Glad to be able to share impressions from my first walk in the snow, the first real snow this winter and this year.
For a better understanding of the context, I bring some information that I believe necessary. The place and time when I did this walk.
Wednesday, 24 January 2024, in Bucharest, Romania. For those who have not yet had the curiosity to learn more about Romania, I will now say that this country is in the eastern part of Europe and has a temperate continental climate.
Romania has a transitional temperate continental climate, specific to central Europe, with four distinct seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Local climatic differences are due more to altitude and latitude, and much less to oceanic influences from the west, Mediterranean influences from the southwest, and continental influences from the east. Source
That's what I learned at school about my country's climate and I thought it was something definitive, that is, a climate with four distinct seasons, each made up, with slight differences, of three months.
In the last decade, something has happened and something has changed. At first less visible, but then more and more obvious. A climate change!
Now there is a whole discussion here and around the world. Some attribute this change to global warming and others consider it a natural change, in fact, an evolution of the climate on Earth.
I believe, because I am not a follower of radicalism and absolutism, that it may be a combination of the two aforementioned causes. That is, natural climate change is happening but it appears to have been accelerated by human activities.
I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I believed in them as a teenager and young adult, these theories are exciting and mysterious and appeal to our brains but unfortunately, most of them are fabricated for other purposes, often political.
I can now declare with all sincerity that I have noticed in the last 7-8 years an obvious change in climate in Romania, especially in the southern part of the country, where I live.
The four seasons seem to turn into two longer seasons. Summer is longer and hotter and bites hard in both spring and autumn. What remains is a mix of spring and autumn with a few brief hints of winter.
I also had official confirmation that I am not mistaken. I read that the climate zones have been changed and the southern part of Romania is already classified as Mediterranean!... although the Mediterranean Sea is quite far away, I think more than 500 km to the nearest part of it.
On my walk through the park near the house, I noticed this pine tree, specific to the Mediterranean climate.
This winter is, I think, the first that resembles the winters of the past. That is, with lots of snow, ice and cold. That is, the winter so longed for by children.
There was so much snow that snowmen were made! The joy of children, parents, and grandparents who remembered the "snows of yesteryear"!
Winter is a beautiful, white season, but it is also difficult, because of the cold and the movements hampered by ice and snow.
Winter in big cities with lots of cars is not so nice anymore. The white snow quickly gets dirty because of the cars. Lucky for us there are parks!
In the parks, we have all the beauty of nature and winter. A beauty that now does not last long and that is why we try to be in the middle of it as long as possible. It is an ephemeral beauty that our photographs can save.
This whole story might not interest anyone but I hope you find something interesting in the photos. Because, after all, photos are what it's all about.
Make a point of looking around and up and see what you can find to get shots of that otherwise you may miss.
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