Windows to another world.....

We have been 'on vacation' this past week. We have been away for a couple of days and those photos are yet to come but I wanted to share a window into the country we live in. We visited the open air museum earlier in the week before we went away. It had been years since we had been there and thought it would be nice to go again. It is a place where you not only walk back in time but also visit all the corners of Holland in one day.


Since I love architectural details, I noticed when I downloaded my photos that I had taken so many photos of windows with various types of shutters. It is fun to show them all to you. This first one is very unusual as they slide down over the windows. They are painted in the typical Dutch 'bottle green' as they call it.

A simple country looking wooden shutter on an small farm.

Again some green shutters on a Fresian farmhouse. These kinds of shutters are still seen on houses today.

The highly decorative shutters on a home from Hindeloopen. This city by the Ijsselmeer is famous for its colorful paintings on walls and furniture.

These shutters are on a farm in Limburg in the south of Holland. These seem more similar to shutters seen in France.

Another unique village in Holland is Staphorst. They are also know for the color combination of bright green, white and bright blue on the farmhouses.

These are one of my favorites. I love this sweet little heart carved into these shutters. And what a beautiful window! *sigh* Do you think they would allow me to move into this farmhouse?

The bright shutters on a daylaborer's cottage in Nunspeet. It was used only for the day that the worker was busy at a farm and then the family had to move on by foot to the next place for more work.

I hope you enjoyed peeking into these windows with me. I took so many photos at this museum that I will be sharing many more of them in the coming weeks. I just love all things old. It gives me a peaceful feeling that things last in this disposable world we now live in. It was difficult to find but here is a poem about looking out the shuttered window into autumn's begin...

"The pine trees bend to listen to the autumn wind as it mutters
Something which sets the black poplars ashake with hysterical laughter;
While slowly the house of day is closing its eastern shutters.

Further down the valley the clustered tombstones recede,
Winding about their dimness the mist's grey cerements, after
The street lamps in the darkness have suddenly started to bleed.

The leaves fly over the window and utter a word as they pass
To the face that leans from the darkness, intent, with two dark-filled eyes
That watch for ever earnestly from behind the window glass."

~ D.H. Lawrence