Wonder of Spring

The bright flowers popping through.
Leaves starting to stretch out.
Warm,gentle winds.
Warmth of the sun.
Songs of the new hatch lings.
Buzz of the bees.
Rat a tat tat of the rain.

The spring (Lente in Dutch) is the season between winter and summer. Spring months are March, April and May. It is also a favorite season for many people, and it is certainly easy to understand why this is so. The spring is when the earth comes back to life after a long cold winter, and it is in the spring when the first flowers begin to bloom and the green world begins to return after its winter slumber. It's time to wake up and spring back into action. The world around us is coming to life again and now is the time to renew, recharge and freshen up the world around us.  

The sounds of spring also make a smile form on my face, the sounds of kids running to school or playing in the park. I could also feel the warmth of the sun, smell the fresh air, see the green grass and flowers,and hear the chipping birds every morning. This season is also time for gardening, fishing, home improvement, biking, hiking, horse back riding and outdoor sports like football and baseball.

One day enjoying the early Spring through biking

 

 

 

 

Flowers start to bloom along the road

Freezing Netherlands!

This last few days, The Netherlands converted into freezing landscape because of the decreasing temperature  from zero degree Celsius down to -10 degrees or much more lower. Last Friday (3 February), a heavy snow invaded The Netherlands which brought major traffic problems, train and plane cancelled. But of course, for the children, it was nice to play outside, throwing the snow ball, making a snow man or skating over the frozen rivers.

Playing on snow with kids (Robert and Kaye-lyn), Nanthicia and Dennis

According to Wikipedia, a cold wave was registered in the Netherlands, with a low of −18.9 °C (−2.0 °F) in De Bilt, the lowest recorded since 1956, and a national low of −22.8 °C (−9.0 °F) in Lelystad, the lowest temperature recorded all over the Netherlands since 1985. . A homeless man was frozen to death on February 2.  People have been ice-skating on the canals of Amsterdam.

After a few more days of freezing weather, the cold snap brought misery to Europe especially in Ukraine which is reportedly the biggest hit area with nearly 100 deaths in the country. Most of these deaths were due to people being homeless and not having a place to stay warm. But for The Netherlands, it was the most exciting moment for them to hold again the Elfstedentocht, a natural ice-skating marathon in the northern province of Friesland that goes through 11 cities and covers 200 kilometres.The last four tours were held in 1997, 1986, 1985 and 1963.Dutch people speculated about the possibility to organize this mythical tour in Friesland. Unfortunately, the ice was not good enough to handle the race. The ice didn't reach the required thickness which should be at least 15cm length. Frustrations or sadness was felt by some of the Dutch people for stopping,organising this event but still, they were looking forward that it's going to be happen in the near future.

Walking on the frozen lake

Photos of Winter 2012

First Snow for the year 2012

DIFFERENT COLORS OF AUTUMN

Last Sunday, we went to the Soest and walked in one of their forests there. While walking, I took some pictures of trees, mushrooms and different colors of leaves that fall off from the tress.

 

 

       

 

  

Eerste Dag van de Herfst!

The end of summer signifies the arrival of autumn. In the Netherlands, autumn officially starts at September 21, and ends at December 20. It is the season between summer and winter, often called "the fall.". It is the time when the leaves fall from the trees and the leaves change from green to red or red to yellow especially the changing fall foliage which never fails to surprise and delight us. I had the feeling that the autumn this year would have more nice, warm weather unlike the summer which had more rains than hot weather.