Martje Amber Petersen's christening

 

What a lovely day, it didn't look like that when we got up this morning. The sky was black, lightning was cracking its whip and buckets of water were falling from heaven. That was at eight, at nine thirty when we drove to Risum I had the roof of my convertible open, the sun was shining and the car was heated up like in a sauna.

We arrived, the rest of the gathering arrived and the first tears fell: Martje saw me and did a knee fall; she forgot that she had her new, pretty and white tights on and now they were green. The tears dried up quickly, there was excitement in the air (well for the kids and the future godparents and if I think about it for me also, I'm still a kid at heart).

The service went well, it's Whitsunday and the Pastor, Tim Ströver, told the story of the beginning of the church on this day; of how the disciples came out of hiding and went into the world speaking to the people in every country be it Hebrew, Arabian, Roman, English, French, you name it they could speak that language. On the first day of the Christian Church they baptised three-thousand followers.

The story is good and interesting, if you're a grownup, for the kiddies it was too much so they mucked about, not much it was amazing how disciplined they were. Gretje let everything happen without a word or should I say moan.

After the service we all gathered at Kirsty and Jan-Erik's house for a meal and drinks and coffee with cakes and more drinks. If anyone went home hungry it would have been their own fault.

I'm still suffering four hours later, I ate too much cake.

 

 

 

 

Gretje it's your show today,
it is time for you to join the community,
we all say welcome,
such a pretty and quiet girl <3



Gretje's Christening song

The arrival
Heike, Lynda and her friend Dirk

The Godparents
Martina and Horst
A perfect choice, two that did not have the fortune of having children of their own
 

Family Petersen arrives,
Fentye and Martje dressed up like twins
and look how clean Martje is, it lasted only one minute and she want down on her knees.
White tights and green grass are a bad combination

When she realised that she had mucked her knees it was time for the first tears of the day

They didn't last long,
and now it's off to the church

The gate to the St Sebast zu Risum Church

Pastor Tim Ströver waiting for the congregation.
He is new in the village and took over from Pastor Spiesswinkel last year when he went into pension.

Pastor Ströver, a young and talented pastor,
his service differs enormously from his predecessor

Gretje in her Taufkleid (christening dress)

The church interior,
the altar,
it points to the south,
I wonder if that has any meaning?

The church interior,
the pulpit.

The church interior,
the christening font

The church interior,
a picture next to the pult.
Is this Saint Sebast?

The church interior,
the organ

The church interior,
the Lord's supper

Gretje in a good mood,
she was like that the whole time

 

Gretje with her father Jan-Erik and Martje

 

Martje is always giving her sister a kiss,
sometimes it gets too much for Gretje and she rebels by whining

 

Martje, the wild one
with her Oma Petersen

Fentje

Fentje and Mama
Doesn' Fentje look an angel?

It doesn't hold on very long,
in the past few months, since she started in Kindergarten
she's found her tongue and loves to stick it out at me.
Cheeky bugger :-)

Gretje with her Godmother Martina
and how proud she is, I love it!

The christening is over, now come the family photos
Lets start with Oma Irmtraut and Uroma Marianne (Tick Tack Oma)

The Petersen family with Heike
from the left Oma Irmtraut, Martje, Fentje, Tick Tack Oma, Godfather Horst, Oma Heike, Papa Jan-Erik, Godmother Martina, Gretje, Mother Kirsty and Opa Andreas

The same but with me behind Kirsty

The church service is over and we leave the church in dazzling sunshine.
I quite like the Pastor, modern
It's about time the church got younger in person and idea.

The families Petersen and Martin together on one photo, all except yours truly

Doesn't matter though
now a picture of the proud grandfather

and the proud grandmother

I can't end my blog without a flower photo.
Poppies

 

 

 

My Daily Banana:

 

 

Photo of the Day:

 

A pretty little house in Niebüll

 

With a tree growing out of the chimney

 

What a lovely afternoon

 

 

 

Event of the Day:

08th June 793

Vikings plunder St Cuthbert's monestary on Lindisfarne

Lindesfarne is a small tidal island in the North-East off the coast of Northumberland; it is often referred to as the Holy Island

 

 

 

Lindesfarne for me is a progressive folk group thet I remember from the seventies. One great song they sing is Lady Elenor. I saw them play in Tondern, Denmark sometime in the eighties at the famous Tondern Folk and Jazz Festival (always on the last weekend of August, if anyone is thinking of going. I can highly recommend a visit, it's the biggest folk festival in Europe with an international billing. They have had Pentangle, Arlo Guthrie alone and with the family, RunRig, Lonnie Donegan when he lived and many, many more great acts.)

 

Tondern Folk Festival

 

 

 

Birthday of the Day:

08th June 1940

 Nancy Sinatra

 Jersey City

 

 

 

singer (Boots are Made for Walkin') and daughter of Frank Sinatra

 

 

Died on this Day:

08th June 632

Mohammed,

 

 

 

prophet of Islam (Koran), dies (according to tradition)

 

 

Bicycle ride of the Day:

My ride today took my once more through the Koogs.

A Koog is new-land, which has been won from the sea. Most of the countryside around Niebüll is new-land and below 0.0 metres (sea-level). We are protected by dykes, but if we would have a storm with waves over ten metres, a stip of land at least twenty kilometers wide would be flooded.

Around Niebüll the land is marshland and in Leck, where Lynda lives

 (fifteen kilometers from Niebüll) it's geest land from zero to fourteen metres above sea level, that's where the flooding would stop.

That was a short excursion into our history and geography, now back to my cycle tour.

 

The Bottschlotter Au
look how peaceful the water flows

The other side of the road looking towards the Bottschlotter Sea
a small nature reserve lake

Wide open country, no natural woods, it's all gained ground where the North Sea used to flow.

Waygaarddeich, a small village five houses at the most.
Under the German name of the village you can read the village name in Friesian, the original language of this part of the country that has nearly died out. Earlier in time when the language was in use nearly every town and village had its own Friesian dialect.

A farm in Waygaarddeich,
terrific setting



I rode through the Koogs to Fahretoft a beautiful village about fifteen kilometers south-west of Niebüll. It has many old and well kept Friesian houses crowned with thatching.

Village limits shield

This is where the monster tractors unload their goods and there's a corn-scales in front, I always ride over it when I travel through Fahretoft

The scales only weigh insteps of  ten kilograms, rounding upwards.
 My bike and I weigh somewhere between 100 and 110 kilograms.

A thatched roof house in Fahretoff

Another dreamy thatched roof house in Fahretoft

 

 

 

 

It was then north-west to Dagebüll-Kirche. Dagebüll is a village split-up in two parts, Dagebüll-Kirche and Dagebüll-Hafen where the ferries transfer to the North Friesland islands. The two village halves are three kilometers apart. Dagebüll-Kirche is built around a very picturesque church which was built in 1731.

 

Village limit shield in Dagebüll-Kirche
I like the Friesian name
Doogebel-Schärk
Can you pronounce it?

The church was built in 1731, but without a belfry tower, that came in 1906

 

 

 

Next I turned north past Bibi onto my normal route. Where I met my friend the labrador, he was really happy to see me, he even got up to greet me. I gave him a cuddle and scratched his back and throat, he loves that and lent harder into it. Lovely dog, I'm glad I don't own one though, they have to be looked after, they pooh and pong and if you go on holiday you need a minder to look after it; no thanks!

 

My friend, an older picture of him, I had it in my May 8th blog.

Isn't it sweet?

I wouldn't like to drive it when the wind conmes from the side

 

 

I really enjoyed my cycle round, hope you can see why by looking at the pictures.

That's it for today, see you all tomorrow, be good and have a peaceful Whitsunday :-)

My Daily Banana:

 

 

 

Photo of the Day:

 

 

Let me out
 (Bauern Rose-common peony-Paeonia officinalis)

 

Event of the Day:

7th June 1975

John Denver's song Thank God I'm a Country Boy tops the United States Billboard Charts

 

7th June 2001

The New Labour, with Tony Blair at the rudder, win, with a landslide, another general election in the United Kingdom.

Hurray, hurray,
I'm the king of the castle,
your'e the dirty rascal.
(Tony everybodies darling)

Birthday of the Day:

7th June 1958

Prince

 

A little man with a very big ego. He has recorded a great many songs and many of his songs are covered by other artists. Sinhead O'Connor's debut hit Nothing Compares To You was written and initially recorded by Prince. I remember him most for his eccentric stage appearances, his anagramic name TAFKAP (the artist formally known as Prince) and the song Purple Rain.

 

 

Died on this Day:

7th June 1631

Mumtax Mahal

 

Wife of Shah Jahan of India. To show the world how deeply he loved and missed his wife he built her tomb as a small shrine. It is one of the World Wonders and when one thinks of the beautiful side of India it's there on the first place, the Taj Mahal.

Thoughts of the Day:

Today I couldn't think of any excuses why not to ride my round. It was good to be back in the saddle. I had ridden just over a kilometre when I had to stop for a level crossing, well bugger me I thought I'm not standing around waiting on a train; so I turned right and took a different road to Risum. With that I shortened my round by four kilometers, tomorrow I'll have to add them on to my round, I can't go cheating on myself.

Before I had my cycle ride I was in town to pick up my jacket from the cleaners and (guess what) a cup of cappuccino. The baker's had a new saleslady behind the counter, wow I was taken aback, she was (or should I say is then in those couple of hours since then she'll not have changed much) an eye catcher. It's not often I start ogling but today at the baker's I did

(Harold Steptoe would say "You dirty old man").

 

See how the rapeseed (Brassica napus)  is developing,
 the seedpods are growing

That's another episode of My Daily Banana,

hope you enjoyed it.

See you all tomorrow, it'll be a big day for Gretje,

she will be introduced to and joining the religious community

(she is being christened)

The photos will be published in my blog on Monday.

Have a good day xxx

My Daily Banana:

 

 
Picture of the Day:

 

 


That one look in a lifetime,
it never comes again

 

 

Event of the Day:

06^th June 1882

Electric Iron is patented by Henry W Seely from New York City, United States



Patent Paper from Henry W Steely, 1882 

 

 
06^th June 2008

Kirsty Martin changed her name to Kirsty Petersen.
 She stayed our daughter, but now she has a family of her own with three little beaus Fentje, Martje and the nest chick Gretje. I love them all :-) Greetings to Jan Erich, Kirsty’s hubby.

 



Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours. A song from Stevie Wonder



 

 
Birthday of the Day:

06^th June 1956

Björn Borg

In Sodertlage, Sweden

Won in Wimbledon four years in a row from 1976 to 1979

Died on this Day:

06^th June 1966

Claudette Orbison

Wife of the singer Roy Orbison dies in a motor cycle crash. Claudette and Roy were riding home when she was hit by an articulated lorry, she died on the spot. She died at the very young age of twenty-four.

That’s a tragedy for both of them, imagine riding home with your lady and that happens, I would think about throwing myself under the lorry after her.

In memory of his wife Roy wrote and recorded the song

 Too Soon to Know

 

 

 Today:
 
Anyone for a round of sport?
Not me, I'm too tired from yesterday. Terrible I think I'm getting older than I am, when I think back a couple of years (maybe tens of years) I could go out in the middle of the week, get sozzled and get up early for work. I can't lie and say I was fit the next day but I got through it. Last night I got home at around eleven and couldn't sleep, it took me quite a while to wind down after driving. This morning Heike's alarm went off at five-fifteen, an hour earlier than my wake up time, so at the most it was a five hour night for me. The hours drive to work was with half opened eyes, at least the traffic was civil today, no road hogs trying their hardest to drive me off the road.
On my way home I saw this beautiful Ferrari coming up from behind, I drove slow to force him to overtake me, it's got such a pretty backside.

 

Nice piece of metal

 

 

Take care, I hope a good night's sleep will bring back my fantasy.
See you'll tomorrow.