(Terug) naar Oegstgeest

Just about everybody to whom I mentioned our impending move to Oegstgeest said, ‘oh terug naar Oegsgeest’! Friends, parents of kids’ friends, not so friends friends, the huisarts. And almost everybody of the everybody did this with a smile.

We weren’t going back to Oegstgeest. We were simply going.

Some mentioned that it was voted the best municipality in the Netherlands. Some said that they couldn’t dream of leaving a vibrant city like Amsterdam to live in a sleepy, residential place lined with houses but apparently no people. One said, ‘where would I find my daily inspiration in such a boring environment’?

Where indeed?

This is where – to begin with.

Following the suggestion of my friend Lena…I urge all Oegstgeesters and Amsterdammers alike to look at the sky. Lena said that’s where the landscape of Holland is to be best enjoyed…in the ever changing expressions of the sky. ‘Here in France’, said Lena, ‘I see a hill outside my window and I cannot change that. But when I lived in Holland, the changing sky offered me a new landscape – sometimes several times a day’.

So that, my dear Michelle is where I find my daily inspiration, for one. Today…the sky is not fifty but one shade of grey. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?