Blue Iris

But what is it?

Sometimes you only see the details when you get home and sit behind your computer. In the forest of Ruissalo there was a tiny forest pool and it had completely frozen over. The rapid drop of tempurature had created intricate lines as can be seen underneath.

 

 

These lines already intrigued me as for all the years i have walked around these forests i have never seen ice formed like this. As i was was laying in the snow in an attempt to see all the detail and take a close up macro shot the above photo was the result. Small figures emerged from the ice like winter fairies frozen in time in an imaginairy world. The soft blues were added i must admit but that was all. I have a passion for blue and remember an art teacher once asking why i choose the color blue in a particulair painting.

When i remarked that blue was my favorite color that answer was not satisfactory at all. I remember protesting that the things i love most in nature are blue; the water reflecting the warm summer skies, the clear winterskies. Blue is both calming and serene and never boring. So i could think of no better color than blue. I regret not photographing the whole pond in the same detail. Imagine the stories but they have to wait for another winter to be told.

Waterworld

In the Netherlands at the coast is the Amsterdam waterleiding duingebied, which translates like Amsterdam watercompany dune area. It is a protected area were you almost stumble on deer, rabbits, all sort of birds and ofcourse people (afterall it is the Netherlands).As it was my first visit i was really amazed by the relax almost lazy deer that were not bothered by people at all. It probabely helped i didn't see any dogs running about.The area is covered in typical dune bushes like Buckthorn, small trees and ofcourse European beachgrass to keep the sand from being blown away. It was a bright sunny winters day and people were out in big hords. Despite the amount of people it was still possible to find a quiet path and see plenty of wildlife. Everywhere there were pools, small lakes and canals filled with all sorts of waterbirds like wild swans. It was the first time i saw them in the Netherlands.We saw foxes, at least a lot of deer, wild swans, tufted ducks, plenty of rabbits and more waterbirds. Pretty amazing. I know completely get the reports in the newspaper that the deer were roaming into people's gardens in Zandvoort when they got hungry. Anyway i am a waterfan and love blue so combining the two in one shot was inevitable ; )