The gold of autumn...

Sometimes we are lucky. 

This year we had a lot of perfect autumn days. The temperature was almost like summer, the sun was shining and the leaves on the trees were going bright yellow and orange. Because we had some friends staying, we had to go sightseeing. But what a sight it was this year!! 

Most of the canals in Amsterdam were decorated with golden trees.

The trees at the Amstelveld are superb.

 In The Hague, in the small square in front of the Royal Palace, the statue of our former queen Wilhelmina admires the changing of the seasons in front of the Gothic hall of the Palace on the Kneuterdijk.

 At the rear of the hall the formal garden is shining with light.

 The driveway of the beautiful Lange Voorhout (at the end the Palace Lange Voorhout) is carpeted with leaves. Fit for a King!

The Plein (The Hague) is surrounded by yellow limetrees. During lunchtime the cafes and restaurants here fill up quickly with civil servants of the nearby ministries. Every hour of sunshine is welcome. Let's enjoy before the autumn storms arrive.

In the polders of Kinderdijk the reeds are already waving in the wind. 

Autumn on the verge of winter.....

The water of a canal brightly reflects an old bridge in the sunshine.

Going from November to December there is a major change in the weather.  The red and gold of autumn fades away to the black and white of winter. 

Many nights it rains. Everything is wet. At the building site there are also interesting reflections. What will they be doing with these stairs...  They look like giant hurdles. 

Overnight, the bags and iron hooks turn into a still life.

But the mornings get foggy. Sometimes there is already a thin layer of ice on the water.

When the fog gets thicker the world gets smaller and more quiet. 

Along the river the light is bleak.

And then we have the first snow. Early this year. Less trains, so longer waiting in the cold.

But in the city everyone prepares for Christmas. Canals are lined with lights. People are busy shopping. There is a festive feeling in the air...

 And in a few weeks we will have real snow, and maybe even a white Christmas.

May I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

It smells like autumn……

Fresh, blue sky and almost no wind.  It smells like autumn: Herbs, rotting leaves and mushrooms. The weather is crisp (and crunchy too - like “Dennis the Menace” once said). 

After walking around a bit I decide to go to the Arboretum in the Delftse Hout. It is a like a small sheltered valley divided into differend habitats. (I just hear on a BBC gardening program that an Arboretum is the place to go in autumn!!)

Orange and yellow leaves float on the water. Most leaves are still on the trees. The reeds are dying off.

On my way to the Botanical Garden of the Technical University in Delft it is obvious that winter is coming. Dead leaves gather in quiet corners against a wall.

The fallen berries (very poisonous) of the Taxus Baccata are alarmingly RED. 

The first thing that catches my eye in the Botanical garden is a sign calling attention to the fact that Delft University is working on alternative ways to get Taxol from the needles of the Taxus tree. According to the text Taxol is the most expensive drug in the world in the fight against cancer.

The Botanic garden is hidden behind some old university buildings. It is hard to imagine that the entrance on a busy street corner gives way to an unexpected green oasis in the city of Delft.

 

 

Although the greenhouse is not as grand as the one in Leiden it is worth visiting. It contains tropical and subtropical plants. In some places you see additional educational information.

But the best part are the mini quails. I was warned that I had to be carefull not to release them from the greenhouse. At first I thought they were all gone. I didn’t notice them. But then there was this soft squeaky sound in the “bush”. Surprise; they are really mini. A few extremely well camouflaged chicks were walking almost under my feet. Keeping in mind that they are completely deaf…….