While our Amsterdam weather since December hasn’t been nearly as dramatic & dangerous as California’s, it’s still featured more rainy days than one really needs. So far as I can recall, the sun has managed to peek through the clouds on four days or so since about the week before Christmas, and on only one of those did it stick around very long.
This means getting out to parks is quite simply hard and minimally appealing. Seeing anything visually appealing once there, let alone bothering to take the phone out and photograph it? Even harder. Nonetheless, there was sufficient break in the rain — even a fleeting moment of sun — to lure me into the park on my way home from the gym this morning. By the time my camera was out, the sun had vanished. In the seconds between when I took the photo above and the photo below, the sleet had begun. Ah, well, gardens are still gardens, even in the sleet and wind. 🙂
Conditions haven’t been conducive to after-dark walks for more Light Festival or other season evening lights. But I still had this lovely autumn shot of an illuminated clock tower nearby — the time was correct, and no the sky isn’t light at 7:15 these days, neither morning nor evening.
If you’re wondering, yes I’ve shown you this canal several times before, but never when it was frozen so birds can walk on it. 🙂 This was the day returned from my vacation trip in Madeira & Porto. Eek! As upcoming posts will show, it’s since gone gray, rainy, and well above freezing but still fairly cold.
I actually live down on the corner at the end of this block, and have confirmed my suspicion that at least one tour guide book to Amsterdam lists this street as a lovely little “hidden corner” because of the tunnel effect created by the trees and how the sunlight filters through the leaves, and sometimes – depending on weather and time of year – shines directly along the street. It’s really quite remarkably lovely at the right moment, though no photo can do justice to those moments. Took the photo on my way back from one of those pop-to-the-supermarket moments since the light was shining nicely and decided have to post it now, before the very last of those leaves you see has fallen…
(so much world, so little time....) 