Windmill 'De Ruiter', Vreeland

'De Ruiter' sounds almost -- almost -- like 'the Writer' but with that 'u' twist, so somewhere between 'the Rowter' and 'the Righter'.
'Vreeland' = 'VREY-lant' (the 'd' at the end of any word sounds like a 't').
'Ruiter' means 'Rider' in the military sense = cavalry.  Now here's the language bit --
'Rider' comes from the Dutch word 'ridder', which means 'knight'.  I suppose this is from the fact that knights automatically rode horses.
We also have the word 'rijd' (sounds like 'right') which means 'to drive' as in 'to drive a car'.
We also have the word 'knecht' (the 'k' is pronounced), which we use to indicate a 'servant' or 'houseboy'.
Can you guess now where the English word 'knight' comes from?
And so endeth this etymology lesson.

This is one of two windmills in Vreeland, which is a tiny village along the Vecht river in the province of Utrecht.  Directly behind it is this river, and directly across it is the village cemetery, where I had to go to take some shots.  I will of course return another time for the second windmill, but there are other windmills, too, in that area, all worth shooting.

As it happened, this was yet another Plan B situation, as the original intention was Baambrugge, but before I could look for that, clouds started racing towards the area, and this was the quickest I could go to.  In fact, it did start to shower as I got out of the car, and I needed to tuck the camera occasionally under my sweater.  There's an extra, taken as I balanced myself on a tombstone.  I am in any case glad the windmill was not facing the river as I then would have had to cross it first.

Back home, returned to my moons, and I've started on another book, The Girl With Seven Names.  A fabulous break from the genealogy research and yet another coping strategy as I wait for quite a number of things, which I'm sure you're already too familiar with.  Sometimes I find it hard to believe that we're approaching the half-year mark already and the summer solstice will be here before we know it.