Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Come, it's time for a walk. It's been awhile and we're getting lazy. Wrap up nice and warm though, it's minus 5 degrees C. It's still freezing, but fortunately that cold north-easterly wind has gone and the sun is shining.

But before we go for a walk, let's go into the garden first, shall we? See what happens when you don't winter clean the garden?
Beautiful isn't it? No, it hasn't snowed, what you're seeing is the wonderful result of 3 consecutive foggy evenings followed by 3 nights of frost. Yes, that's right, it's frozen mist that has turned the dull and grey outside into this sparkling, magical faeryland. Let's look a bit closer, shall we?

It really is magical, don't you think? Don't you just love the "ferns" of ice on one of the windows of the Victorian greenhouse? It's truly breath taking what a bit of ice and frozen mist can do.
Come, let's go. Have you got everything? Don't forget your gloves, it really is cold.
This is the house of one of my neighbours, just take a close look at that hedge.
The trees look gorgeous, don't you think? It looks like as if they are all covered in a fine layer of pearls and diamonds.
And the branches are completely covered in diamonds and pearls, not just on top but on the underside too.
The ice is white too, normally it's transparent but now it looks like frozen milk with a sprinkling of sparkles.
It's great to be out and about in the countryside don't you think? It's such lovely weather for walking but for other outdoor activities too.
Very quintessentially Dutch this, just like in the paintings of all those old Dutch masters. Well, I hope you liked the walk, I'm off, getting my skates on! ;-)
copyright 2007: Y.E.W. Heuzen

A garden without trees scarcely deserves to be called a garden.
Henry Ellacombe (1790-1885)