This Week in Wijnjewoude 2024

  Week 4 I seem to look more closely at the water related topics - probably because of the boating/recreation interest 70 Advice Notices have been given to the Provinces in a measure to improve the Netherlands Nature Reserves. Slecht = Poor Redelijk = Reasonable Natura 2000 Reserves (not included in the Notices) are those which are mandated by EU directives and have been the cause of much controversy about Nitrogen levels. Almost every area that has been studied suffers from the large amount of nitrogen. Well-known examples are the Limburg Brunssummerheide, the Sallandse Heuvelrug (Overijssel) and the Alde Feanen in Friesland . (one of our boating areas). Nitrogen provides extra nutrients in the soil, causing (rare) plants that require little nutrition to become overgrown. This in turn has negative consequences for birds, butterflies and other animals.Many different types of plants and animals (biodiversity) ensure clean air, pollination of plants and good soil quality. If certain...

Week 3 We had a White Monday as it turned out and it has remained white all week. The trodden snow has turned to ice as I took Boeke for a walk this morning - very treacherous for the old bloke! It's supposed to be "warming up" this week - starting with 9 degrees and rain later today. And we have a strong wind warning. We had a laugh during the week at one of the newspapers - part of their weather report suggested that "it feels like snow" - as in the way they sometimes say it is minus 1 and it "feels like" minus 7. Maybe they meant that it feels like it is going to snow... Firewood We got the bill for our last load of firewood... €135,00/cubic metre (for oak) Talk about "profiteering" - there is no other reason other than "because they can" - with the ongoing energy crisis. The last time I looked it was €70,00. Maybe I'll do some better calculations about heating our Day Activity area - the main problem is that the central heat...