Starry, Starry Night...

Good God where does the time go? If I don't get my act together the month's going to end and my blog will be empty! It's been a hellishly busy month, with lots of fun things thrown in the mix to dilute the serious stuff. Top moment: my sister + hubby Anthony and daughter Tazmin arrived from New Zealand (via England, France and Belgium) to stay for a week. It's always great to have famiy visit and because her visit coincided with my kids having Autumn break, they were able to all hang out together and do cool stuff.
Niels went to heaven (a.k.a. Waterloo) and back; for months he has been crossing off the days until he finally travelled with his Dad to the great battlefield to meet up with his Uncle Anthony there. Anthony is also a history buff so the two of them were wildly enthusiastic about seeing the battlefield, and a great time was had by all.

Meanwhile Karen and her daugher Tazmin made their way up to Holland in their little rental car, where I finally met up with them in the forest near the Kroller Muller museum, of all places. What a surreal feeling; the last time we saw each other was when I waved goodbye at Tauranga airport; then there we were in the middle of a Dutch forest! Bizarre but great fun.

By the way this is my absolute favourite museum in Holland: if you're visiting the country you simply must go there for the wonderful collection of 19th and 20th centry art. The van Gogh collection alone is breath taking - the painting above, which hangs in the collection, was the inspiration for the song 'Vincent' (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean. Outside is huge sculture garden with an amazing collection of permanent works, including several you can climb on.

If you're visiting in good weather the best way to visit the museum is to park your car at the entrace gate and grab one of the free white bicycles to cycle around this massive - flat - park. You simply leave your bike in one of the stands scattered throughout the park then pick up another one when you're ready to move on. There are several more fantastic places to visit in the park that Karen, Tazmin and I didn't have time to see, including the Museonder (Museum under the ground) which is all about nature in the region, and the former residence of the owners, Jachthuis Sint Hubertus.