Our currant tree in front of the house in full blossom.

And the crooked trees by the ever blowing winds here in the polder.

Trees

A sign of the municipality of Almere: "Here we work on healthy, safe and varied forests and parks"

Well they did their best.

A lot of wood for sale.

This was a pretty parc in a residential area.....

I have my doubts.  Linking to "Signs 2"

Trees

On our walk yesterday in our neighbourhood we noticed that the municipality of Almere had the crazy idea to cut down a lot of trees.

It makes me always so sad, it was a beautiful parc and they didn't stand in anyone's way. The birds loved them. We need the trees not the wood!

Willow path

These pollard willows stand along a cycling and walkway in  Almere Haven. Each year a team of volunteers pollinate the willows alternately as you can see. The next year it's the other's turn.

Some of them have grown into strange artistic shapes but are still alive.

Trees

The crooked trees in Almere Haven makes me always smile.  Looking at them I feel like a choreographer telling them "And now all to the right".

"And now all to the left". 

Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Trees

These birch trees were planted about 40 years ago as young trees in our homevillage Almere Haven.

It is visible that the stormy winds mostly come from the left and they all lean a little to the right now.

Trees

To cut down the trees in our home town Almere has no end it seems..

32 years old I counted.

That is all that is left.... Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Tree

A willow with a ladder with steps for the gnomes?

Trees

 A small Wertheim park in Amsterdam has five very old monumental trees, most of them are over 100 years old. There are some platan trees and ash trees.

They are still bald now but in summer they look glorious.

A view from the bridge at the park

Trees

Amsterdam has such beautiful huge old trees, I have no idea of their names but they make such a nice arcade here at the Minerva Avenue.

Along the Amstel Canal.

And a huge one at the Apollo Avenue.

Autumn colours

Driving on the highway as passenger I couldn't stop making pictures of the stunning colours of the trees.

We drove to the "Zandenplas" in Nunspeet with more fall colours around. The lake was dug in the 60s in need of sand for the construction of a highway. After the termination of the sand winning, the water and the adjacent area were arranged for recreational purposes.

Here we used to go on holidays 36 years ago with our little kids, playing in the sand and the water on hot summerdays.

There were workers felling some trees, it will be necessary but a bit sad to see them fall with the bright coloured leaves.

. Ah, sweet memories walking here again...

Flaming trees

Close to our supermarket I saw daily these three trees looking like fires, but I never had a camera with me. Last Sunday I finally made some photos.

They are so incredible red this year,  I can't remember they ever had this colour. I think it has to do with the warm summer we had and the Indian summer last september.

Linking to "Our World Tuesday" and "Ruby Tuesday Too"

Falling leaves

Maybe you remember my photo of last Sunday "here" of the shadbush in front of my home. One week on and most of the leaves have gone now.

Many lay on the barn. The street I swept three times this week. We had our first cold night and this morning it was 4 degrees C (39.2) F).

Autumn colours

The shadbush in front of our home has coloured red and is loosing its leaves rapidly.

Watch the spiderwebs in the foggy morning.

A green alley

I always like an alley with trees on both sides like this which makes a kind of green tunnel.

This is the Minerva alley in Amsterdam and one of the few "avenues" we have here.

It is planted with a double row wingnut trees.

With mysterious holes in it.

They provide a lot of shade in summer.

Lime tree

A seat in the shape of a leaf with the text : "Kings lime tree Willem-Alexander 2013".

The lime tree was planted in honor of the throne change of our new King Willem Alexander in 2013. This custom to plant a tree with the arrival of a new King of Queen dates from 1898 when princess Wilhelmina became Queen. This was repeated for princess Juliana in 1948 and princess Beatrix in 1980. So you can find those trees in many places in the Netherlands always with a sign for which head of State is was planted.

Linking to signs, signs

Trees

Trees without leaves make nice silhouettes in winter, or spring as we almost have.

These trees skirts the cemetery in Almere Haven.

The aftermath of the storm

During the storm yesterday the firebrigade arrived with a chain saw to cut down a tree which threatened to fall down like the other one in yesterdays post.

And here the top comes down. I was making photos with the company of our two local professional press phothographers, so it will maybe be seen in our local paper soon.

When the storm finally calmed down we went outside and saw a lot of damage in our neigbourhood, many trees had come down.

Normally we have storms in November but this was an early one and all the trees still had their leaves so they couldn't keep their balance against the strong winds.

The center of Amsterdam had also a lot ot trees coming down along the canals and unfortunately a woman died when a tree fell upon her.  Watch this blog  http://schlijper.nl/131028-00-storm-amsterdam.photo with a little movie of the damage in Amsterdam .