Easter

Holy week has culminated in Easter, the feast of the glorious resurrection of Christ, a new beginning and not an end. It is also a time when nature awakes, although hesitantly. Eggs, daffodils, all in fact also pagan symbols of new life, of resurrection, adapted by the church or incorporated in their traditions. Which doesn’t imply that those symbols are less meaningful.

The cross decorated with flowers by the congregation

Today it was a very breezy and sunny day, contrary to the weather forecast, and everything looked festive. The church was full, and so was the choir! With seven strong basses, six tenors, five altos and eight sopranos we could make a joyful noise to the Lord! Being an alto I had to work hard to compete with the strong male voices behind our section. 

As one of the anthems we sang Zadok the Priest, the Coronation anthem by Händel. But apparently quite appropriate for Easter; and a wonderful joyous sing. The second anthem was the German “Christ Ist Erstanden” by Michael Praetorius. Whatever, it was a joyful service, there was a great sense of community in church, also because families with children were present. And after the service the children in church could barely wait to start their hunt for chocolate eggs hidden in the church garden!

Yesterday, the Saturday before Easter I went for a walk through one of the royal estates between The Hague and Leyden, an old park which houses the home of the Royal family. It has been the property of the royal family for generations and used to be the hunting ground of one of our former kings. Also Queen Wilhelmina used it as a playground, as a child and as an adult. As a child she had a boat which she would row on one of the lakes. There is also a artificial hill, quite steep,  with a wooden chalet on top. There Wilhelmina used to withdraw and paint. She was a rather accomplished artist. The hill is covered with lilac bushes which attract many visitors when they are in bloom. The smell is unbelievable.

 

The former hunting lodge is now a very attractive tearoom which has expanded and has nice terraces and an attractive garden outside. It looks like a house straight out of a fairy tale. There are also several old big houses on the estate, manor farms, which are still working farms.  The estate is a mixture of fields and woodland, intersected by many ditches. One of the narrow dikes separating two ditches is very rural. One wouldn’t expect anything like that in such an urban part of Holland. The dike is very attractive most times of the year with shrubs, small oak trees, willow trees, wild flowers, and walking it one looks out over the fields and towards several farms. Usually there are geese, ducks, lapwings, gulls, herons, and also hares racing hopscotch through the fields. And cows once the weather improves. I was rather disappointed to discover that the shrubs and small trees bordering the narrow dike, and the willow trees had been cut back drastically giving the cold wind free play. Pruning is necessary, but I had never seen the dike so bare. Apparently part of the dike had so far escaped this drastic pruning and still looked attractive. Besides it offered some shelter against the cold wind. Here are two pictures of that dike!

As a bonus the shoulders of one of the lanes leading up to a stately farmhouse  were covered with bright yellow daffodils, which formed a thick carpet, interspersed with clumps of snowdrops which were still in bloom. Under the stately beech trees, they looked very beautiful indeed. It was a Saturday with sun and clouds, wind and rain, Mother Nature showing us her many – Dutch - faces. A quiet Saturday, leading up to the joys of Easter.

 One of the big farms with a coat of arms over the door