ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

We were wandering about town last evening making a decision about where we should eat to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary.

We wandered about the square, checked the menus of all the places we have eaten at before, and those that we haven’t yet, and in the end we decided to try the new restaurant “Sumo” – and it was a great meal, great restaurant, great staff, even great wallpaper if you please. But this little story is not about our meal where we celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary.

It is about the balls of Haarlem. You know the ones – The Great Balls of Haarlem”

I know I have spoken of these often, or should I say that “I have written about these often”. I have been photographing these balls of Haarlem for more than 1 and 1/2 years now – and I will have to post a gallery later.

But now it seems they really will not be back.

We have been watching as they rebuilt the road, reinstalled some of the balls, removed some of the balls, reinstalled more of the balls, and have had others balls nestled next to the St Bavo Church waiting to be reinstalled.

The square looked very very forlorn last evening. It wasn’t celebrating with us, it was cold and unyielding. It was crisp and sharp and defined, and missing the ambience that we have grown to know and love.

The balls, the great Balls of Haarlem have been replaced with cylindrical stainless steel posts and the balls are all thrown into the corner. They are surplus to requirements here in Haarlem, and the square looks so so wrong.

I simply cannot say anymore just now, I am gutted, I am sick to the core, I feel very very sad.

I must go to the square now, and see what it is like in the day time, and to take photos in case the balls are still there in the pile waiting to be removed. Believe it or not – we didn’t take the camera last evening.

I am passionate about those balls and I am going to miss them very much.

The sun was shining, the sky blue, the ground white, the trees black with white snow still clutching to the branches and down the sides of the trunk – so I went out and it was freezing, freezing, freezing cold -5.2c, at about 3pm. But I still went as I had decided to measure a Haarlem Ball so that we do not have take the knitting to the ball until it is time to install it.

This is because it was so very cold every night we took the knitting to the ball, and our hands froze, and we had to fortify ourselves with the local gluhwein (mulled wine), which you will appreciate was tough. I also need to test my ability to create a knitting pattern to fit a large ball. I might have to sneak it there just once so that at install time it will definitely be okay.

I arrived at the row of balls – took out the tape measure, hunkered down, wrapped it around – and a 1.5cm tape measure is too short to measure a Haarlem Ball. So scientifically speaking – the ball circumference is 150cm plus 1 hand span and I will work to that.

I have to revise down the temperature on the night we installed the original Haarlem Ball Cover, knowing what the temperature was today when I went out. On install night it must have been at least -5, plus wind chill.