And it is a day on which I really have a huge feeling of an approaching winter depression.
It is gray, it is gloomy, it is cold with temperatures just above freezing and I long for warmth and color! All trees look bare and dead. There has been continuous fog over the meadows around the house for 3 days and a cold feeling dominates my mood today.
How different is it if these brightly colored tulips would brighten up the garden again. When I go walking with the dogs now, it is no fun to stop and look at the flowers together, because now these days, we don't have this nice flowers. And even if we did have nice flowers, I wouldn't stop to take a close look. Yes of course I would notice them, and they would cheer me up a little, but when it's this gray and gloomy for days, I simple can't help it, I just don't feel it. The dogs don't even enjoy playing outside now. It is dull and gray for them too ... and I will be the last to deny that they too may be sensitive to my mood today.
I long to be greeted by the sun when I walk outside. To feel the warmth that comes with it and my eyes hope to see a sparkle of color every day from the flowers that herald the end of winter.
Unfortunately it mainly looks blurry due to the continuous low hanging fog in the last days. And for the time being that doesn't change much when I look at the weather forecasts for the coming period. The humid and chilly weather will last for a few days ... and after that the temperature seems to rise a little, but with that the rain comes back, which I was now just as happy that it ended up with was kept.
The summers in the Netherlands have appeared to be far too dry in recent years ... although I have to admit that I can enjoy these dry periods. But the winters of recent years are just too wet and, according to the 'climate experts', far too hot. That is also something new. Nowadays everyone is suddenly 'climate expert'. And another special phenomenon that I have discovered in recent years. People who used to love the summer and hated the winter ... now suddenly want a harsh winter with lots of snow and heavy frost periods.
As soon as the sun shows itself in the spring and a temperature of 20 degrees is reached, the former summer lovers start puffing and complaining that it is much too hot. And not to forget, the many dog lovers in our country who give warnings at the same temperatures about how difficult the 'extremely hot weather' is for the dogs and cats. Of course I know as a dog owner that a dog cannot sweat like we do, but I also know that my dogs love it when the sun shines nicely on their heads. And I also know that they are wonderfully active during the walks in the mornings and evenings, and during the day they lie comfortably in the garden, in their own needs in the sun or in the shade.
They sniff around the cheerfully colored and nicely smelling flowers and we all enjoy the fact that that sun is finally present again after a long cold winter.
Another 58 days ... and then I hope that the dogs and I can again enjoy the rising temperatures, the cheerful colors and the wonderful scents that nature has to offer us.
