Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Hurley's Dutch Origins



We were honored this weekend to host Mr and Mrs Rob de Vos. They were both such kind and unassuming people that we had no idea, until just before they left, that Rob de Vos is actually the Consul General at the Netherlands Consulate in New York. We've had a few visits from those working at the Consulate, but it took us a while to realise Rob de Vos was actually their boss.......

Over 30 years in the Dutch Foreign Service has taken him to North Yemen, Dar es Salaam, London, Mali, Madrid, South Africa, and now New York. Of course, the Dutch heritage in this area is of great interest to those from the Netherlands Consulate. One very interesting book we've been given and can recommend is The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto, which is based on recently found documents about the original New Amsterdam. It sheds interesting light on some of the roots of America's freedoms.

Mr and Mrs de Vos were interested to hear that Hurley is having its 350th Anniversary Celebration on September 15th this year. You can check here for more information.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Our herb garden



One of the first things we did when we started renovating the house was to establish a herb garden. We're always using herbs freshly picked from the garden, whether it's parsley or chives in some scrambled eggs, or basil for a frittata, or mint for a red grapefruit, apple and mint salad, etc.....this year we even tried out some lavender in shortbread for the guest cookie jar! At the top you can see the herb garden as it is now - we're excited that the box hedges have nearly joined up.........below you can just about see a couple of box hedges when we planted them, bottom right, about 4" high, back in 2008. It's amazing what happens if you wait a little while. Now, all we need is for the plum tree we planted at the same time to start bearing fruit too.....