Because we never know IF or WHEN it will happen, you can imagine how thrilled we were to finally get snow, even if only for a week. Frost is one thing, which we saw in January, but snow is another thing altogether!
We awakened to snow on Sunday morning, 7 February, as predicted.
I didn't even go out that day except on our balcony and then on the walkway in front of our apartment.
Astrid had covered our car the day before, to protect it in our courtyard.
I took this from our 1st-floor walkway, looking down into the courtyard.
It was heavenly for me, and, if that was all I had, it would have been "fix" enough.
But lucky for me, the next day I walked home from grocery shopping and got more.
Another "fix," even though with the wind chill I barely made it home!
Seriously.
Besides seeing the snow, she wanted me to see the high water of the Merwede river on our north bank.
You can see the flooded fields, with the Loevestein Castle across the river.
This is when an outsider understands why the Dutch need locks to control their water.
So much of the area around us is below sea level!
The dijks are also important to keep out the water but are also picturesque.
When I saw the swans, Astrid knew she needed to stop.
Remember, this was 5 days before Valentine's Day.
And remember that swans mate for life!
Our English friends have lamented that we don't have hills for sledding,
but who needs hills when you have dijks!
Don't you love the winter willows!
Not much snow but enough to create some nice scenes.
We drove a bit further out into the polder to find sheep.
(No wonder we like wool for winter, right?!)
It was a splendid day, full of many snow "fixes."
On Wednesday we had erwtensoep, served up in the courtyard for 50 of our residents.
From where I stood, I looked back through our birch tree to our apartment side.
(Our apartment is one floor down to the left of the tree trunk.)
On Friday morning, after 5 days of temps around 20°F, we drove to scout out skating spots
for Astrid, first in Giessenburg (top row) and then in Brandwijk (bottom row).
That afternoon she went back to Brandwijk to get her skating fix.
But one time wasn't enough, so she went back on Sunday to another spot on the Giessen river.
THAT was her real fix for skating this winter, as her video shows.
Then just like that, after Sunday, Valentine's Day, the temps immediately went back up to the 40°s F.
The winter violas outside our front door sprung back to life!
So, from Sunday to Sunday, it was like a February winterland miracle
inserted into the calendar for all who needed their fix.
