A Winter's Tale, Part 1

This past weekend took me to a favourite local place,

Hestercombe Gardens.

An anual membership was enabling me to

enjoy taking photos from each changing season,

& today was no exception.

Although reminders of the Autumn,

with cold weather & the occasional snow shower,

both seasons seem to mingle together!

For the South West of England,

this cold weather with the hint of snow was certainly early.

But, other parts of the UK is suffering,

 even more significantly with the snow!

The gardens is situated on the edge of the Quantock Hills,

& because the main town is in a valley,

the small amount of snowfall we had,

still lingered here,

 but it's bitterly cold,

with no signs of improvement at the moment.

But, with the elements of the weather,

the gardens certainly take on a new demension.

A complete contrast to the previous seasons,

nevertheless,

the scenes were still stunning.

The cold weather was leaving everything literally frozen,

even many of the plants had lost there vitality.

Such as this fern above....

And yet, the waterfuall was a surprise.

The noise it produced,

 left no one in any doubt this was in full flow.

Only in recent previous weeks,

before the rain had set in,

this had been just a trickle.

Now, everyone was walking briskly,

 & wrapped up warmly. . . .

Part of the lake was slightly frozen, but with the sun now lower,

caused a beautiful landscape before meeting up with the formal garden.

Pedal Power

Back to my travels to the Netherlands,

during our stay in Amsterdam,

it was often a battle

 to cross the road with not only motor vehicles,

 but competing with trams & bicycles.

Whilst sat comfortable outside one of the main cafes,

spoilt for choice in Rembrandt Square,

 it was just a relaxing time to take in the sights.

The taxi bicycles were really something different. 

 Definitely pedal power needed!

In almost any space at a railing,

 on one of the many bridges or outside residents dwellings,

bikes were parked up everywhere.

Eventhough cycling is free,

 the tram is really good value way

of getting around the city for sightseeing.

But, to reinforce the popularity of cycling,

even a barge was spied catering for parked up bikes!

The Netherlands boast a huge extensive network of cycle lanes,

 which really does make you feel more confident when cycling around.

But their landscape is very flat,

 which is of benefit if you decide  to use pedal power.

I use to love cycling when I was younger,

 but with even more traffic on the road in the UK,

I am reluctant to do so now.

Although English councils here,

 have made an effort to instigate some cycle lanes,

these are not consistent & 

it is still not as safe as I would like,

a great shame.