Society Took the Farm, and Farmed it Out…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This is another post in my series about historical Den Haag (The Hague). Every city grows and changes over time, but some specific areas grow and change more than others.

When the Haags Gemeentearchief  (the Hague City Council Archive) put up billboards around the city  to celebrate their 125th Anniversary a few years ago and Himself and I made it my mission to try and photograph them all.

The Gemeente (Council) placed the billboards as close as possible to where the photos had been originally taken and they made a page on their website (Dutch language only) that showed where their physical locations were etc.

Sadly both the website and the billboards were removed afterwards and so I was delighted that we managed to photograph almost every one of them with not just the “old” views that were already displayed on the billboards, but also my own photos of the areas surrounding the billboards as they look today.

This particular photograph is captioned: “Uitzicht van Monnickendamplein 17 ” (View from Monnickendamplein 17) and shows the market garden / glass houses that apparently this area was well known for as they were in 1939.

Himself told me that he seemed to remember a few open spaces that featured gardening still in the district when he was a kid, but those have long since been built on, as various apartment blocks dating from the 1970′s and 1980′s will attest.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I tried to find some historical facts from the Hague city Archive, but since this area mostly consisted of glass houses (as opposed to old established buildings) there was no information to be found.

Granted I spent hours looking and not days, but at least I tried.

This is  one of the billboards where, if someone who lived the area in 1939 could step directly into 2013, they would get the shock of their lives.

So much has changed, and the food, instead of coming from a market garden or greenhouse a block away, now comes from supermarkets like the Albert Hein (AH) on the other side of the road.

The land of course rose acutely in value as new houses were needed, farmland and it’s earnings could not compete with the return value of residential land,  (market forces and all that)   … it’s fate was sealed.

Society took the farm, and farmed it out to way beyond the city limits.  How little our food used to travel, and how much further it has to now. They call this progress… but I’m not so very certain that it really is.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Bric-a-Brac on an Industrial Scale (…or at Least on an Industrial Site)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We’ve finished looking around Schipol and headed to Amsterdam for our next appointment.

We’ve arrived too early though and thought it would be OK  because surely we could just have a cup of coffee before our appointment but no… the place we want to go to is closed until the appointed time so now we are standing outside in a freezing wind on an industrial estate in a city we are not particularly familiar with, wondering what to do with ourselves for an hour and a quarter.

We are right next to a ferry dock that could take us over the water to Amsterdam’s Central Station, and our first idea was to just go for a jaunt to kill the time but then we discover that the ferry sailings are only every half hour and since our next appointment involves a boat, we are somewhat worried that  if we missed the connection back that we would miss our appointment.

Then we notice that people coming to catch the ferry are all streaming in in one direction and that many of them are carrying bags, bric-a-brac and various items that vary between antique and junk.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Clearly there’s some sort of market going on close by so we decide to investigate. We following the crowds and discover a flea market literally just around the corner. Several massive old industrial buildings are being used to house most of it it, although there are a few hardy souls with stalls set up outside in the cold.

The first building is labelled on each wall respectively in both English and Dutch “Netherlands Shipbuilding Company” and it all looks interesting (and we have nothing better to do for the next hour than stand in the cold) so we decide to gamble on getting our money’s worth of entertainment, pay the entrance fee and go inside.

There are rows and  rows of stalls, lots of clothes,  and everything from new hand made jewellery to antiques of various quality. There are treasures and tat, books, old toys and even someone selling vintage wooden crates (doing a roaring trade too if all the people we saw carting them out were anything to go by).

We all walk at various speeds and have different interests so we split up and agree to meet by the entrance at a set time.   Yes, I bought something… but more about that in a future post, it was mostly just fun to look around at all the weird and wonderful things on offer.

I actually find the architecture of the building as interesting as the stuff on the stalls. In the Netherlands you need to licence from the city council to sell items like this on very day of the year except Queen’s Day so we don’t see flea markets very often. I asked one vendor about this place and apparently it’s on one weekend every month, so it’s sheer luck that it’s on whilst we were here. Let’s look around…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Maybe It was Our Pee’ing in the Paddock that Did It…???

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

On this part of our New Zealand adventures, I’m taking a break from looking at damaged buildings and ruminating on the past and am busy getting organised for Christmas Day 2011 (which when I started these photos and jotted down my notes was less than a week away).

We had been visiting my Aunt and Uncle the day before and were discussing what was on offer at the local Market Gardens on Marshlands Road when Kiwi Daughter asked out of the blue if we could go raspberry picking like we did last trip to NZ.

I’m delighted that my ultra city-kid daughter loved the last experience enough to suggest a return visit this trip.

The fact the she adores raspberries probably helps … Little Mr.  hasn’t yet acquired the taste and will pick for a while but gets bored after a bit.

My Aunt suggests a place this side of town rather than heading to to Tai Tapu on the south side of the city like we did last time, so the next morning we piled Family Kiwidutch into the car and went in search of raspberries.

To  Kiwi Daughter’s dismay there turned out to be no self-picking possibilities for the public until after Boxing Day (December 26th) …probably because they want to get the Christmas rush over, beforehand and the little boxes of raspberries you can buy from the berry farms at present have most certainly,  a far higher profit margin.

We do a U-turn and start to head back when all of a sudden I see a sign… Pea picking, pick your own peas!!!

Himself has always wondered at me, whooping with delight  when I spied fresh peas in their pods for the first time all those years ago in The Netherlands. (tiny side-street grocer shop in Delft close to Oude Kerk, I even remember exactly where!) He had never eaten a raw pea out of the pod in his life and he thought I’d gone mad.

I promptly bought a bag of peas in their pods and proceeded to shell them and eat the peas raw… now he really thought I had lost my mind…why didn’t I take them home and cook them? … even better, skip the hard work and get a packet of frozen ones from the supermarket.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

He had no clue what he was missing.

He does now though understand my love of raw peas… we have a long standing pact that we will celebrate Valentines Day any day except February 14th because we despise the merchandising of it all.

Therefore sometimes in the summer months my true love turns up with a grin on his face and presents to me a bag full of peas in their pods, and I’m always delighted because peas in their pods aren’t particularly easy to find here in The Netherlands and nor are they cheap so I know he has made a detour or siezed the opportunity when he’s seen them… and if that ain’t love I don’t know what is.

We turned into the driveway to see a shed  that’s a converted shipping container (these are certainly in vogue in Christchurch at the moment!)  … an honesty box, buckets and a paddock full of peas.

I stuck to the outer edges because crutches and paddocks full of low growing plants are not mutually compatable and we paid for two buckets so that we could take one lot to a friend.

What I didn’t expect was that Little Mr and Kiwi Daughter would take to pea picking like pro’s.

They delighted in it and after a first aprehensive look at the contents of the pea pods, and with worried looks on their faces as they popped their first raw pea into their mouths, … chewing they suddenly looked amazed and delighted at how sweet they were soon stuffing themselves with raw peas.

Considering that Little Mr. will happily push cooked peas around a plate going “ew, don’t like these”,  this was a revelation.

Whilst opening some of the pods they of course a little clumsy as they got the hang of it and dropped some of their peas so I dredged out every corny pea/pee line I could think of… “Little Mr just pee’d on the ground” , “oh no… Kiwi Daughter just pee’d on her shoes” and of course they had hysterics and repeated the “jokes” seemingly a thousand times, each time finding it funny all over again as kids naturally can.

To my delight, not only were the peas totally sweet and delicious, but the plants were really heavily laden too.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We heard from a fellow picker who had a family connection to the place that apparently this season had been a bumper crop .. the best in years.

Even with numberous stops to shell peas and feed our faces, between the four of us we filled two large buckets in next to no time.

Later, back at the B&B I start to shell the peas and the kids come in from trampoline play and are due to get ready for bed but instead get diverted in a competition as to who can shell the most in the shortest time.

I’m clearly winning  because the full dish I have in front of me is the third one I’ve filled but the competitive  bug has bitten them and together we shell a heap of peas.

The kids were so enthralled with picking that they asked  if we could go again so we decided to come out again with some friends and their son and get some more a few days later for my Aunt and Uncle so that they can have them for Christmas Day dinner,…. and I’m keen to take another bag to shell and use as healthy nibbles.

Two days later we go pea-picking for a second time.

I borrowed a small folding chair from Rae at the Hidden Haven B&B and having a little seat made it a lot easier than leaning on one crutch and bending down all the time. With our friends and kids we picked another four buckets between us, sitting talking as we picked and laughing a lot and of course the kids spent the whole time rehashing “pee” one-liners too.

Little did we know that tranquil sunny morning, that that very afternoon would be spent trying to calm terrified children,  connect with friends and relatives to make sure everyone was safe as the earth shook violently under our feet and everything around us trembled.
This was after all, the Christchurch morning of the 23rd of December 2011.

(for an update on what happened on 23rd Dec : http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/the-surprise-that-now-isnt-and-ones-that-definitely-were/   )

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

My First Ever “published” Photo! (Ok, Ok …. “only” published Photo LOL)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Everyone appreciates some recognition, not matter how small, so it was a very pleasant surprise to be contacted by the  people who run The Hague website: http://www.denhaag.nl/en.htm to ask if they could please use one of my photographs from the blog post I made:  http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/new-285/#comment-2726.

They wanted to advertise  the Antique and Book Market  that runs here throughout the summer on the Lange Voorhout.

I was totally amazed that anyone even thinks my photos are of any value and Wow, just to be asked, made my day. I said “yes” and they put in a photo credit link. The article they made is here: http://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/to/Antique-and-Book-Market.htm

Sooo, I became world wide famous overnight? Well, um, (cough) No, but I have had at least a dozen extra hits from the link they put in and the pleasure of knowing I helped someone learn a little more about where I live and might even have helped tempt them to visit.

Not really the proverbial fifteen minutes of fame, more a nano second, but you know, I don’t mind about the numbers in the least. If only one person liked my photo, it still gives me a wee buzz.

I blog because I love writing, I want to make a “history” of our lifestyle for my kids and future generations because I enjoy writing about how and where and why I live here at this moment in time. If I can help anyone else on the way with my information then that’s very much just icing on the cake.

But this thought leads me to another thought…  Have you used or been inspired by anything  from someone else recently? If someone has helped you in any way, how about just letting them know and saying a simple “Thanks“.

I helped the website of The Hague with a Photo, they said “Thanks” by leaving a link back to my blog.  Here in this post I’m letting them know that it made my day that they used one of my photos. (and yes, ok , I am bragging juuuuust a teeny bit , but you already know that  small everyday things in life amuse me greatly so you will forgive me that I hope.)

Where there are Flowers, Floating on the Water…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Netherlands and the flower markets of the world are a trading combination that is centuries old.

Whilst the Netherlands grows  between 7 and 8 billion blooms per year and has been the biggest producer of cut flowers in the world, in the more recent past, it’s role as a Trader of the World Flowers has quite literally “blossomed”.

The Flower Market at Aalsmeer is the biggest flower auction in the world, and the Dutch do not only grow and sell flowers, they also have  very strong  cultural and social links to them too.

It’s totally normal to see people carrying bunches of blooms home, especially on Friday after work so that your house is full of fresh flowers for the weekend, but it’s also customary when visiting, or going out to dinner at someone’s home, to bring  your host a bunch of flowers.

You will find flower stalls  in every suburb of the Netherlands, so it’s no surprise to find that Amsterdam, like many larger centers also has an even larger  “Bloemenmarkt”  (Flower Market).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Amsterdam Flower Market however is not like most in one respect: the  market “stalls” are actually floating on the canal and so you can walk along the canal side and look in and pick out your blooms.

It’s the only floating Flower Market in the world.

The back-sides of these “houseboats for flowers” that face the water have been decorated in many cases with photographic scenes of what the boat contains. In a few cases the backside of the boat is made or either glass or perspex panels so you can see directly inside.

Certainly it’s a tourist attraction, but make no mistake, the locals come here to buy their flowers in their droves (prices can be cheaper because having the “shop” on the water means lower overhead costs for the sellers).

We pass by in our little boat from The St.Nicolaas Boat Club, so first get a prime view at water level and later Himself and I we walk past and see it from “top-side” too.

These shops specialise in selling seeds, bulbs and cut  flowers and you will find them at: Singel, 1071 AZ / Tram: Muntplein: tram 4, 9, 14, 16, 24 & 25 Open: Monday – Saturday 9.30 am – 5.00 pm

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Walking through an Antique Past…

In continuance of yesterday’s post where my walk took me around the stalls of  last Summer’s Lange Voorhout Book and Antiques Market in The Hague: this is the wrap-up photo tour where I complete my walk and you get a peek at what other goodies were on offer…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Sunday Stroll …Treasures to be Found?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Another post from last Summer’s archive of photographs whilst I’m laid up with my foot.

There is a  regular antique and book market in the centre of The Hague on the Lange Voorhout  on the end  that is closest to the Tournooiveld.

It’ takes place every Thursday and Sunday from  around May 15th to September 30th  and is an interesting place to look for curiosities, paintings, prints,  porcelain, books new and old, some bric-a-brac and the odd piece of furniture.

To be brutally honest you won’t find the lowest prices in town here. It’s partly a tourist attraction and it’s not a real “flee market”  because it leans more towards the antiques trade.

Items are priced accordingly.

Still,  the atmosphere is relaxed and leisurely and it’s a lovely place to wander under the avenue of trees and browse lazily on a sunny Sunday afternoon. … and if you can barter hard you may even get a bargain.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Interior Design Craze that led to a Global Giant…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Another post in my “Billboard” series, discovering the old and new behind the The Haags Gemeentearchief (the Hague City Council Archive) Billboards that were set up for the short time to celebrate their 125 year anniversary.

This building shows the headquarters of the Royal Dutch Shell Group on the de Carel van Bylandtlaan in the Hague.

The text on the billboard says: “Bataafsche Petroleummaatschappij aan de Carel van Bylandtlaan circa 1920“

…which is a little hard to translate literally, so maybe it’s easier to  tell you that the “de Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij“  refers to an old Dutch oil company which was a predecessor of  NAM Nederlands aardgas maatschappi (Dutch Natural Gas company).
“Carel van Bylandtlaan” is the street name where the building is located and where the billboard photo was taken in 1920.

The first thing that is immediately apparent is that the building has been greatly expanded… but Wow, without the billboard  to compare things to, you would never know. If only more “extensions” these days could be so sympathetically done!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I took photos of the building and wanted to take some more detailed close ups of the ironwork on the doors. However, the buildings’ security staff came out and said that whilst they were happy for me to photograph the building itself,  to please not photograph any closeups of the doors.

Therefore, you’ll have to make do with a close-up of part of the stonework  further up instead.

I did some research on the company and via their website found various bits of information which I have written up here…

Marcus Samuel was a London antique dealer who wanted to expand his business.

In 1833 he added oriental shells to his stock to capitalize on the new craze of using them in interior design.  Demand grew to the extent that he began importing shells from the Far East, thus began Marcus Samuel’s import and export business.

By 1886 the business was in the hands of sons Sam and Marcus Samuel junior and  well established in the export of machinery, tools and textiles, and the import of rice. copper, silk and china to and from the Far East and also the trade in commodities of sugar, flour and wheat worldwide.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

On a trip to Japan, Marcus jr.  became aware of the  newly developing oil trade and saw a solution for a problem in the industry. Oil was being transported in barrels, which were prone to leaking and their shape did not best utilize the space on the holds of the ships transporting them.

Marcus and Sam commissioned  steamers that could hold oil in large compartments, then thus the first bulk oil tanker the “Murex” was born.

They quietly built bulk oil storage units at ports, using for the first time, the new Suez Canal.
They worked quietly and quickly so that news would not leak out to the dominant oil company of the day, Rockefeller’s “Standard Oil“.

The maiden voyage of the “Murex” through the Suez Canal revolutionised oil transportation and greatly reduced the cost by vastly increasing the volume that could be carried per ship.
Marcus jr and Sam initially called their company “The Tank Syndicate” but in 1897 renamed it the “Shell Transport and Trading Company.”

When a major oilfield was discovered in Sumatra, J.B August Kessler of the “Royal Dutch” company oversaw the building of pipelines and a refinery at Pankalan Brandan. Kessler was joined in 1896 by a young marketing director, Henry Deterding who was instrumental within the company until the outbreak of World War Two.

Marcus Samuel’s dependence on his Russian producers left him vulnerable and he decided to seek other sources of oil, and the Far East was the next logical step. In Borneo he came up against Royal Dutch Petroleum, one of the region’s biggest competitors.

The two companies joined forces to protect themselves against the might of Standard Oil, forming a sales organisation in 1903, called the “Asiatic Petroleum Company“. They went on to discover of oil in Texas.

Full merger of the two companies into the “Royal Dutch Shell Group” came in 1907. There were two separate holding companies with Royal Dutch taking 60% of earnings and Shell Transport taking 40%. The merger transformed the fortunes of both companies. Under the management of Henry Deterding they turned from struggling entities to successful enterprises within twelve months.

In 1904, the scallop shell or “pecten” replaced Shell Transport’s first marketing logo, a mussel shell. In various forms it has remained in use ever since, becoming one of the best known corporate symbols in the world.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Watch how the City Marches into the Market Gardens…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Haags Gemeentearchief (the Hague City Council Archive ) celebrated it’s 125th  by placing many large billboards of photographs  around the city.

All of them are photos of various points in the city taken between 20 and 150 years ago… and all are situated as close to the spot as possible (and where practical) to where the original photos were taken, so that viewer of the billboard can see both the past and present views.

I took photos of many of them whilst they were on view.

I am standing taking these photos on a four-way intersection. As per usual with Dutch streets,  streets often change names at intersections. In this case each of the branches of the four-way intersection sports a different name.

If you are looking towards Tram Number 3 then the street you see will be Arnold Spoelplein, the same street behind you on the other side of the intersection then changes name to Lisztstraat.

If you have Arnold Spoelplein on your left side and Lisztstraat on your right, then the road in front of you (pointing in the direction of Laan Van Meerdervoort) will be Aaltje Noordewierstraat and behind you is then Tramstraat (upon which ironically there are no tram lines LOL).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Thus the four streets  leading away from this one spot each have different names .. but in general, Tramstraat leads more to the district called Loosduinen and Aaltje Noordewierstraat leads to a district called Waldeck .

So, Now that I have you acquainted with the area, we can proceed to the billboard photo.

The Text on the billboard says: “Gezicht vanaf de verffabriek Premier op een deel van de toekomstige wijk Waldeck. Foto: Dienst Stadsontwikkeling en Volkshuisvesting, maat 1949.”

Translation: View from the  “Premier” paint factory towards a part of the future neighbourhood Waldeck. Photo:  Urban Development and Housing Department , March 1949.

As you can see, this area has changed vastly since 1949.  Long gone are the market gardens that backed onto what used to be the outer edge of the city.

Today the view includes the  Loosduinen terminus of  The Hague’s Tram Line 3, apartments blocks, general housing  and a former post office (building by the empty tram halt with orange signs).  As per recent city council environmental efforts, the grasses by the tram stop have not been mown in the deliberate attempt to encourage bees, insects and butterflies.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Just think…  probably seventy to eighty years ago the caterpillar ancestors of these butterflies had probably been munching on lettuce and cabbage leaves in the market gardens.

To Market, To Market !

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s a hot August 2010 Saturday in Vila Nova de Cerveira, on the far northern border of Portugal.

As we wander around we overlook the river, and across the river, Spain.

The Market is a very popular local event and there are many stalls, selling all manner of household goods and lots of clothes.

I did see some lovely fabric but sadly suitcase space is limited, and I already have space earmarked to take home dried Piri Piri, several baking pans that are a perfect size and shape for things I make regularly,  and of course some excellent Portuguese Olive oils that will be buried in my rolled up clothes.

The canopies over the stalls are very much appreciated as the temperature is now over 36 C and every centimeter of shade is fast filling up as people seek relief from the sun.

I did look intently at the pottery and painted tiles, but sadly the enticing view from a distance was disappointing closer up, as the quality of the painting on the pieces was lacking.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I have pieces from other parts of Portugal where the hand painting is far superior and figure that if I need to take the trouble and effort to get something back to the Netherlands in one piece, then it better be a quality piece worth having.

None of these fit the bill, so my search to add to my small Portuguese collection continues…

The kids did get a new swimming costume each, but we needed to take account of the different size of  Portuguese kids. Even though both our kids are very skinny and below average weight, Kiwi Daughter who’s nine years old fitted a Portuguese  suit sized for 12 years old and Little Mr at 5 years of age has a Portuguese suit that sized 7 and it fits him perfectly.

Soon the kids are both hot and  flagging so our next plan of action is a swift return to the camp and a bee-line for the swimming pool.

(photograph © Kiwidutch

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Everything from cute….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

… to cork…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

These looked better quality, but weren’t a shape I wanted…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We’ve been in town and at the market for three hours and if I thought it was busy when we arrived the traffic and crowd now are a real eye opener.  There’s an exceptionally  long queue of cars circling the car park and as we ease out of our space it’s immediately taken by one of the waiting circler’s.

The kids are in their swimming costumes within 3 minutes of being  back at camp… and Himself and I relax in the shade watching them…  Bliss!