Winter in the Dunes

 Haarlem, nature  No Responses »
Mar 052013
 

Yes, it is still winter here.  I don’t even see buds on the trees in the dunes yet and since there aren’t any bulbs occurring naturally here, there are no little flowers popping up either.  There are, however, lots of interesting tree shapes.

These photos were taken Sunday while DB was running and I was walking in Zuid-Kennermerland National Park, just a short 10 minute drive from our house.  If you continue west through the dunes you end up at the beach, either Bloemendaal or Parnassia.

I saw several trees with bark rubbed or cut off.  How did this happen?  I think either humans or the Highlands Cattle that roam around here did this.  I can’t imagine why a human would have wanted to do this but I can imagine that a bovine with an itchy head and horns would do this.  Or maybe the deer with new antlers.

After about 40 minutes of wandering around, DB came running up.  These photos make it look like we had the whole dunes to ourselves. Not quite.  There were actually a lot of runners on Sunday.  It’s a popular place to walk and run, even on a grey, cold winter day.

Winter Wonderland

 nature, Weather  2 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This morning DB wanted to go running on soft ground, and given that the ground everywhere was covered in ice and sleety snow, he asked if I would drive him to the beach so he could run there.  My first thought was that I would sit in the warm cafe at Parnassia and drink hot chocolate and knit while he ran (I’m still injured and not running).  After driving through the dunes to Parnassia and seeing how beautiful everything looked covered in a fine dusting of white, I decided instead to go for a walk and take photos.  Of course I hadn’t thought to bring my big camera, but my iPhone takes pretty darned good photos if you ask me.

I didn’t walk very far – about 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back, plus some photography time.  DB and I got back to Parnassia at about the same time.  We got in the car and drove back home.  Once again I’m so happy and grateful that I live only 10 minutes by car from the beach.  How lucky am I?

Here are some more photos from the morning.  The sun is still shining bright and it’s cold and crisp outside.  These are winter days that I love.

On the Road Again

 nature, sports  1 Response »
Oct 282012
 

This morning the weather was cold, clear and crisp.  Perfect for running!  We headed to the dunes of Kennemer National Park.  This photo is the start of our tried and true running route.

This was DB’s first run since the Amsterdam half marathon last week.  He set out to run for an hour.  Me? I set out to start all over again.  I did 2 minutes jogging / 1 minute walking.  I intended to do that for 30 minutes.  I ended up doing 40 minutes.  My condition is better than I expected it would be.  My legs felt fine.  BUT, I have a problem still with a big hip muscle I pulled back in June.  I went as far and did as much as I could before that muscle really started to hurt.  Damn.  Always something getting in my way.  My body is never in the shape I want it to be in.  I guess that’s the same for anyone who strives to do more than they can!

I got part way down the path when I came to a large meadow.  Suddenly a big buck with a lovely rack of antlers came bounding out of the trees and ran across the meadow.  Wow!  He was lovely!  And fast.  Far too fast for me to pull my phone out of my pocket and get a photo.  I went on about another half minute, and standing on the side of the trail, like the lost fawn that he was, was junior…

I managed to get this photo as he tentatively crossed the path, heading for dad (I presumed).  He was covered in fawn spots and was sprouting little baby nubs of antlers.  I continued on my way.

At the half way point I took this photo.  The Dutch skies were nice.

On my return I passed the same point I had seen the fawn and he was still there, munching away on some tender green grasses.  Hurry before the grass is all gone and all that’s left is frozen shrub!  He was quite close to the trail but didn’t seem to be too bothered about me.  I took several photos of him.  This is the best one.

This is only the second time I’ve seen deer in the dunes.  I regularly see the wild horses, the Highland cows, the sheep.  One time I saw a fox.  The Netherlands is woefully short of wild spaces and wildlife.  I always feel lucky and privileged to see these scarce animals.

End of Summer

 nature, photography  4 Responses »
Sep 162012
 

You’d never know that last weekend we had summer-like weather and had to smear on sunscreen all weekend.  Gone.  All gone.  This morning I went to the beach to walk and take photos.  I took my big camera for a change.

I parked at Bloemendaal, where I took the above photo.  You can see that they are starting to tear down the summer restaurants.  Here too, a little further up the beach:

You can see how grey the morning was.  It was windy, but it wasn’t cold.  I walked up the beach to Parnassia.  It was a lot more lively than Bloemendaal, for one reason only….. DOGS!

There were little bitty dogs

Funny dogs:

and really really BIG dogs:

Herds of dogs, such as

6 Golden Labs owned by one family

3 Bernese Mountain dogs owned by one man and his son

2 very large poodle looking dogs owned by one couple

There was the very proud dog owner.  This man was smiling ear to ear with his little dog.  He was busy making movies of the dog fetching a stick.  Ahhhhh.

Eventually I ran out of dog beach and doubled back to head up into the dunes from Parnassia.  I figured, I wasn’t running, I needed the exercise, I already had my camera with me, so go into the dunes and walk to the little lake and see what you find.

The first thing I found was a herd of horses.  These wild horses roam around the dunes, north to south.  I don’t know if they are ever moved around by people or if they belong to anyone besides the National Park (this being Kennemer National Park).  I hadn’t seen them for nearly the whole summer.

And then there were the trees and flowers and grasses of the dunes:

As you can see in the last 2 photos, the sun finally did come out by the end of my walk.  And by the end of my walk I was TIRED!  I had not intended to walk for nearly 2 hours, but once you are that far from your car you have no choice but to walk back.  I often have this problem.  I want to walk farther and farther and I deny to myself that getting back will be long and tiring.  I always make it back though.

When I left the house I was feeling kind of bad because I wasn’t running or biking.  I felt like a lazy slug, taking the car and a camera.  But by the time I had walked all that way through sand and hills, I realized how good it was for me and how well it cleared my head.  And I have the photos as a bonus!

Things to Learn

 Haarlem, nature  1 Response »
May 212012
 

Yesterday was Sunday and Sundays are always running days at our house.  This is our “long run” day, even if a “long run” consists of only several kilometers.  Sundays are always the longest runs of the week.

Lately I’ve been suffering, shall we say, age related issues.  I have headaches every day.  Hot flashes.  I can’t sleep.  I’m tired and fed up.  I’m always on the verge of a migraine.  I felt like this yesterday and decided that I just wasn’t up to running, no matter how far.  We went to the dunes anyway, DB ran, and I walked and took some photos.  At least I got outside and moved a bit.

I hope you aren’t tired of my dunes and polder photos yet, because here come some more.  I’m still learning about my new camera and trying out things.  One thing I learned is that those birds who sing so sweetly are almost impossible to take photos of.  They are fast and very small.  I started off taking photos of things that were barely moving.

My best tree photo:

My best flower photo:

My best animal photo:

My best bird photo.  Do you know what kind of bird this is?  I don’t.  I was following the sound of a woodpecker, but this doesn’t look like a woodpecker.  Please let me know if you know!

Just when we were about to leave the walking path suddenly there was a rush of sound, hooves pounding the ground and four deer ran across the path behind us.  I tried to get a good photo but they were very fast.  This is the best I could do.  There were two adults and two young ones still with spots on their backs.

They looked just like White Tail Deer that we have in the U.S.  They weren’t as big as Mule Deer and their ears weren’t that big either. Their while tails flicked up when they ran.

And that’s my story of my not-run from yesterday.  I have made a doctor appointment for this week to get my hormone situation sorted out.  I’m hoping for drugs and instant relief.

Green & Blue

 nature, sports  No Responses »
May 132012
 

Look at these colors!  This morning in the dunes we had glorious color.  The sky was so blue and the trees and grasses were that just sprouted Spring green.  Lovely.

It wasn’t warm though.  The air was crisp and cool, which is just fine for running.  I only managed 6km running and about 1.25km walking.  I’m having a hard time building back up to a reasonable distance again after the 12k at Zandvoort in April.  I don’t know why.  It’s just tough going.  What’s a ‘reasonable distance’? For me, 10k.  Once I can run 10k without feeling like it’s a death march at the end, then I feel like I’m well on my way to being a runner again.

And being able to run through the dunes to the beach, and back.  That makes me feel like a real runner too.

I know I’ll get there – slow but sure.  It’s just that none of it is easy.  Yet.

Oh! By the way! Tonight is the first episode of a new “Boer Zoekt Vrouw“!!  Yea! I love this show.  Tonight we will meet the new crop of farmers (haha, get the pun?) and then we’ll have to wait until the Fall to find out who got enough letters to participate in the show and who the women are and who falls for who and who is disappointed and who ends up getting married and living happily ever after.  Hope springs eternal; even more so for farmers?

Bird Song

 nature  1 Response »
May 072012
 

This is my favorite part of our running route in the dunes.  Yesterday we went for a run even though it was cold and grey.  The birds, however, seemed to be loving the weather.  Here’s a 1 minute video I took with my iPhone just so you could hear the birds.

Escape!

 Haarlem, sports, Weather  1 Response »
Jan 292012
 

This morning we were up early to go for a run in the Kennemerland dunes.  We left especially early so that we would be home early to  watch the Australian Open Final.  Here it is 4 hours later and they are still playing tennis.  We could have slept in!

It was COLD this morning.  When we started out it was -1C/30F and sunny.  Despite the weather there were a lot of runners out.  I wore double layers on my legs, triple layers on top, a hat and running gloves.

At the half way point I came up on a small group of sheep with long shaggy wool, looking quite content in the weather.  Most of them were on the left side of the trail, behind a small electric fence (which wasn’t on), but a few were outside the fence, on the other side of the trail.  I ran a little farther and then turned around to get some photos of them.  Right when I turned around I saw how they got out of the fence!

First the black one….

Then the white one followed him….

Who would have thought it was so easy for them to jump the fence!  Here they are, on the “free” side.

My caption: “Don’t turn me in! I’ll trade you wool for your silence!”

At the end of the run, back at the parking lot at the football fields, there’s a small cemetery with flowers planted here and there.  Look what’s blooming already.

It’s been such a mild winter that the Spring flowers are already coming out.  This can’t be good news for farmers.  The timing is all wrong.  I am looking forward to April though since April is the new June here in NL.