The starting point was the village of Nieuw-Helvoet, where I live. At the end of my street I took a right which takes you directly out of the village into the "polder". If you don't know - a polder is low lying cultivated land criss-crossed by drainage ditches called sloten. We have to do this, otherwise the land would be swamped in many places.
This is such a sloot, covered by duckweed, but it is the swans flower I want to show you. At least, that's what we call it, I don't know the latin name. When I grew up this flower was almost extinct, but due to better water pollution management it has reappeared. The yellow one is koolzaad, rapeseed, very prolific in my part of the country.
I walked towards the first crossroads and took a left, along the Ikkerseweg (love that name, as it has no meaning whatsoever) again next to a sloot absolutely framed by wild flowers.
You recognize the poppy, of course, and camomile. We pick the camomile for tea, but also to put into the dog basket, as folk lore has it that the strong smell keep fleas at bay. Sadly this does not really work 100%, so I still have to give my animals those flea drops.
The Ikkerseweg has a copse halfway, which is taken over by Giant Bear's Claw flowers(hogweed to you, I believe). I prefer our name, "berenklauw" as it scours your skin as a bear can. Huge blisters are the result.
Those monsters are taller than a tall man and they spread like a plague. Farmers try to get rid of them, but this copse is neglected.
It has a friendly gentle sister, Angelica, which also grows next to the sloot.
And the brown flower is zuring, wild sorrel.
At the end of the Ikkerseweg I took a left again, and passed a meadow with sheep and their lambs. They came running towards me, bleating, thinking I was the farmer with something tasty.
I don't know about you, but I like sheep. And now that I've read The Shepherd's Life I like them even more. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to clip/shear one, and I'll never forget the total trust it had in me with my power tool, and the feel of the somewhat greasy wool.
Another left onto the Stormweg took me back towards Nieuw-Helvoet. I passed some youngsters, who also took an interest in me and stood there staring and blowing.
Lol, got ya!
Hate those yellow earrings, stupid things!
And that was it. Back home again.
We call this vlasbloem, flax to you.
The nitty-gritty:
I walked 14.759 steps, which comes to approx. 20 km and is totally wrong - but I did a lot of walking earlier in the day when I tried out an English assignment (with a route in hand)in Brielle.
I think this hike must have been approx. 6 km, as it took me an hour.
It was a sunny 23 degrees, with a wsw 18 km/h wind and a humidity of 54%.
I wore the wrong clothes, they started chafing in all the wrong spots. Another lesson learnt.
Hope you've enjoyed hiking with me, until next time!
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