Summer, _____ ,Winter?

We arrived in the Netherlands in mid August amid beautiful sunny, hot, summer weather.  The Dutch shook their heads and told us how unusual it was. 

 They issued an extreme weather warning when the temperature hit 85.  We admired the beauty of the country and basked in the summer.

By mid September we were settled in our home and bought bikes.  The weather was still a steady parade of gorgeous summer sunny days.  The Dutch continued to shake their heads and tell us how unusual it was.  We just kept loving it!

By mid October I was beginning to wonder if Fall would come, if the stories of cold, wet weather were just that…stories.  I started to ask the locals if all the beautiful trees lost their leaves in the winter.  They assured me they would and that the winter we had heard about would indeed arrive.  

 

By the end of October the leaves finally began to change colors.  As we drove around the center of the country the trees were such a deep orange and red, not so much brown.  
The leaves finally began to fall to the ground.  The bike paths crunched as we pedaled to Ziest to do our errands.  Fall arrived and was over in a couple weeks.  

 

Today our favorite street was mostly bare of leaves, both the trees and the bike lane.  It has been alternately cold, cloudy and damp, and then only cool, cloudy and damp!  We’ve only had one trip to town on our bikes when it was really raining.  Today it was just sprinkling a little.   I guess winter is here to stay since I am wearing tights every day!  I would love to see the canals freeze over this winter so the traditional ice skating race across country could happen.  They say it hasn’t happened for a number of years now.  I think I’ll pray for that!