The Place of the Scary Experience

I would like to show you pictures of the place where “it” happened the day before yesterday.

I show them to you to give you an idea of this area.

I couldn't find so much information in English, so I've translated a little part of what I found for you. The little cottage or little farm is called: Boshuisje. Literally translated: “little house in the wood”.

It's located and hidden in the middle of a beautiful nature reserve called: Zoerselbos. It's over 400 hectares wide. It has unexpected hiking and biking opportunities and a colorful variety shows of forests, meadows and fields. Very special is the protected brook the Tappelbeek, a medieval irrigation system. Typical are the meadow creeks, also a medieval agricultural system developed and improved over the centuries by the Cistercians (monks). Rare flora and fauna await discovery in an area that formed the backdrop for the conscripts, a werewolf and the gang of Zoerselbos from the books of the Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience.

Halfway in the 19th century (around 1833) Hendrik Conscience, the man who learnt his people read, regularly visited this area and the Loteling told him his story in this Boshuisje.

They say to be careful, because if what the elderly are saying is true, there is still a werewolf roaming about..:):)

Ha ha actually, I'd almost believe it!

There was more info, but actually it was too difficult to describe it to you and to translate it because they talk about so many local things which you probably don't know.

Therefore – I better show you the images, I think they speak for themselves.

Boshuisje

The interior

The terrace in the backyard of the Boshuisje where we had our lunch.

The couple was lunching under the umbrella far too the right, while the horses were grazing there outside, tied to the pole, just behind the hedge.

We had lunched under the umbrella left of them.

We had much luck, we went out through the gate there only a few minutes before the horse stampeded through this gate.

This -- just in case you want to know the direction towards the North Sea!:)

I regret that I couldn't find larger pictures of the forest and the environment. If I still find something better I will show it.

*****

As an encore: I just discovered these larger images, and I think they will give you a better impression.

The rules of Zoerselbos.

I know – it isn't so spectacular, but this is the simple countryside in Belgium in the *Kempen
*that's how the arae around Zoerselbos is called.

We're living in a very small country, so everything's in proportion.

Don't you agree that something small can also be beatifull?

Thank you for visiting the Belgian countryside.

See you!

Of course...... if the werewolf is no longer roaming about.:):)

NOTE:  In case you are interested: on this link below you can read about the very scary experience that happened here. 

https://mynestje.blogspot.com/2010/07/a-very-scary-experience.html

Our Garden ... Pipke's Little World

The layout of our garden and the birth of Pipke: they both took place approximately around the same time. In fact: we can't imagine ourselves our garden without Pipke.

Our garden is her little world although, she has experienced the great big world !

Yes, once she lived a whole month in the woodland, she has tasted freedom and it was a real adventure for her and us! (I will tell you that story later. In fact, that's a part of her story that I have not told in Jen's blog.)

Since then our garden has changed and evolved enormously.

You can see how it started on this picture at the end of October 1994 when the parents and ancestors of Pipke came to visit us.

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and this is the view from my living room window now!

If you want to see how it grew in the mean time then I invite you to watch the photo album.

Click on the link to view *Our garden Pipke's little world August 2009. 

*Attention:

I had to adjust this post, because the link above was no longer available. 

Therefore I made a shortened new version of it on Youtube on March 1, 2025. 

This shows the result of 14,5 years labor. We constructed the fence and our garden path ourselves. We also laid out the lawn with grass mats* and we even built our little pavilion (or garden house) ourselves, I was my husbands assistant bricklayer. 

I sat on my knees in cement to lay and to flatten the screed of the gardenhouse while my husband prepared the specie with the mill. 
Believe me this was hard work but, I did it with much pleasure.
I can tell you, during those 14,5 years, every year... there went something wrong with the vegetation. In fact it has always been (and still is) a struggle against plant diseases and insects and that's not easy without the use of insecticides. Here in Belgium they use insecticides for everything, we stand even on the top on that level (we overuse insecticides). But ... we don't use them, it's not good for the environment and of course also for the most important thing: Pipke's health!

Have you seen her pen? Since the end of last January she wants to go there no longer, she wants to stay in her dogs nest beside our back door. Therefore we made a special cubby-hole (or veranda) for her with a warmth lamp on that spot so that she can stay warm and dry. Of course this is not an ideal situation, but as you can see on this picture taken on August 8, 2009, the situation of her feathers is even at this moment very poor and they are also not at all water proof.

Now her pen and her little pond are a very empty place and when we go there, we have always such mixed feelings.

Once ... she jumped in and out that pond with so much joy, she even dived in that little pool of water. Now ... she's so helpless! She only wants to go there “together” with us because she can't get out her pond without help.

Now she's a real “old little lady” and therefore we pamper her as well as we can and we try to make the best of it.

I am still working on her story, there is so much to tell about her. I had to shift and insert the text already many times because I forgot something.

I want this to become a really "good" post!

Anyhow: This was only a general overview, I will go more in detail in an other post about the works we did and the problems we had (and still have) in our garden. I will give you also more details about the plant varieties.

We tried to make our garden not “too artificial”, but I find this not so easy. In fact ... gardening is a kind of manipulation of nature and some people can make beautiful creations by doing that. Of course it depends also a little on the environment where you live if you can keep your garden natural or not. Here in my region we have a kind of moorland soil and that's not an easy soil for gardening but we try to make the best of it.

I like to finish this post with a picture (taken on August 6, 2009) of the most beautiful thing in our garden, the thing that makes our garden and our life "complete"... our living "ornament": 

PIPKE

I hope that you've enjoyed the walk in Pipke's little world!

Till next time.

PS: *I don't know if this is the correct translation or description, maybe “sod” is a better word in this case.

Warning: Indecent Exposure!

Jen said in one of her earlier posts that maybe, one day she will show us her "ass" on F.B, well in expectation of that, I will show you mine here on blogger! A real “Belgian” ass!

Maybe it's a little over the edge but, it's the way it is!

What did you expect? That... I show you my "own" ass,..ha..ha ..I show you the ass of a real Belgian horse! In fact the real Dutch name is: Belgisch trekpaard! (the translator translates this literal as: appetite horse!! Ha ha ...funny..LOL!

Of course it must be: a Belgian draft horse or Belgian heavy horse. They are one of the strongest of the heavy breeds.

Are you curious...do you really want to see it? Then look at the end of my post. I have put it there so that it will not shock you immediately, I have warned you!

I took these pictures not so far from my home (approx.3km.).

In fact the result of the first picks. could have been much better (too much back light) but, because of the barbed wire of the fence i could not take the picks. from an other angle. They did not want to pose for me at another spot, and you can't ask them to do that:):)! I took these picks. on June the 1^st.

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Because I knew that there were foals at an other place I went there on June the 15^th to take more pictures! Oh, it was so beautiful to see the foals romping in the meadow!

You must know in earlier times Belgian draft horses were famous in the whole world. In 1910, 34,576 draft horses were moved from Belgium to America, Canada, Russia, Swedes, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy.
In the port the horses were used to transport freight. There they were called nation horses. They drew the ships in canals and rivers. Along most of the canals still lies a towpath. That was the path for the horses. They were also used in the coal mines where they entered as a foal and never more came out because they became too heavy and so they could no longer be up hoisted.

After the second world war these splendid heavy horses were repressed by the motorization.

In 1950, there were still counted 200.000 draft horses on Belgian floor. In the eighties remained only 6,000. Now there are 15,000 Belgian draft horses in Belgium and there are again more foals born. .

Cutting the tail at draft horses happened for practical reasons. At the work on the land the horse sways with its tail to chase off the flies. So it was not easy to control the horse because at swaying it's tail the rein came under the tail with the result that the horse became uncontrollable. With a short tail one does not have this problem, but the horse has more charge of the flies.

Since 2001 it has been prohibited in Belgium to cut horse tails.

Now these days here in Belgium draft horses devotees and enthusiastic breeders are stimulated to keep this unique race alive.

I found out that there are at least five places in the U.S where they are still bred. One of those places is Blackleg Acres in Blackville South Carolina.

They are a living monument!

I have a living monument in my neighborhood that must walk around with an “indecent exposed” ass but, that does not disturb me, I like them as they are!

I hope that also you are not disturbed by it and that you can laugh with it!

Here it is!:):):)

P.S: Hm..hm.. Danger panda said in a comment to Jen: If you can make a blog banner out of the hind end of an elephant.... and so on!

Imagine yourself that this Belgian hind end would be “my” blog banner, ha ha!:):):)

That would be not very tasteful I think...too much exposer!!

Of course I would never change my blog banner, it will always stay Pipke's nest, she is a duck with a dog's nest! She is unique!

Photography: a New Challenge for me

In fact I had not planned this but I had so much pleasure when I took pictures* (see link below) during my running circuit that I have decided to do this more often!

The day after I took those first pictures, I went back to take some more!

This time from the part that is already history and that I run no more! (Until a few years ago I ran 3 km. more).

Now I have my complete running circuit of 9 km. on image!

I like to show you a few images of that last part! (Click on picture to enlarge.)

You must know that photography is something “new” for me although I am the daughter of two generations of professional photographers. My grandfather learned his profession during W.W 1 in Blackpool, England around 1915 and my father (who was born in Blackpool) learned it from his father. After the war they came back to Belgium.

Of course I know something about making and developing photographs, but... that was the photography from more then fifty years ago.

I can remember, my father used a camera like this (see picture) when I was a toddler.

I even have known that they used “glass platelets” instead of film. They also had to use a separate flash light, (they had to install it on the camera) and light bulbs to use the flash! For every flash which they had to make they had to change the light bulb!

Those used bulbs were very special and useful for us (it was just after the war).

We prepared them to decorate our Christmas tree! (On the link you can see the tree.)

We plunged them into glue and covered them with very tiny silver flakes (almost a powder) and so it became a very original and sparkling Christmas tree!

I think it must have been until around 1948, I'm not sure about that date because I was still too little.

Not so long thereafter came a flashlight with light bulbs they could use several times again (approx. 10 times max. I think).

They also had to use a separate hand light meter. They had to take into account that a moving object needs a shorter opening time than a stationary object and therefore they had to adjust the closure time of the lens manually every time the situation of the object changed.

In fact nothing went automatically!

I saw my father working in the dark room. That was a room with special red light, white light would have ruined the blank photograph paper. (We kids have sometimes ruined it, because we had put on the white light when the blank paper wasn't covered and so it could be used no more)!

First he developed the film and put it in a projector. Thereafter he projected the film on the blank photograph paper. It was fascinating to see “how” after been exposed to light and going in a development fluid the picture appeared on the photograph paper. The exposure to light and the development bath, they both needed an “exact” timing or, the picture became too light or too dark.

As a teenager I was sometimes his help and then I had to dry press the wet photograph sheets in a special machine, a hot press! (you can compare it with a big iron** machine in a laundry but smaller and not turning around).

In fact those days were the “middle ages”of photography!

And yes, I know “a little” about photography but now I must bring it into practice and I must learn to work with the new technology! I must enter the digital era! Once...I wanted to become a professional photographer but my father's opinion was that: it was not a profession for a woman!

So now: I am going to do it just for pleasure and.. practice...practice..practice !

*See my post: Will you be my running mate?

**Iron machine: I don't know if it's the good translation in this context but it's not easy to describe it.

P.S: Excuse me, although I left out many handling's and details, the explanation about developing and producing photographs became a little longer than I expected it would be.

It gave me the feeling that I stood again in the darkroom, beside my father!

I hope that you had a little bit the feeling that you stood there too!

 

 

Will You be My Running Mate?

Yes, will you be my running mate?

Then .....let's run together!

Warming up!

First stretch. Then swing your arms and legs and jump a few times up and down!

Rotate your hips to the right and to the left.

Everything loose?

Are you ready now?

Then...let's start!

No, nooo..... “you” must not run!!

Do you have 3,25 minutes? Then.... take an easy chair, sit down and see “me” running!

Like I've told you before: I run every other day. The circuit that I run now is 6 km and it's a very beautiful parcours.

(Around the age of 45 I ran 20 km and until a few years ago I still ran 9 km .)

I've often thought, I must take pictures of it because I'm no more off the youngest and there will come one day that I can run no longer. That will be very heavy for me because I love running, it's my long life! So ...if I take pictures of my circuit then I still have the beautiful memories on photograph.

I thought also: why shouldn't I share these memories with you. So ....early in the morning I took my camera and went running. I took pictures of the views in order that they appeared between my run, so you can follow my circuit and you also can see what my eyes saw!

I started to run from my home to end there also, so the first and last pictures you see are views of the other side off my house.

There are many pictures, some less interesting than others but for me they are all equally important.

Of course, for you that shall not be the case but this will give you a “good image” of my neighborhood and the Belgian countryside.

As a preview and also to make you curious: here are my three favorites!

Also this I encounter on my running circuit.

On you to decide if you like to see more!

Attention:

Because the original slideshow made and published here in 2009 was no longer available I made a new version of it and published it on May 25, 2025 on Youtube.

- Click on this link, to watch the new version. 

And ... how was the run? Did you enjoy it?

I hope you liked the view!

Now...do you understand “why” I love to run........it's not only the running at it self but also to be whole alone in nature and being immersed in it. To hear the birds singing... the rustling of the trees....to hear only nature sounds!

Every time I encounter different kinds off new and beautiful scenes as for instance: red squirrels...their color can be so intense red and brown ( I think there are only grey squirrels in the USA!) and pheasants in the corn fields! Then I also can hear the cuckoo calling in the distance and the woodpecker knocking on the trees. But.. there are not only the animals but also sometimes very simple objects....small things ....which becomes almost like a “still life”!

I think I'm going to take photographs more often, I enjoyed it very much!

My life can be so beautiful when I can run!

To run can give you a complete different look on life! I can recommend you to do it also!