Windmill 'Ter Leede', Leerdam

There has always been a windmill standing on this exact spot, as far back as the history books on the area will confirm.  No one knows when this mill was built, but this model is one of the oldest there are, so I'm estimating that this must be at the very least 350 years old.  It was already here when the local polders were not yet properly protected by dikes, and the ground floor has been regularly flooded.  As a result, no one has ever lived in this mill.  Its name, 'Ter Leede', is also very old, as is the town that grew around it, Leerdam.

It's the very same Leerdam where I enjoyed that extra job for a month.  I could have shot the mill at that time, when the weather was better, three months ago, but either I had no time to stop and explore or the mill was facing away from the road and I could not have found a good angle to shoot it from.  Today, there was a lot less sun but enough light, and I took a chance.  But first... !

Went to work, worked, went back home.  Took the trouble to bring up my bags and replug my laptop and check some private mail, and then I was off.  There was a lot of light when I left the house but, well, as the song goes, 'clouds got in the way'.  Leerdam was actually Plan B but it looked a lot darker further ahead on the A15, and I quickly quashed Plan A.

A very busy time, work-wise.  After dinner, AW left for Tuesday evening live bridge, and I took some time to comfort Mimi, who is going through a terrible cold turkey phase, now having to get used to her new life without the brood of grandchildren she used to care for.  I can only listen and offer some words of comfort, and also some suggestions based on lessons I myself have had to learn.  In fact, driving to and from the hunt, I got a pair of mental tweezers and tried again to pick out the dirt and debris and pus out of an old wound that is well on the way to healing but is not quite 'there' yet, the source of all my anger and even rage, the kind that makes me want to throw rocks and burn houses.  I know I'm not really going to do those things, that it won't help even if I get to do those things, and the feelings will pass, as they've always done, but I have learned to break them down into components and understand how these various pieces somehow continue to come together and why.  The act of poking and prying helps a lot and I can let it rest for another time, if it bothers me again.  I can't explain this all to Mimi overnight, though.  It's something she'll need to discover for herself, and then she'll hopefully find her own way to deal with it.

https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/why-abused-children-end-up-hating-themselves/

Not much evening or midnight oil burned tonight, as I decided to pay more attention to this week's presentation exams, and today's marks are finished, to be saved until all the other parts of the digital portfolio are complete.  No new mail from the Viking waiting, so I think I'll call it a day.