Frosty Carnisse Grienden

I apologize in advance if your modem melts while trying to load this post.  It’s picture heavy, I can’t control myself…

This appears to be the week where we revisit places we’d been at around the same place last year.

Yesterday when we saw the sunshine yet again, Xander and I grabbed the dogs and headed off to Carnisse Grienden for a walk.  If you look at that link, the last time we were there was February 22nd of last year, and the conditions were pretty much the same yesterday… beautiful, cold and frosty.

This was my Project 365 photo for the day.  I loved the texture of the wood and how the frost sparkled in the sunlight.

No matter how green things appeared to be or how sunny it was, there were always reminders around to make sure we knew it was still winter.

There was ice everywhere.  I didn’t mind though as it made for a few more nice photo opportunities.  It was hilarious watching the dogs waking over puddles though.  The few times their paws went through they scurried off like their tails were on fire!

It was so incredibly serene there.  I don’t know if it was because of the cold weather or because we went so early, but we only came across one other person walking out there and they were leaving just as we went in. It seemed as though we had the entire place to ourselves.

This did me a world of good as I’ve been stressing out a bit lately and being out in the fresh air in such a lovely place gave me the time and space I needed to just breathe and relax.

The dogs loved it too!  Bailey was on high alert at all times, while Pixel made it her life’s mission to sniff every blade of grass, fallen leaf and tree stump.

I’m not sure if that area is somehow affected by tides (I think it is) or if it was lack of rainfall recently, but where there used to be water, was now mostly just mud.  It wasn’t entirely a bad thing though as it made for a bit of a different view from our last visit, when it was quite wet.

The last time I walked by this area it was completely full of water.  I was sort of startled when I saw that thing at the bottom there on the right, it looked like a dead animal. It was just wood though.

This left me a little confused…

As did this…

Not one, but two ladders to nowhere.

I saw them when I was there before too, although half of them were underwater.  I suppose at some point there may have been some kind of dock there, although I can’t imagine for what.  It’s possible people used to use this area for small boats as there are waterways that lead to the Maas (river) but it obviously wasn’t kept up.  You aren’t getting anywhere with those ladders nowadays.

There is a lot of nature in Carnisse Grienden, but the main focus are the willow trees…

They line most of the walkways through the park but there are also fields and fields of them.  Apparently they are trimmed on a cycle of three years, allowing them to grow and then cutting the branches.  They are used for loads of different things like making baskets and reinforcing the walls of canals.

Our peace and quiet was temporarily disturbed as we came along a field where the workers were busy with their chainsaws.  It didn’t really jive with the relaxed mood we’d managed to make for ourselves up to that point, but they had a job to do.

I tried not to let my anger about chainsawing trees get in the way of my enjoyment.  Plus, I don’t really care about these trees.  Even if I did want to tell them off for it, I don’t think they would have understood me.  I’m pretty sure they were Polish.

Like all good things, it eventually had to come to an end. We had reached the end of our path and civilization could be seen off in the distance.  I sort of wanted to turn around and go hide back in amongst the willow trees where everything was simple and beautiful, but I had to get on with my day.

Not before trying to get some more photos of the dogs though…

Have you ever tried to get photos of dogs who are super excited in unexplored territory?  Not an easy task, let me tell you!

After about ten attempts to get a photo of Bailey and getting nothing but a leg lifting, grass kicking blur, I finally managed to get him in a still moment… and that was only because he thought he heard a sheep.

I gave up on Pixel.  She is so fast and the only time she stopped for a moment was to scratch an itch.  Is it too much to ask for a cute pose, after all we do for her?

Oh, and see in the background?  Leg lifting… after an hour walking through the woods there wasn’t a drop left.

I guess he was just threatening…

You can see all of the photos I’ve taken at Carnisse Grienden in my Flickr Set.  For more information on the area, you can visit their website.  It’s in Dutch, but Google Translate is your friend.