Chapter 39 - Walls and dikes
Louisa jumped up, kneeled in front of her husband and asked in the high and spiky tone he disliked so much and that generally meant that he'd spoiled the moment,
"Why do James and I deserve this scowl Mar-tin?"
Her dark eyes pierced in his. Obviously she wouldn't accept an indifferent shrug or a grumble for an answer.
"James meant well and a bit of sand won't immediately infect you with a horrible desease!"
These were the typical outbursts of his otherwise so nice and lovely wife he had difficulties to deal with. During his sessions with Dr. Johnson he had brought up the subject once. After a short explanation of such a situation, he had ended his introduction with
"Must be hormonal swings related to her menstrual cycle.."
Dr. Johnson had suppressed a smile and said
"I hope you didn't tell her that!"
Martin had blushed and said
"Hmm I did, actually".
"And?"
Martin hadn't been able to answer immediately, but Dr. Johnson saw the pain in his patient's eyes caused by the memory.
"I assume that was a lesson learnt", the Dr. had replied.
Martin nodded, but answered
"If only I could estimate the seriousness and the reasons of her outbursts. Most of the time I don't even have a clue of what she really means. Sometimes it appears to be only a joke. I sometimes think there is a huge wall of misunderstanding between us, like in the story of the prince and the peincees living each at another side of a high wall. It's so damn difficult..".
His clenched fist had hit the table really hard. Dr. Johnson had explained that being sure to understand the messag was most difficult part of communication in general. Already when it was a purely objective factual message, let alone a message packed with emotions, feelings, frustrations..
"The best thing to do Martin, is to ask for it.. Be sure you understand what she means, ask it.. But try not to yell back, or you'd end up together as a bunch of gamecocks. And sometimes it's best not to try a reason for it.. There's not always a need to make a diganosis..".
An ideal moment to try his recommendations, Martin thought. He softened his gaze. Still keeping his son in a protective embrace with his left arm, he gently folded his right hand around Louisa's wrist, careful not to pinch her. Then he said, as calmly as possible
"Louisa, come and sit next to me again, please. I am not sure what you are talking about, but I didn't frown because of you, or and not because James's sandy hands on my pullover either..".
Louisa plopped back on the blanket and they were both relieved the emotional storm blew over. Martin stroke her back and visibly Louisa calmed down soon.
"I guess I overreacted Martin, I am sorry. Must be my ever present obsession that everything must be normal.. And things aren't always normal,is it Martin? You will never consider it normal to be kissed in public.. Or to show affection when someone sees. I have to learn to accept that.."
"Hmm.. I could also make an effort", Martin admitted and adding action to words, he gave her a brief kiss on her cheek, but only after quickly looking around if there were not too many strangers looking at them. It made Louisa smile her wonderful smile. She looked up at him.
"Would you like to share with me what bothered you, Martin? ... The reason for frowning?"
"Eh.. It was medical.. That woman, the one that saw our family hug, was far too tanned, especially for this time of the year.. Abuse of UV and tanning beds, probably", he answered.
"I was about to go and tell her how stupid she was, but I didn't want to spoil our day.. I knew how you would react to that!"
"Oh Martin! You did behave and still got the book thrown! Poor you. Remind me that I give you a proper kiss when we are home!", Louisa replied.
"Looking forward to that", Martin confirmed, giving her hand a thankful squeeze.
They stayed on the beach for a while longer and played with James. Martin used one of the sand molds to create a small sand castle. It wouldn't be Martin if he hadn't assured the construction to be perfectly symetric with tilts and four towers. James squealed with joy and Louisa managed to make a picture of father and son in action. As she noticed later, when she watched the pictures again on her tablet, It was the first picture she ever took of Martin with a smile on his face, a small one, but definitely a smile. She was over the top with joy and cherished the picture for ever.
Louisa's stomach growled and despite the copious breakfast they had had in the morning, she really felt peckish.
"Let's go back, Martin, I am so hungry, I could eat a horse".
They packed their things back in the beach wagon. Martin decided to carry James for a while and Louisa pulled the wagon. Father and son clearly enjoyed themselves, Martin obviously told him all about the sea with the tides, the birds, the shells and the wind. James simply enjoyed listening to his father's beautiful voice.
Back in the cottage, Martin prepared a light lunch and after that, they spent a quiet afternoon in the cottage reading, doing some laundry and relaxing. Louisa found some interesting movies on dvd to watch and alternatively they played with James, or read a story to him. Later, they walked to the village to buy some fresh vegetables, some fish and some fruit. They prepared the meal together and discovered how good it was to prepare a nutritious meal together. They understood how easy it was to talk about subjects of mutual interest while chopping onions or slicing carrots.
None of them had experienced this kind of family joys when they were young, but, based on the enthusiastic stories her pupils told her, Louisa could at least recall that this was what happened in a well functioning family where the couple communicated normally with each other and with the children.
Martin might have seen it happen elswhere too, during a home visit or so, but as he always focussed on the patient and he probably stayed completely oblivious to what happened around him. Nevertheless, he seemed satisfied with how the holidays went so far.
"Put down your knife for a minute, Martin", Louisa said. Martin looked quizically, but obeyed.
"You see, I promised you something this afternoon and I think this is a good moment to realize that!".
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled his face down to her's and kissed him soundly on his soft, warm lips. Martin stood mesmerized for a moment, but then thought that this too, was typical for his enthusiastic, caring and spontanous Louisa to do and he simply enjoyed the intimate moment together.
Later that evening, after they had put to bed James, they sat on the couch, next to each other. Martin continued reading the medical study he had started to work on earlier that day and Louisa went through the pile of brochures with things to do in the near environment. She found a leaflet describing the Hondsbossche Zeewering, a 5.5 km long dike near Petten, in a place where a storm in the Middle Ages has broken through the original dunes and flooded the land. She found out that this seawall has a long history of storm damage and dike repair.
"Martin, look, thhis is interesting", she said and once she got his attention, she read out loud:
"In the Middle Ages, the coast line at Petten consisted of a narrow row of dunes. It was located a kilometer further to the west than the present coast line. In the 15th century the St. Elizabeth's flood in 1421 caused a breakthrough that destroyed much of the dunes.
The dunes were restored afterwards, but the sea kept caving the dunes on the seaward side, which the people compensated by sand replenishment on the landside. This flexible coastal defense, causing the dune bar to move eastward over the years, meant that land was abandoned to the sea. From the 16th century on the Dutch implemented all kind of constructions to put a halt to this. The first constructions consisted of pillars along the coastline, to protect the foot of the dune bar.
They also built beach heads, but, these reinforcements could not prevent a breakthrough in the very serious flood of 1570, called the All Saints Flood. The fight against the sea continued also in the 17th and 18th century until they built a sufficiently strong dike in 1880, when the beach grass vegetation on the slope on the seaward side was replaced by a deck of basalt blocks.
This seawall appeared finally to withstand heavy storms. Since then, the coast line hasn't moved further landward, but the efforts to keep the dike safe is a continuous process. In 1981 the dike was raised to the height 11.5 meters above sea level.
At the very moment, there's a project running to reinforce the fragile area again. The Hondsbossch and Petten dam was designated in 2004 as one of eight 'weak links' of the Dutch coast. On the basis of new data on sea level rise and the power of the waves, the probability of failure of the embankment appeared larger than the standard frequency of once every 10,000 years.
As an interim solution, a 70 cm high sheet piling made of steel has been installed on the crown of the Petten dam and the outer slope of the Hondsbossche seawall was roughened with a block pattern of concrete. The long-term solution they are working on right now, will consist of reclaiming 20 million cubic meters of sand from the sea along the coast."
By the time she finished this part of the information, Martin's interest on the subject was really there. "Where does the name come from? I think to remember that hond means dog and bos means wood?", Martin asked.
"It's explained here. The name of the Hondsbossche Zeewering is taken from a real forest. Until the All Saints Flood, there was a dune area with forest on the land side. This forest was called the Honds Bosch and it consisted of the remains of a larger coastal forest. The name Dog Bosch says something about the size of the forest. It had a surface was 0.1 hectares, this was equivalent to hont or hond, an old surface size. The word hond at that time, meant both dog and a surface measure..".
Louisa put aside the brochure and asked
"Martin? Do we have to go to Enkhuizen? I really think I'd be more interested in seeing this huge project. Maybe we can seesomething of the huge machines that take care of sucking the sand our of the see and the spraying of the sand on the beach? It would be so interesting to use that in a project at school. The boys will be thrilled when they see the pictures."
"Of course we don't have to go to Enkhuizen if you prefer to go to see this sea wall. Let's look on the Internet if there is more information. The Dutch are very good at creating information area near a project like this. Even if you won't be able to see the machines working, you might get interesting details of how it works", Martin replied enthusiastically.
"Enkhuizen seems to be nice, but it can wait. It is a good idea to combine the visit with our passage of the big 'Afsluitdijk', the huge dike that will bring us from North Holland to Friesland and Groningen, the two Northern provinces of the country. We will stay there 1 night and then we will go to Gelderland where I would like to show you the Kröller Muller museum and the completely different countryside. Martinus asked us to stay a couple of days at their place after that. From there, we could visit some other places as well, maybe Utrecht or Delft... I mean.. If you agree of course... I didn't mean to keep you out of the planning. It's just.. I am not used to do this together.. yet.."
"Oh it's OK Martin ! It sounds like a wonderful program. I love to see Lisa and Martinus again and to meet their son Harry!"
"Good, fine...thank you Louisa".
Relieved that he hadn't spoiled it, Martin cupped her beautiful face with his big hands and bent over to give her a kiss. He started to get the hang of being on holidays and he understood now how he could make it even better for the two of them. Not being disturbed by any well meaning but very annoying villager did so much good! Best to benefit from their absence, he thought and pulled her closer to him. As became very obvious by Louisa's positive response to his initiatives, he wouldn't have to discuss with her his plans for the rest of the evening and he smiled...
To be continued
Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. The project Louisa is speaking about has been realized between 2012 and 2015, people in the region can feel save again.