{"id":117701,"date":"2020-09-15T16:08:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T14:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=117701"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:04","slug":"beadle-marleen-van-kester-spots-kingfishers-and-gets-rid-of-weeds-in-her-vegetable-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/09\/15\/beadle-marleen-van-kester-spots-kingfishers-and-gets-rid-of-weeds-in-her-vegetable-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Beadle Marleen van Kester spots kingfishers and gets rid of weeds in her vegetable garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

How are Erasmus University employees getting through these times of coronavirus? Are they taking up new hobbies? Are they having staycations on their own balconies? This week Marleen van Kester, one of Erasmus University\u2019s four beadles (masters of ceremonies) tells about her garden. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, she has run a vegetable plot at the De Amateur Tuinders complex in Nieuwerkerk aan de IJssel, just outside the municipality of Rotterdam. She goes to her garden several times a week.<\/p>\n

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Pedel Marleen van Kester in her garden.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

At the end of her working days, when Van Kester cycles from the EUR campus to her apartment in Moordrecht, she will sometimes make a stopover at her garden. After all, that it is the time of day when it is quietest here, \u2018which is when it\u2019s at its best\u2019. She will cook an easy meal on a gas camping stove and sit down next to the canal behind her light blue garden shed, on a garden chair whose cushions have images of kingfishers on them. \u201cPeace and quiet, wind rustling through the trees, no obligations whatsoever. I\u2019ll be surrounded by greenery, frogs and birds. Once I actually saw a kingfisher. When that happens, my mind is cleared at once.\u201d Her view of the canal is slightly impeded by a small dead tree, but that doesn\u2019t bother her. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get rid of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be noted that having \u2018no obligations whatsoever\u2019 is not that common for people who have vegetable plots. There\u2019s a courgette (zucchini) on the ground that has grown far too large. \u201cThat will be thrown away! They don\u2019t taste great. If you can\u2019t make it to your garden for three weeks, you\u2019ll be confronted with hugely overgrown vegetables when you return.\u201d In other words, maintaining the garden takes up a lot of her time. \u201cMy husband and I come here twice a week, on average, to do some gardening for a few hours. But you could spend a lot more time here if you wanted to. You\u2019re never fully done.\u201d Isn\u2019t that actually pretty stressful? \u201cStrangely enough it isn\u2019t. At work having a lot of things to do sometimes makes me nervous, but here in the garden it doesn\u2019t.\u201d And they\u2019re getting some help, too. \u201cOur children will be swinging by one of these days to get rid of some weeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outdoor yoga<\/h2>

Van Kester became a beadle at the university by applying for the job when it was advertised in Algemeen Dagblad<\/em>. \u201cThat\u2019s how easy it was,\u201d she says, seated on her garden chair. \u201cTo be honest, I had no idea what a beadle was when I read the advertisement. But I liked the description: a job in which you will officiate at many ceremonial events.\u201d She has been a beadle since 2007. Recently she has had to perform some off her duties online. The doctorate regulations had to be revised to allow her to do that.<\/p>\n

That said, Van Kester does perform most of her duties offline, on campus, which she says is more practical. Also, it allows her to make regular stopovers at De Amateur Tuinders. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get our garden until after the start of the coronavirus outbreak, so we\u2019re still getting into the swing of things.\u201d The first tomatoes are ready to be harvested. \u201cI absolutely love flowers, so we want to plant a few of those, too. And we want to get a small lawn, so that I can do some outdoor yoga.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is quiet for a moment, the only sound audible being the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. Then, suddenly, we catch a glimpse of something blue with a pointy beak in the dead tree next to the canal. An elated Marleen whispers: \u201cLook! The kingfisher! Isn\u2019t it gorgeous?\u201d And just like that, the bird is gone, continuing its hunt for small fish elsewhere. Marleen laughs. \u201cMaybe we shouldn\u2019t get rid of the dead tree, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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