Visiting Dokkum  a few days ago  I found a new design that I can possibly use for experiment no 007. The things one finds in unexpected places!

Dokkum turned out to be full of surprises. It is a mid-size Friesian town, one of the towns that is a stopping place for the famous 11-cities-skating-tour, the ‘Elfstedentocht’. This tour only materialises  once in a blue moon, as all the major waterways in Friesland have to be frozen over & the ice thick enough to hold a horde of enthousiasts.

To my surprise Dokkum is quite nice, an old center with lots of houses dating back to Rembrandt days and even before. Them Friesians really knew how to make money in those days, and spend it, too!

We by accident came across the shrine for St. Bonifatius, one of the English priests that brought christianity to Friesland around 800. He got hacked to pieces for his troubles, and it was Dokkum where the deed was done.  Friesians have always been very independent-minded.

I’ve just finished reading a book about a Friesian town called Jorwerd. Its title is ‘how God disappeared from Jorwerd’ and its theme is how to keep small towns and cities alive in times where agriculture – once the center of things – is moving towards either industrialisation or extinction. Very interesting read, the fate of Jorwerd is shared by agriculture-based towns all over Europe. I don’t know if there is an English translation – writer is Geert Mak, he did a great overview of the European wars of the 20th century, too, called ‘in Europe’.

Anyway, enough about Friesian history. I’ll start thinking of how and when to use the Dokkum snake – it really appealed to me.