"The name opa (grandfather) and oma (grandmother), Jan and Ella Kolff-van der Giessen (CBCD XVIv) gave to the house, 'Duin en Dennen' ('Dune and Pines') had to do with the nature area in which the house was situated. A test-plant area of Staatsbosbeheer of pines in the dunes. The test seemed succesful: the Corsican pines seemed to do well - and were planted in many other dunes...

Today some people think different about that. They seem to take too much water from the soil and nowadays municipal employed biologists want to get rid of them. A lot of protest exists against that because the pines look beautiful in the dunes. The dunes and pines were the reason for the choice of oma and opa for Wassenaar. Opa wanted to live at the Veluwe in the midst of the existing pines there. Oma preferred the sea and the dunes (this choice may well have been vice versa...). Just at the time of their desire to buy, Staatsbosbeheer decided to sell the test-plant, so for opa and oma the choice became easier: here they both found what they wanted. The idea for the name 'Duin en Dennen' (Dune and Firs) may be clear".

Apart from this Marius makes some remarks on Warmond: "Opa and oma were ordered to leave the house during the occupation time (WWII, for the Netherlands: 1940-1945 [Ed.]). Amoungst other places they lived on a house-boat at Warmond. This boat was situated near one of the greater Warmond homes, where Sara worked as a housekeeper. Sara originated from Hansweert (Zeeland). Oma and Sara got along very well. After the occupation oma and opa could move back to the house, and Sara came with them. She was in charge of the housekeeping. All of the eight children have the best memories of Sara. Most of them were fed - with the bottle - by Sara. I have had the opportunity to spend many holidays in the little house with the water pump and the outdoor closet at Hansweert. Often Sara went home for a holiday to Hansweert, where her father was the keeper of the locks, I was allowed to travel with her. The journey by train to Goes (the G is pronouced there as an H, Dutch 'oe' stands for English 'u' or 'oo', so pronounce this as Hoos) was in itself an adventure for me, but even better was the travelling in an old bus across cobbly roads from Goes to Hansweert."

"Many years later 'Duin en Dennen' was sold and oma moved to the care takers' cottage and Sara went with her. That was not succesful. The small house, even though it had two sitting rooms and several bedrooms) was too small for the two of them, and Sara left (I still remember the tears [Marius, ed.]). Often I visited Sara at her subsequent employers."
Worth mentioning is that at 'Duin en Dennen' many of the Kolff Association meetings have been held.

Nienke Kolff and Mariëtte Kolff-Reinders (editors of De Colve).
Following pages added by
Marius Kolff (CBCD XVIIw4)
[article transl.: Marius Kolff]