De Spitkeet is an open air rural museum near Harkema, Friesland, The Netherlands. A spitkeet was  akind of Earth-house.

The first exhibit you come to is a building called the Mallemolen:-

The Mallemolen acted as a poorhouse. The coldest room, on the northeast, was given to the latest arrivals and when others became available they would move into those:-

The rooms look not too bad though:-

Box beds:-

Near the Mallemolen was a stork’s nest:-

Iwema Steenhuis (see previous posts) has several exhibits relating to childhood.

Model of schoolroom:-

Vintage children’s books:-

Toy vehicles:-

I just loved those dinky caravans on the second top shelf above so here’s a close-up:-

There was also domestic memorabilia.

Inkwells and desktop paraphernalia:-

Inkwell partly in the shape of a Great War tank (a French Renault, I think):-

Old style shop:-

https://flic.kr/p/2qXyiBD

The museum part of Iwema Steenhuis has some industrial relics. A roller press:-

Machine for moulding speculaas biscuits:-

Speculaas and jelly moulds + wicker basket and rolling pins:-

A speculaas pressing machine:-

Stained glass and enamels:-

Colourings:-

Tiles and enamel signs:-

The name literally means Iwema stonehouse. Perhaps stone houses were rare in Groningen Province back in the day. It’s located not far away from Niebert Windmill.

Inside is a kind of museum of local life and community gathering place.

Interior and roof:-

Box bed and cupboard:-

Steps to box bed:-

A cooking range:-

The above is set within a dining room:-

Anlother dining room had a table covered with a rug:-

A fireplace:-

Kitchen stuff:-

Room with old sewing machine and radio:-

Like similar country houses in the UK there wereexhibits of domestic life in Coendersborg.

Box bed + nightshirt:-

and bed pan:-

Wall tiles:-

Coendersborg basement:-

There was a museumy bit at the back of the house with exposed wooden beams:-

Poster of Squirrel. In Dutch a squirrel is an eekhorn. We spotted a red one from the house’s front window:-

Poster of flowers to be found in Coendersborg’s garden:-

Back of house:-

https://flic.kr/p/2qVvcrb

Perth Museum recently relocated to the building which used to be Perth City Hall. It’s slap bang in the middle of the city so a good location.

The new museum’s main attraction is the Stone of Destiny, removed from Edinburgh Castle to be nearer to its spiritual home in Scone a couple of miles north of Perth itself.

Some of the exhibits have been transferred from the old Museum and Art Gallery in George Street, notably the St Madoes stone, which, in its new location, is now lit up to help highlight the carvings:-

Side and back views:-

I particularly liked, though, the illumintaed map of Perth through the ages where different parts were lit up at different times to show the evolution of the town/city:-

Then of course there was this picture of the famous old Pullars of Perth premises a building which verges on Art Deco:-

https://flic.kr/p/2pQo4ad

The Hauntings is a sculpture of a soldier, made from scrap metal. From 1/7/23 to 12/11/23 it was in the grounds of The Black Watch Museum in Perth but has since moved on. (The museum, housed in Balhousie Castle is a regular haunt of ours as it has a very good café.)

The sculpture was commissioned for the centenary of The Great War and made by metal sculpture specialists, Dorset Forge and Fabrication, “a combination of the talents of blacksmith Chris Hannam and artist Martin Galbavy.”

Sculpture with Balhousie Castle in background:-

Side view:-

Reverse view. The memorial in the background here I featured in 2019:-

I noted the jerry can on the soldier’s right hip. Jerry cans were a World War 2 phenomenon. Not that that matters.

On the way up from the ferry back from The Netherlands last year we stopped off to have a look at Huntingdon – a place we hadn’t visited before.

Town Hall in main square:-

Old building also on square:-

All Saints Church lies beside the main square:-

It has nice arched windows glass and statuary in niches.

View from other side:-

Huntingdon was where Oliver Cromwell was born and the constituency he represented in Parliament. A bench in the square (with All Saints church in background) and a rubbish bin seems an odd way to commemorate him though.

But they do have a Cromwell Museum:-

The bench with the yellow heart on it in the first photo of the Church above is a memorial to the victims of Covid:-

The museum is known as Airborne at the Bridge. We’d have liked to go into it but the door was locked. According to the website it is open from 10.00 to 17.00:-

A steel monument to the Resistance lay to the right of the scene pictured above. The inscription reads, “most people remain silent, but a few take action.”

Side view. River Rhine and John Frost Bridge in background:-

“With respect for the past and with an eye to the future, this reminder of the resistance in Arnhem, 1940-1945”:-

One of the oddest things we saw in the Rijksmuseum was this display of woollen hats:-

A unique harpsichord he only surviving one of its type which plays one-fifth above normal pitch. Made by the Ruckers family from Flanders:-

The top floor of the museum is reserved for more modern exhibits. This biplane was designed during the Great War by Dutchman Frits Koolhoven for the British Aeronautical Transport Company:-

There was a chess set whose pieces looked like Great War crested china memorabilia but was designed by German Georg Fuhg “to glorify Nazi Germany’s urge to conquer.” It was shown in the Rijksmuseum in 1941 exhibition Kunst der Front organised by the occupier. The text in the border refers to countrie soccupied by Germany in 1939 and 1940:-

A cloth book for children which, as I recall, was made during the German occupation:-

Plaster model for the sculpture The Destroyed City by Ossip Zadkine, made to commemorate the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940. Zadkine said of it “I have sculpted tears.”:-