Home pictures
This picture shows the Frisian countryside near Drachten, where I was born. Actually, this is on the good side of town, where my father bought a posh house on the waterside. I grew up on the poorer half of this 40,000 souls community, that is known for nothing except that it is the largest town in the Netherlands without a railroad connection.
From 2001 till 2005 I lived in Fürth, a small village surrounded by meadows. That is, up to two centuries ago it was. Nowadays this meadow is surrounded by a town of 100,000. There are still storks breading in the old center, however. And in the summer of 2002 there were even corncrakes calling from the hay here -for some days, until the local farmer mowed the field.
After a renovation that took more than half a year, on February 25, 2006, our little family moved into an old house in Bustehrad, near Prague. Although there are still some things that need to be done, especially on the outside, we can now proudly say that our little home is inhabitable.
I photographed the shed on the previous picture somewhere in the Stredohori mountains, by the way. This is the view from the kitchen window of our real home. Up to approximately March 25, there were still patches of snow here. In winter, common birds here are collared dove, great tit, greenfinch, hawfinch, blackbird, goldfinch, blue tit, finch, tree sparrow, magpie, great spotted woodpecker, rook, kestrel, buzzard, yellowhammer, bullfinch. In springtime, many more birds arrive, of which black redstart is probably the most common one. Skylarks can sometimes also be heard from our garden. In winter, I've also seen a flock of some 50 bohemian waxwings from this window. They are not as common here in Bohemia as their name suggests. Update The picture on the right, taken Dec 17th, 2014, shows how the view from our house has changed since we moved here. The house on the left has been renovated, the ruin on the right has been replaced by a cosy home, and the electric wires have disappeared.
This is the walnut tree in front of our house. It measures only half a meter in diameter at its base, but it is of considerable age. I spoke to someone who was born in what is now our house in 1933, and he remembers playing football under this tree as a child. He also remembered a second tree, which has been felled since then, which used to be smaller. There are lots of similar walnut trees in and around Bustehrad. Note added 2008: This tree has been cut down to perhaps 10% of its size, see here
This is our garden on March 12, 2006. The man I spoke of before, who was born here in 1933, told me his family used to use the middle compartment of the shed you see in the back of this picture. They had rabbits there, and geese, which he used to take to the fishpond down in the town to bathe them. The geese were marked with a blue dot on the head to distinguish them from those of other people. It is not clear how old our house is. It must have been built between 1860 and 1920. One of of neighbour's houses was built in 1881.
Some houses near the center of Bustehrad.
A house near our home. This sort of small house is typical for our town. The small court behind the house is completely filled with a pear tree. Chickens walk below it and climb the tree. Cats take a nap on its branches.
The local headquarters of the communist party.
The baroque castle of Bustehrad lost much of its glory in communist days. It almost fell to ruins after a dubious firm got its hands on it in the privatizations following the end of communism. At present it is being renovated. There are huge old trees in the garden, which hold a nice rookery.
This is a view on the town on a postcard sent in 1937. In those days, the Stredohori mountains were visible at the horizon on clear days. Since the 50-ies, a huge pile of debris (called `halda') blocks most of the view.
Another old view on the town, in opposite direction from the previous one.
The apple tree in our garden.
Our cat Hamira below our apple tree.
The nearby town of Kladno holds a lot of heavy industry.
I liked this bench near our home.
This Zdenek Bilek, the last of a family that lived here since the house was built.
Probably his first wife.
His grandparents.