Finally off and away

On Wednesday Mr Esther put down artificial grass in our elevated and renewed front garden. Getting a lawnmower in there would be a chore, so fake grass it is…

The end result is quite pretty!

Yesterday mini-me and I took my mother and aunt to a small art museum (Singer Laren Museum, to the south east of Amsterdam) and saw some lovely pieces of art…

… and work by a sculptor called Pépé Grégoire was displayed in the garden…

And this afternoon we finally packed up and left for the southern tip of The Netherlands right outside Maastricht. It’s our first summer holiday without my son (he has to work for his internship) which makes me feel a little heavy hearted. It was bound to happen sometime, I know. It’s also the first time in years we don’t have to ask our neighbour to look after our cats, now my son can do it.

Of course we’ll be texting with Mr Esther jr to stay in touch but it still feels a little off to me that he’s not with us. He, on the other hand, is already relishing having the house all to himself. Little baby boys really do grow up, I guess.

Anyway, at just after 5 pm we arrived at the holiday park where we’ve rented a cottage, we unpacked our stuff and went and got some groceries. We then headed into Maastricht for a dinner outside, keeping safely distant from others…

We didn’t stay very long and are now sitting outside our cottage. It’s pretty nice, the cottage has a fireplace that you can see from within as well as from outside. We had it on for a little while…

… but it’s quite warm and today was the hottest day of the year so far, so we switched it off again.

We have decided it may not be a good idea to head into the city tomorrow, on a Saturday, as Saturdays tend to be the busiest days, so we’ll probably head somewhere into nature for a little hike. It feels good to be away for a bit. Time for bed now, good night!