The 'Stommeermolen', Aalsmeer

'Meer' = 'lake'

Built in 1742, the name alone indicates its function -- it's a polder mill supposed to drain and maintain the Stom 'lake' and surrounding wetlands.  It's still doing that.  Paraphrasing, old mills never die, they just carry on.  Okay, some of them become bakeshops, B&Bs, restaurants, cafés, pet stores, and museums, but that's fine, too.  Recycling them is much better than tearing them down.

The clouds were cooperative today but I did weave through some rather serious downpours on the way there and back.  It was thankfully not all that cold.  Quite windy in some parts, though.

Football and online bridge for AW, genealogy work for me.  Discovered several memorial websites with obituaries of distant relations in Ontario and got a lot of information, but also came across a man born here in 1839 and apparently 'lost' until I found out he'd emigrated to Germany in 1904 after his wife died and all his children had married, a brood of ten, of which two died in infancy.  I'm sure he's been dead for quite a while (or not? Ha!) but eight children means a truckload of descendants.  I'll be busy with them for a while.  New info is arriving from the genealogy centre, looking forward to sorting that out.  Thankful for interesting hobbies.

Also thankful for the latest positive updates from the Viking.  Now waiting for mid-August when the school heads will start returning from their holiday and opening up vacancies again.  Social benefits have a shelf life.