Winter hasn't finished yet... (follow-up)

Beneath the top of the Feldberg, the highest mountain in the Black Forest
and also of Germany outside the Alps; with an elevation of 1,493 metres.

 

Recent Tuesday.

German & British teenagers wanna have fun.

In blue bin bags.

In the snow.

I hope this was my last chapter and encounter with German winter in the first half of year 2013... ;-)

Winter hasn't finished yet...

Most of us in Central and Northern Europe - except for the passionate skiers and vendors of road salt - are watching for the first harbingers of spring outside in nature in these days.

But...

...what we've got during night was this again!

It was even snowing in the morning hours,

so I took some photos from my balkony before I set to work.

But to add some colour to the "standard morning grey"...

...I took our vase with the daffodils and balanced it on the handrail of our balcony.

A colourful day to everybody!

My everyday drive through winter wonderland

Since one week we have got plenty of snow in our region.

So every morning and every evening I have to drive through the darkness on snow-covered roads on my way to work and back home.

In the meanwhile the guys from the snow-plowing service have cleaned most of the motorways and ordinary highways, so that the daily trip is a bit less exciting compared to the days with continuous snowfall.

This afternoon I finished my work a bit earlier than usual, so I had the chance to take a break in a wintery snowy forest area - just to relax and to to put some daylight between myself and the work.

Fortunately I had my camera with me, so I was able to take some snow shots.

 

By the way: yesterday my faithful VW Golf - I call tenderly my Red Porsche Killer - celebrated a rare occurrance...

...cast a glance on my mileometer / Kilometerzähler!

;-))

The hush of the winter heath

Hush! - Be quiet!

Thank you... ;-)

Sylt's gloaming houses

Does anybody know a piece of poetry or just a tale that fits to my photos?

5th January 2011: On a walk from Sylt's famous coffee house "Kupferkanne" (= copper pot) back to our car at the other end of the village. The sun set very fast behind the horizon and the mixture out of overcast sky, blanket of snow and the yellow lights of the street lamps and in the house's windows performed a magic light in the silent streets of Kampen in the January late afternoon.

Unfortunately I did not had a tripod with me. So I had to find "natural tripods" (--> lamp posts, waste bins, ...) to hold the long exposure times. These two pictures are the best two out of a series of 15 images I took.

White Christmas - definitely!!!

Yesterday on Christmas Eve about noon it started snowing.

And it continued snowing...

...and snowing...

and snowing.

For more than 24 hours.

This afternoon the snowfall stopped.

Now we have a snow height of approx. 30 - 40cm in the lowlands.

Merry White Christmas... ;-))

>> Click to enlarge the panorama <<

Winter scenery around my home...

...what do you want for more during the Christmas holidays???

Winter arrived at Germany!

In the past week winter definitely arrived in many parts of Germany.

We had the first snowfall on Monday morning, right on a car trip to the Swabian mountains.

On board I had three colleagues. Two from China, one from Southern India. 

For our colleague from India it was the first time in life he came in contact with the white powder called snow.

So we made a stopover on the heights of the Swabian mountains and enjoyed the first snow of the winter season 2010 / 2011.

 Three days ago we had snowfall again, this time even in low-lying areas.

 On Saturday we set out for a Christmas market in a forest of the Spessart, a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria.

 
The fresh swowfall one day ago ensured a perfect winter scene for that event.

I didn't know that even Picasso painted one of his artworks on a stub of a tree in this region - or was it a gifted woodman??? ;-)

 

The life insurance in the winter forest at -4°C - several bonfires that warm up body and soul...

Eye-to-eye with the wild beast... ;-))

winter versus harbingers of spring

As you were able to see in the recent posts winter came back to our corner of Germany with new snow fall and icy temperatures from the east. But fortunately in combination with great blue sky and sunshine from sunrise to sunset thereafter.
 

Last weekend we already had temperatures up to 17°C, so the very early spring flowers like crocuses and winter aconite (Winterling) already started flourishing.
Watch here: Welcome Spring. Goodbye winter.

But now most of them were covered by a layer of snow again.

Some lucky ones of them were able to break through it and stick their blossoms towards the sunlight.

winter aconite / Winterling [Eranthis hyemalis]

***     ***     ***

But not only the spring flowers were dominated by the new snow - even the townscape / urban image and its "population" wears a new dress...

 

Statue of Knight Wolfgang Schutzbar, called Milchling, at a fountain in the marketplace of Bad Mergentheim; direkt in front of the church steeple and direct behind a wall of snow.

 

snow woman with suitable husband... ;-)

 

Fresh snow tonight...

Same neighbor car, next day, other weather phenomenon than yesterday: fresh snown!

(Oh no, not again... ;-))

We got up to 15cm new snow during the night,

so we had to put out the winter boots again!

For Rob: Your (S)chippendale did really a good job!

Newsworthy warning: Don't eat yellow snow!

Dear friends!

Even in our part of the world we actually have what you might call a "winter wonderland".

Although we are not used to have a lot of snow in our lowlands.

 

So we took the advantage of this rare opportunity and went for a stroll through the snow.

 

R., H. & R. together with a snowman we found in the spa gardens of our hometown Bäd Mergentheim.

 

Winter wonderland impressions I captured during our stroll.

 

Bäd Mergentheim in snow.

Seen from the "Ketterberg" in the north of the town.