is this my backyard..... yes it is!

we are still in wintery atmospheres in holland. last weekend the ice was finally thick enough to skate. and so we could enjoy this event from our back yard.

with a lot of 'snowplows' we made the ice free of snow (which kept falling and falling all day long) and we had a lovely time. the whole neighbourhood met on the ice. some made hot chocolate, others came with gluhwein, warm tea or soup.


the landing stage and the chairs on the ice made a nice meeting point. the kids had fun with games (speed run, ice hockey) and chasing each other.

the cat, the birds and the winter... to be continued

what we expected all the time has happened! saar has been hunting at night over the ice (her hunting grounds have grown bigger and more attractive with all this ice). and an innocent crake deep asleep was her victim. we don't know how she managed but she took the crake through her cat door into the living.
and that is how we found her.


she still does look as in a deep innocent sleep.... but we know better! stupid cat!

winter birds

in my former blogpost I wrote about the oliebol I gave to the hungry birds in the garden. this fat food is not so healthy for birds as well. so I will stick to the more prefered bird food in winter: peanuts.


lots of little birds are visiting the garden on their search for a nice snack. we see robins, all sorts of titmouse and wren. off course their are other species as well but I'm not so good in all these bird names.


they are very brave (and I asume very hungry) because they keep visiting the garden although cat Saar is on a hunt.....


I will not show a picture of the little bird that we found under our dinner table (or what was left of it).

more snow, and more and more and more....

did we think we had lots of snow on thursdaymorning? that was peanuts compared to the snowfall on sunday. when we woke up today it was snowing just a bit but during the morning it turned into a real snow-show.

the thick snowflakes and a good crispy snowpack were unresitable and we had to go out. dressed up in our wintersports outfit we went for a long winterwalk to friends for a warm coffee. we took the route through parks and the 'edge' of the town and had the feeling we were out there on our own, throwing snowballs and having fun.


cat saar looked very surprised and didnot understand why the white fluffy stuff was so cold. but she also liked to play. hesitating for the nice spot near the heater or being outside for a cold adventure.


walking back from our coffee break (which turned into a lunchbreak and finished it off with a glass of wine as well) we bumped into our neigbourhood x'mas drink festive. which also looked perfect in the snow and we had another 'gluhwein' before we finally returned home.....


with the taste of a yummie day and a snowflake.... or two!

X'mas excitement

bought the x'mas tree yesterday and decorated it together with son in the afternoon, while we loudly sang with the X'mas toppers. then we went to the school x'mas play in the evening. woke up this morning and immediatly I recognized the silence of a good snow deck (yes... snow makes the world silent!). I opened the curtains and YES YES YES... how much more x'mas can it get?


on my slippers trying to catch some of the fairy-tale atmosphere (which is a mission impossible for me at 7.30 in the morning when it is freezing cold.


son was doing better, he was dressed in 2 minutes and made 2 snowmen before he went to school's x'mas breakfast. it is a pity there is no picture of those two snowguys but I loved the action at 7.30......