Temporary Nomad

Several friends in Delft have told us that our old house on Nieuwe Langendijk is for sale. The other day I finally searched for it online, and it’s true. In fact, it has been for sale for months now, and the price has dropped since I first looked it up (not far enough obviously).

It’s amazing to see what they’ve done to make it so much nicer than when we were there – our dreadful huisbaas wouldn’t even fix the leaky bathroom ceiling. But now I see that ridiculous divider in the kitchen has gone, and so has the old exterior window which used to separate the kitchen and living room. Presumably the strange drain under the kitchen floor has also gone – no more surprise floods.

Inside Nieuwe Langendijk 96, since we left.

But what I really liked about seeing our old place advertised online was the photo they showed of the garden. The day we left we hid a dried gourd (kalebas) that we’d grown the previous summer, behind the leaves of the grape vine, hoping someone would get a surprise when the leaves fell in the autumn. And on the far left of the photo you can see the gourd still there – not yet covered by the spring foliage!

The garden of NL96, showing our gourd still hanging on the fence, at least 6 months after we left.

I hope whoever buys the place spends a minute or two puzzling over that gourd.