Saturday, July 21, 2018

Zwin Nature Park

Although Knokke has become my favorite place at the Belgian coast, and meanwhile I have been there several times, I had never made it to the "Zwin Nature Park" just outside Knokke. So last Sunday I finally went there. I didn't plan my coast trip long ahead, and thus it was difficult to find somebody to come with me; so I ended up going by myself.

It turned out a very worthwhile visit of one of the most idyllic places I've been to. They also call this place "the international bird airport", where all kinds of different birds come during the warmer season in order to hatch and enjoy the summer. There is a trail with different observation points, and you can also take a hike in the nature reserve.

Of course whenever I go this direction, I have to visit the sea side. So I spent another couple hours on the beach, enjoying the water and the rustling of the ocean. Given the time of year and the lovely weather, it was pretty crowded; nevertheless the world cup final obviously held back some people who might have otherwise traveled there for the day (at least I got a place to sit on the train back, which doesn't go without saying during this season). But since I couldn't care less about soccer (or any other competitive sports for that matter), I didn't have to stay put in Brussels :-).

Other than that, I've been working on some home improvement projects lately. Thus, after almost 16 years, I decided to change my bathroom shelves. It was really high time, as they had started to get rusty. So I found some beautiful and inexpensive bathroom furniture at the IKEA store. The problem is always the assembling, as I wouldn't consider myself a "handywoman", In fact, it's always a headache for me if I have to figure out technical stuff, and thus I was very thankful that it all worked out.

At my work place, it has been a bit more busy for me, as my co-worker in the secretariat took up a post at our Director's front office. But things are still manageable, and hopefully I will have a new colleague soon. I look forward to our German camp meeting, which is only three weeks away now. As usual, some organisational aspects have been challenging, but I pray that we will resolve all issues and that it will be a blessing. I especially look forward to having my friend Amy from Uchee Pines with her family this time. They will not only be speakers at our camp meeting, but also at our church retreat in Belgium at the end of August. So I'll be able to have them at my place for a few days. I'm sure that will be fun!


The stork had a little one



The nature resort


Lookout point



The ocean - just beautiful
My new bathroom furniture :-)