vrijdag 30 januari 2009

White stork (ooievaar) symbol of the Hague

Today the weather is beautiful, it's cold (a little bit freezing) but sunny so we made a walk to The Hague Woods and Marlot. In one of the grass-lands we saw a colony of white storks.

The White Stork is the Symbol of The Hague. They still don't know why this symbol was chosen for the city. But the word "ooievaar" or "odevare" means: good-luck charm. The official name of The Hauge is Gravenhage, that means the small forest of the counts of Holland. Around 1275 's Gravenhage became a separate village. Storks were very common in the village and were well taken care off. Already in 1352-54 the village register mentioned costs for making nests for the local storks. Through the years they were always allowed to nest in the village. Sometimes an official 'keeper of the storks' was even appointed.



4 opmerkingen:

Nana's Quilts zei

Did you finish up your buttons? Very interesting about the storks. I do love to see them in their nests. And yes, please keep that lovely weather.
Knuffles,
M.

Anoniem zei

Geweldig zo veel ooievaars. Ik had geen idee dat deze ook in de buurt van Den haag voor kwamen.
Wat is je quilt ook mooi geworden. Heb je die kruislinks geborduurd?
De knoopjes doen het leuk!
(Oh ja en ik ben weg van je quiltstandaard!!!)
groetjes

Jantine zei

Ohhh wat veel, ik zie ze regelmatig hier boven de snelweg op de lantarenpalen, maar zo veel tegelijk!

Nana's Quilts zei

Not too long now and we can go for koffee and "touching" lots of fabric. Yeah!