14 May 2019

ORCHID EXHIBITION IN THE MILL "MOULIN BANAL"

Every two years there is an orchid exhibition in the old "Moulin Banal" at Old Mill in a nearby located village "Braine le Chateau". I had never been there and took the opportunity to go and see the orchids.



This water mill dates from 1226. It belonged in half to the lord and the chapter of Sainte-Waudru in Mons.

The peasants of Braine-le-Château and Haut-Ittre were obliged to come here and mill their grain, and paid a "banality" to the lord of the castle which still belongs to Count Cornet Ways Ruart, descendant of the family of the Counts of Robiano. The site has been classified since 1954 and the mill since 1970.

The mill as we know it today is made of arkoze stones or granite and local bricks. The buildings were remodelled and enlarged in the 18th century. This mill "worked" until 1947.




The mill



The mill  had three floors, with holes in it, but we didn't land on the first floor. The cord is not for hang up somebody but for the flour bags







There is not much to say except that I had never seen an orchid like the last picture left !

It was really a very beautiful exhibition. Unfortunately the prices were also beautiful ! But people bought !




more participants here

12 May 2019

WEEKEND MAY 11

Saturday my neighbour, friend and nurse went with me to visit Mr. G. She was surprised that he looked so much better now !



Between the first and the last picture there are exactly 6 weeks ! He can walk now with crutches and has to do his exercises each day.  Finally we spent a nice afternoon because all what I don't know about health service, hospitals, doctors, and how they work my friend knows and patiently explained everything to him. So I think he is feeling better and both of us "ordered" him to have the hairdresser come and cut and wash his hairs ! It was about 4.30 we had to return home, because there was a gardener expecting my neighbor.

The weather was quite good, but he is not yet allowed to go outside alone, only with a nurse. Maybe next time we can have a coffee in the nice restaurant of the clinic. Finally we can see the end of the dark tunnel !

On Sunday was Mother day and as my son lives in Amsterdam, I got a phone call and my friend Myriam's son had to call her secretly because his wife doesn't like her mother in law ! Sometimes there are real sad situations. She never sees her grandchildren either (7 and 9) because their mother has talked so badly about her, that they probably think she is a monster.

We tried to make the best out of the day, went to a restaurant where we had a delicious Tikki Marsala chicken followed with strawberry cream and coffee and went then to a nearby little village to see a orchid exposition in an old mill dated from 1226 !!



The mill is open for visitors only all two years, because as it is so old it is dangerous for the floor. Myriam was a bit worried because there were holes in the floor. The whole inside of the mill was decorated with beautiful orchids which I will show in a separate post. Besides the mill was a castle, but private and we couldn't get in, followed by the church and next to the church a Brasserie where you could have your beer after the mass. We didn't go into the church preferred the Brasserie which also was very old and as we could sit outside we enjoyed our drinks on the terrace.

So Mother Day passed by and when I dropped off Myriam at her home, she asked me to come in because she had a frog (a very fat one) in her swimming pool, and wanted me to help to get it out from the tube it was sitting in. I didn't want to see the poor frog, maybe he had found the way out alone and was now swimming in the pool, she had told me there are special tweezers to catch them and that they scream, although it doesn't hurt and once the frog caught he hops away. I preferred to go home to my cats !