On the way home today I spotted this bit of 'TopGun' junk at a car dealership in
St. Isidorushoeve. (http://www.sint-isidorushoeve.nl/)
.After sitting in a 13km traffic jam on the A1 this morning I was sorely tempted to buy it!

The concept of a weekly village market is becoming less and less in the UK. People rely on the big ol' supermarket chains that are open daily from daybreak to vampire hours and can sell you food at knock down prices because of industrial farming.

Here in Twente, and the rest of the Netherlands, there remains a thriving weekly farmers market environment and I love it to bits!
Not only is it a great place to buy groceries that are fresh off of the farm but its also a great place to entertain your house guests.

I can loose my Father and #4 for hours at the farmers market.

In Haaksbergen the weekly market is held on a Wednesday. Today I have had a chat with the biggest Veggie Stall owner in the market square.

When I first began frequenting the weekly market  this stall was hands down the most busiest with people 3 deep waiting to be served. I was enormously curious as to why and his answer was very simple. "Good produce, sourced locally at reasonable prices".

Our veggie stall holder was a man of few words.

As it was such a nice day the youngest baby Cloggy and I had decided to bicycle into the village. This took a little longer than anticipated because we were distracted by a beautiful little foal on the way and by the time we got to the Markt everybody was packing up.

After a mooch around the village and an illicit visit to the icecream parlour (I'm sorry Sonja I slipped off of the diet wagon) we cycled home again getting distracted by the cute foal.

Next week I'll get there earlier and take some better photos.

The Cloggy home has sprung a leak. A few days ago, during a downpour of biblical proportions,  I was sat in the study with nothing but my umbrella for protection from the elements and 3 sauce-pans to catch the drips. It was wetter inside the house than it was outside.

 I dutifully informed Cloggy that his roof had a few holes in it and asked if I should get a tradesman in to take a look? Shoulders were shrugged and comments were mumbled as he disappeared into his work shed. A few minutes later he emerged with his ladders. I left him to it and went off to pick up one of the Baby Cloggys from a play date. When I returned I was met by the following site.

Yes .... Cloggy had repaired the roof himself using my recyclable Albert Hein shopping bags and a roll of duct tape he had filched from the neighbour.
During his repairs he unfortunately found out that there were more critters living in our roof space than just the birds.

2 wasps nests had been discovered!

What to do??????? The previous Cloggy assault on a wasp nest had involved 5 litres of petrol, a cigarette lighter and a fireball which brought the neighbours running to see what had occurred. The wasp nest had been under a rock in the back garden.
Mercifully Cloggy decided that those tactic's were not applicable in this particular circumstance .....

A few vain attempts were made to empty a can of bug killer in the general vicinity of the nests but only resulted in the wasps, who were already mad, getting even madder and firing off few well aimed shots at Cloggy.

Now ... EVEN Cloggy can feel a wasps sting so he gave up the ghost and slouched off into the damp study in order to google "Waspinator".
He had admitted defeat and realised that in order to get the tiles back on the roof before the next downpour an expert in pest control must be engaged.

After a short while the aforementioned "Wasp Murderer" pulled his wagon of insect death into the drive way and immediately proceeded to suit up. An hour later he had completed his task, drunk a cup of coffee, discussed the upcoming season for FC Twente, been paid for his services and gone home.

He was a very efficient and friendly chap, with reasonable rates, who I heartily recommend to all in Twente who have a problem with unwanted guests of the non-human variety, here's a link to his website; http://www.antisect.nl/diensten.htm.

That done .... all Cloggy had left to do was figure out how to put all of the tiles back on the roof.

As it is Fathers Day we were woken up hellishly early by the 2 youngest Baby Cloggys who had made breakfast in bed for their dear ol' Papa. After the self made cards were admired we took to our bikes, hitched up the dogs and disappeared into the gorgeous Twente countryside for a bit of a pedal.          
                                                                                   
The whole region of Twente has a myriad of cycling routes that  take you through nature reserves and past well placed watering holes which provide the much required Sunday Morning Coffee or something a bit stronger if your constitution can cope with it. 
Here is a link to a great cycle route;
http://www.routeyou.com/route/view/101169/cycling-route-haaksbergen-buurse-haaksbergen.en
As we had the dogs with us we only cycled a partial bit of the route. The rest of the time we were playing by the river.

This is the youngest Lab - hes not the sharpest tool in the shed but he does love the water and if you throw the stick he's JUST GOT TO CHASE IT!

Take Off

Splash Down

More of a submarine than a doggy paddle

Exit

Drying Off

CLOGGYS VERY FIRST EGG!