Sunday 3 January

Awoke to a winter wonderland, with 5 cm of snow on the ground, which appears to have fallen last evening, between 6 and 9pm. The day started with cloud, but this soon moved away leaving us with a gorgeous snow landscape. Went for a walk at 11.30, but managed not to return until just after 2pm. The trail took us through the forests around the village all the way to the Koningsweg, some 2½ miles to the north. The going was a bit tricky in places. On a previous walk, roads and paths had become like sheets of ice and that was still present underneath the snow. It was perfectly feasible to walk. Some people even took their mountainbikes out. Just checked the weather reports, which state a temperature of -4C at the moment, up from -9C overnight. I took well over 100 pictures on the way, a selection of which I shall post in a little while. Overnight temperatures at Stavoren, on Lake IJssel, went down to -14.4C. Now I know that is peanuts compared to areas in the States, which have gone down to -40C in recent times. If this cold weather persists for long enough, people will start to itch to get their ice skates out. For the moment, young and old are content to sled their way down the hills around here - yes, this is Holland but we got hills round here.