Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Zoetermeer In Spring



It had been a wonderful weekend recently, the temperature was 25 celcius on Saturday !! Why... it's not spring, it's summer !!! I went out that Saturday wearing a jumper, a shirt and a light wool jacket. In our haste, I did not check the temperature... I know it was sunny but I did not expect it to be so warm. Halfway through to the train station, we had to take off our jackets. By the time we came back from the swimming, it became even warmer. Ilham had taken off his spring jacket and his sweatshirt, leaving only a T-shirt and I was sweating inside, wishing I could take of my jumper as well !!! But by today, the temperature has gone back down to 13 celcius. Alhamdulillah... I'm worried you see. If it's too hot, my tulips will not last that long..... :D


So, before it gets too warm, I better post here this beautiful narcissus.....




Narcissus are everywhere now. This picture above was taken outside the swimming pool in Zoetermeer on the 19th March. I couldn't help it, I just had to ask Ilham to be my victim...



Mat bunga...


We took a walk from the pool towards Dorpstraat, the medieval village. I wanted to see whether there were any crocusus left....



Crocus with the old church at the background.


The crocusus were still there but they are not in their prime anymore. I was a bit dissappointed not to find any narcissus though....






Then, we walked to the Centrum West station using another route. Here, we found more old Dutch houses.



We also found this big bird....



Tried to get a closer and better picture, but off it flew away.........



See it's reflection in the canal.



This kind of bird is very common here in the Netherlands. Once, when we were in Amsterdam, while walking to school, I saw this bird. It was standing so still I thought it was a statue... but I was sure I had not seen any statue before at that place. The wonderful thing is they are wild birds.....


7 comments:

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Mother of Ilham,
Think I'll stow away in Cheqna's luggage. Could you check about quarantine etc?
Oh, that funny looking tree in your previous post looks like my Grandma's nectarine tree. purrr....meow!

i amsterdam said...

Dear Angelina,

Quarantine?? We managed to slip in belacan, ikan bilis and ikan terubuk masin, I'm sure a cat or two will go unnoticed... :D

Nectarine !!! Ohhh I sure hope it is. Last autumn i did not see any fruits on that tree though... or maybe they fruit earlier when i was in M'sia.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

What a pretty sight, they grow like wildflower there. I wish we have public garden like that here. I spied some crocus at my neighbours on the way to school today.

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Mother of Ilham,
I can't enlarge the pix in your previous pose but you can compare with pix of nectarine flowers in our entry in Sept last year - Spring is in the Air. purrr....meow!

i amsterdam said...

Malay-kadazan Girl,

The night before that day, I was in Amsterdam and there were a lot of crocusus along the divider in between the road... and they were so fresh (I'm sure the Dutch planted them becoz they were in a neat pile!!). That's why I was hoping to see them in Zoetermeer the next day :D

i amsterdam said...

Dear Angelina,

TQ, I'll check your nectarine flower.

Btw, TQ for the recipe :D

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

If you are not having any frost at night in your area anymore, I think it is suitable time to sow peas.I think Ilham will enjoy too because the seeds are big easy for children to handle. Other easy vegetable to grow now will be lettuce, Pak Choi and radish. Tomato are easy too but you might have to sow the seeds indoor near a window to absorb heat.