As usual, most of my steps were from walking, but I was more interested in cycling. One of the signs of spring I saw was very young lambs, either resting or jumping around rather than walking. But I didn't take pictures of lambs, I took pictures of dead or truncated trees. That's how I roll.
There was a pile of tree trunks at the edge of a park in Nieuwegein. It looks like they're still cleaning up the results of the storms in February.
For the first time ever, I could see Heemstede castle (unrelated to the town of Heemstede) from a distance. Unfortunately, this was also the result of missing trees.
I rode through the countryside to the west of the city. Here I noticed a row of knotted willows that were recently pollarded:
This is a very common tradition in the Netherlands. Willow shoots are harvested every few years, when they look like this:
These willows are very resilient and will stay alive when their trunk is hollow. You'd think this one would be dead, but the middle part is still budding:
From the resilience of nature to the fragility of the city. This is supposed to be the second center of Utrecht, on top of the A2 highway:
There are some nicer streets with shops, but it's weird that "Leidsche Rijn Centrum" isn't finished yet more than two decades after development of the Leidsche Rijn district started.
At least we're building now... And here's a nice idea: the former roof of a train station has been moved to a place for open-air events or markets.
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