and was happy to see me, and we spent the afternoon talking about some holiday plans.

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

1. After my rather hectic weekend with our exhibition, I decided to rest and and shared my time between computer and TV



A lady who had visited our exhibition had asked me if I could paint her cats. I told her that it was ages that I hadn't painted a real cat portrait but I could do a composition of her cats on a photo. I showed her what I had done for "Feline Art" and she was enthusiastic ! She ordered a photo composition and that's what I did on Monday. Now I have to see if she likes the result.

2. For one day the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and Nicole and I decided to go to the Waterloo battle field and inspect the ongoing works of the Hougoumont farm which once had been the headquarters of Wellington.



Compared to the last time I had visited this farm, the works had progressed a lot  ! They have to hurry up if they want to be ready for the 200th anniversary celebration of the Waterloo battle in June next year.

3. Nicole's dog Charlie discovered the battle field now occupied by cows and ran around !



Good for him, but not for us, he found a nice place full of mud in which he rolled happily !



It was impossible to put him in my car in this state. The workers on the site were laughing their heads off ! I asked one if he didn't have a hose, he said yes and kindly washed  poor Charlie until all the mud was gone ! I put a plastic bag on the back seat and a towel and drove with a wet Charlie home !

4. The next day it was raining but I badly needed to go out for my weekly shopping !



I was horrified when I saw that the shops had already put their Christmas decoration on display ! It seems to me that each year they are earlier, soon they will start at Easter !

5. In order to preserve my vintage beauty, I went to my favourite Indian shop to buy some cream.



It is such a beautiful place, I could spend hours in there. It doesn't look like a store at all but rather like a private house. All sales benefits go to Indian street children and orphanages.

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.