As Timeless as Infinity…
Somehow I had managed to get lost in the woods again…the map I had drawn the evening before seemed to lack detail and somewhere inbetween heath and forest I realised how quiet it was…no buzzing, no chirping…nothing at all…just silence…had I entered the dimension of imagination, an area which we call the Twilight Zone? 😕
Woodland Retreat
After the persistent attacks from tenacious horse flies, I eventually have to take refuge in the welcome shade of the nearby forest…
This is also a favourite spot where I always stop for a while to observe the abundant birdlife…mostly treecreepers, woodpeckers, coal tits and goldcrests…it always seems to be a hive of activity here, even on those hot days of summer when everywhere else is quiet… 🙂
An Evening in the Lanes
When the weather is so hot as it has been the last weeks I tend to spend more time in the narrow lanes between the pastures…the lanes are all lined with trees and vegetation and are a good place to search for various insects and birds, also providing a pleasant alternative and shelter from the oppressive heat of the marsh and open pasture. Lately I have found a couple of quite narrow lanes such as the one shown in the image below which I assume is meant to be a footpath….the route is lined with tree roots making the way quite bumpy and potentially very wet if I lose my concentration for a split second. 😉
Small fields seperated by lines of trees make a perfect habitat for the buzzard…I seem to hear them quite a lot at the moment…this young buzzard was soaring about making himself heard…
If you look carefully in the top left-hand corner of this last image you can see one of the many dragonflies that were hunting in the lanes.
Le Tour…
The wind was in my back most of the way, the scenic route I had in mind was leading to one of the few areas of raised bog in the country on the Friesland/Drenthe border…
The route I had chosen was roughly twenty-five miles to my destination through pasture and forest. The most notable part of the journeys’ avian soundtrack were yellowhammers, a bird which I don’t get to hear so often…
On my arrival I was stunned by the scale of this nature reserve which was too big to explore completely…I only managed to see the Frisian part of the reserve, the Drenthe area is twice the size.
My interest in this nature reserve were initially spurred on by rumours of cranes…unfortunately on this day they were nowhere to be seen…I did however managed to sight many spoonbills and the odd egret. Further investigation will definitely be necessary in the future…
The return journey was somewhat more tiresome, this time I had to cycle against the wind and even lost the way adding more miles to my already exhausted legs…so about halfway I needed to boost my rapidly dwindling energy levels with an ice cream and a sugary drink. All in all by the end of the day I had almost cycled sixty-five miles…probably more with all the exploring on the marsh… 😎
An Abrupt Change of Plan
“We’ve gone on holiday by mistake. We’re in this cottage
here. Are you the farmer?” Excerpt from ‘Withnail and I’ from Bruce Robinson
Usually before I venture out, I will have thoroughly studied what could possibly happen weatherwise to avoid unnecessary and unpleasant situations…
Not wanting to cycle in the dark, due to the faulty rear light on my bicycle and a rather narrow road without a cyclepath, I left as soon as it was light…my intention was to cycle a route of about 30-35km to somewhere I’d never been before, I did however notice that the sky was becoming very interesting…
About halfway I decided to stop and rest for a bit in the forest next to the pingo-pocked heathland…it seemed perfect but the sky was reminding me of my own apparent vulnerability. 😕
All of a sudden there was a gale humming through the forest under the darkest of clouds…being miles from my pc I couldn’t check the radar to see if this was really going to happen, the clouds must have unexpectedly changed course…
The obvious precipitation followed, the only shelter for miles around was the forest itself…
So I settled for a cosy spot under an oak tree and sat it out for an hour or two, waiting for the worst of the storm to pass…I was kept company by a tree pipit and some frogs and although the current turn of events had washed out my original plans I was just content to experience being in this forest at dawn in a storm…a new experience for me…I stayed dry too! 🙂
Everchanging Skies
So it has not been a perfect summer here in the Netherlands this year by any stretch of the imagination…plenty of rain giving cause for the general population to complain and moan about not being able to bask in the sun like lizards…
Quite honestly from my perspective clear blue skies can get very boring….give me a selection of clouds dramatically changing the light from one minute to the next any day…
These photos were taken on the same August evening again at the lake surrounded by marshland called De Leijen in Friesland.
a heartical view 