Those who regularly walk through the Maerelaan knows them undoubtedly: the couple behind the red wooden fence, under a party tent that covers almost the entire front garden. As soon as possible, they are outside. Eighteen degrees is enough for them. “As long as it doesn’t blow too much,” says Diana.
Their front garden season starts in the spring, usually at the same time with the arrival of the beach houses. In April they knocked out of the tent, and after the Heemskerkse Feestweek in September it always goes back inside. “That is really a moment that you think: bah. A ending,” says Diana gloomily.
Locked up in the back garden
They have been living in their home for 23 years, of which they have been in the front garden for eighteen years. “When the children were little, we thought it was too dangerous, it is sometimes just like a race track here,” says Diana. “But when they got bigger, we moved to the front.”
The reason is simple, says Diana: “I feel locked up in the back garden. You sit between four walls and a door, that just doesn’t feel pleasant.” Nico shrugs. It does not give him so much a blamed feeling, but he is not the most difficult. She does not bother the sound of the cracking cars. “You hear that inside too.”