During the day on birthday

When I told them at the coffee table at Land van Fluwel that the title of the Newsletter would be 'Daytime on Birthday', hardly anyone understood what I meant. Marian, however, a young, somewhat older lady who used to work for us as a barmaid but is now taking early retirement, immediately showed a big smile. Daytime on Birthday is what pensioners and early retirees do after their working lives.

I still remember our Mother Wil's birthdays well. Where in the past visitors would come to congratulate us on a night, preferably falling on a weekend, they would suddenly be standing on the doorstep at eleven in the morning with a big smile and a bunch of flowers, chatting. Not nice at all for the children, they should actually just be working, but then they are suddenly asked to serve coffee and cut cake for the old ones. And if a nice, not too hearty soup is also provided, with tasty sandwiches, you can count on them all parking their butts at mom's house before noon next year.

It was really nice, at mother Wil's house there were eleven of them and dad had 10 brothers and 4 sisters. If half of them didn't show up, there was still a search for enough chairs and the house was packed with cackling old people. Not Uncle Piet, he walked outside, he couldn't hear anything anymore. Aunt Francien always had her regular chair in which she happily sat down to a glass of advocaat. Neighbor Gert and Uncle Tom always had their regular spot on the corner of the table where they made jokes about Uncle Theo's thriftiness, which made him laugh terribly.

In the spring tractor driver at the Boemel rides of Land van Fluwel

It was all very nice, but without realizing it I just wandered off again. I actually just wanted to say that our brother Arjen, after working for over 40 years, took off his overalls last week and can also go to his birthday party during the day.

Job in between, building a conservatory

Brother Arjen was our technical service. He started his working life as a tractor driver for his friend Jan Jaap Hoogland, who at the time started a contracting company in our road. But after Arjen had made enough kilometers on the tractor, he came to work for us for a while until he found something else. We had a few jobs for him and so he didn't have to rush to find something else. But yes, Arjen can really do anything and if you have someone like that as an entrepreneur, you keep him going of course. Shouldn't we build a shed? Arjen arranged it. Grow more daffodils, Arjen planted and dug up the bulbs. Build a windmill; Arjen. Expand the shed; Arjen. Start Land van Fluwel; Arjen. Solar meadow, hotel rooms for the seasonal workers, place a battery, technical malfunctions, build a greenhouse to force daffodils, Arjen arranged everything and made sure it turned out well. After we started the do-and-experience park Land van Fluwel we saw Arjen less and less in the bulb shed. He was always there for the digging and planting of the Daffodils but otherwise Arjen has more or less single-handedly made Land van Fluwel into the fantastic attraction it is now.

The dark tunnel of the Barefoot Path

Building a watchtower in the land of Fluwel

Play pond hopping

Oops, the pound on its head...call Arjen

Planting bulbs on the terrace

Digging a mud path on the Barefoot Path

Now that I'm writing and looking for photos, I realize that what he has done is actually quite special. Especially in our activity and experience park Land van Fluwel you can see what Arjen has crafted with his knowledge and skills www.landvanfluwel.nl

Furthermore, we were happily poking around in the Narcissus last week. After the Flower Bulb Show 'Lentetuin Breezand' failed to get going after the Corona, a dozen flower bulb growers, often together with the neighbors or other fellow growers, organized smaller flower shows at their homes in order to still be able to show their products to the buyers. Fluwel was also represented with 4 other growers at the company of ACM Smit on the Korte Belkmerweg in 't Zand.

Of course many of you wonder why this is not publicized, but unfortunately it is not really possible to receive many visitors at those locations. In the flower bulb sector it is well known and almost everyone who works in the bulbs comes to have a look. Lots of new things to see, incredibly educational and above all fun.

There was also a lot to see in the flower bulb trading centre Bollenoord in 't Zand

At a trade fair, traders are also traders. On the right, bulb representative Marcel Noppen shares his knowledge with a number of young growers

Time to go back to the flowers, see you next week.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek