Annual event

 The willows along the bridleway have been cut back.

Ditch

 On the bike path from Almere City to Almere Haven, I was struck by the view of this ditch. Truly a moment to clear your mind and take in the beauty of the green in spring.

The last busstop

 This discarded bus stop now serves as a home for bee colonies of a friend of mine. 

Tucked away in a secluded spot in the middle of the forest, it really looks quite idyllic. It is the site of the beekeepers association south flevoland.

Thought for the new year.

However much we do our best, slowly but surely nature in the Netherlands is being completely swallowed up by buildings and industry.

How to spend time in case of a pandemic.

For us cycling and walking in nature. One for Our World Tuesday here.

Grebe

In these times, I have to focus on some other subjects that are a little less obvious to me. Hence this bird, maybe a few more will follow. At least it's close to home. One for Our World Tuesday here.

Swarming

Yesterday afternoon I heard a loud buzzing in the garden. A queen bee flew around with her whole people looking for a nesting place. She found it in an abandoned birdhouse in our neighbor's garden. It will happen to you.

Daily routine these times

Let's go into nature. One for Our World Tuesday here.

Their own nature park.

I found this eastern island park made by the inhabitants of nearby houses in a newly made area of our home town Almere Haven to stimulate birds and plant grow. I must admit that this place was earlier on uncultivated green.

In this crop of the first photo you can see some other nice parts of this place.

Whether you sit well on this couch with diagonally behind you a supposedly insect hotel I venture, but it is a nice green in total.

Nature on its best

This time of the year we are really blessed with beautiful skies. That plussed with the fresh green makes a splendid combination. One for Skywatch Friday here.

Lush spring

You wonder how such small branches can carry such a heavy load. Public tree (prunus?) in the street behind our house.

Oostvaardersplassen

Was this weekend on an excursion with a ranger in the Oostvaardersplassen. Normally this natural area is not accessible to the public, but sometimes there are excursions that are already fully booked months in advance. Thanks to the staff association of biebs former employer we got this opportunity. 

She also has a posting about this excursion today that you can find here .

The most excursions are always held against sunset when the animals are most active.

These heck cattle are the only ones who are not allowed on places were normally also humans have access to. 

Sometimes the bulls will attack

When the sun comes through you can imagine the african savanne.

It was a very successful excursion although a little colder then I thought.

The Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway in North Ireland , so called because by a story tale it was a road made by a giant to connect to his house as a route, is in reality a lava stream quick cooled of by water and split in its characteristic angular shapes.

A certain resemblance to the monkey rock from the zoo is undeniable.

It still is one of the great miracles of nature with or without people. (Yesterday Biebkriebels also placed some photo's about this phenomena.)

Lazy sunday

Walking on the wester sea dike behind the little village of Muiden I encounter this family resting and looking at their bikes on the other side of the road.

If they had turned around they would have seen this. But perhaps they have seen it to often already.

Whats walking there.

Walking on the edge of the Oostvaarders plassen last weekend I saw a fox hunting on geese and for the first time I was able to catch it with my 100-300 mm lumix on a m4/3 camera. Something that I never accomplished with my canon 1ds because then you really have to use a tripod and traveling by foot becomes very tiring by carrying such a load of stuff. Now you see it and shoot it.

These gray geese are still unaware of the predator around. If you want to see more nice animal photo's go also to camera-critters .

Nice green colors

Nature or a green Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo first seen in 1968. The choice is yours.