Lieveheersbeestje (Ladybug)

Last Sunday was Vaderdag or Father's day. It's the first time that my husband received something from our daughter as a gift for vaderdag (father's day)... It's a stone painted as lieveheersbeestje or ladybug. Our daughter had painted it herself and she was so proud of her gift for her Papa... so sweet.

I've read in Wikipedia that in Dutch, the ladybug is called lieveheersbeestje, translating to "Our Dear Lord's little creature". It is also common to ask ladybugs to bring fair weather the next morning by saying "morgen mooi weer" upon encountering them...

Before I came here in Holland, I used to be afraid with so many insect like those ladybugs, but my husband told me that they are really sweet and will not bite you. I don't have a courage yet to put them in my hands but for our daughter that's not really a problem, she knows that they are indeed sweet and not biting:)

Belated Happy Father's day to my Papa and to my father-in-law
and belated Happy Father's day to all the fathers in the world!

Kikkerdril (Frogspawn)

Most part of Holland is very flat and they say it often as lowland. With some land that is below sea level and almost half of the land is about a meter above sea level. It happens to be the perfect place for the frogs to increase their population.

Way back in Manila, I happened to be so scared of frogs and thoughts that they are so dirty. But I discovered here in Holland, they treat frogs as special animal. I came to know more how kids are interested with frogs. I saw the movie Kikkerdril (Frogspawn or frogs eggs) about the young boy who tried to have kikkerdril just to give it to his older brother.

Anyway, today we went to my father-in-law. There were some kikkerdril in his fishpond and my husband wanted to have some too. We brought it home in a flower vase. My husbands just wanted to show me how they grow each day from een egg into a frog. At first we tried to put them in our aquarium but the fishes seemed to be aggressive against the kikkerdril so it would not even be possible for them to reach their todpole stage... Anyway, we put them back in flower vase so we could really have a better look for the frogs life cycle.

Dierencrematorium (Crematorium for Animals)

Last year I made a video of Mireille offering noodles pack for "Droopy", the pet dog of my mother-in-law.... I look back again to this video which i posted in Youtube last year.... "Droopy" was such a nice and sweet dog... But now she's gone already... Last week she just got an injection to die... She is about 9 years old i think... And since January, she got sick and the Veterinarian found out that she had Ovary cancer... Last February, she already had a schedule for injection to let her die, to avoid her from suffering with pain, but it was cancelled and after that she seems to get a bit strong but the last few months seems to got worst so there's no choice but to give her injection to die... sad...

By the way, the photos you see were the document of the Cremation of Droopy. She was cremated in the Dierencrematorium (Crematorium for Animals) in Delfzijl... and the ashes were in the jar as you can see in the photo....

We'll miss you Droopy....

Egel (Hedgehog)

Egel (Hedgehog) is any of the small spiny mammals of the subfamilyErinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 16 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand.... read more in Wikepedia

2 weeks ago, my husband noticed that there is an Egel (Hedgehog) that is coming to our backhouse to eat the dog food every night. Ron tried to convince me that the egel is sweet but I'm really afraid to even touch the egel. Anyway, i've read also in Wikipedia that the egel in our backhouse is an urban hedgehog out foraging at night.

Of course, after making some egel's photos, we set him free....