Friday, January 13, 2012

Scenes from Vlieland - part four: the trees

As I said yesterday, Vlieland is basically a big collection of dunes that forms an island. Originally there were no trees here, but to protect the town from the inblowing sand several patches of woodlands were made. This means there are no really old trees here. The oldest are a little over a hundred years old. It took the planters some time to find trees that could thrive here and in the end there was a specific kind of pine tree that seemed to work well.

Here are some pictures of our forests!

The wind can make trees that are exposed to it move in strange directions.

The beginning of a path I walk on a lot on my hikes.

Ah, the shape of trees against the sky!

Which way to go?

This is a big pond on the edge of the forest close to my house.

The trees may be relatively young, but they are pretty tall anyway.

One of the wider pathways through the forest.

What I like about our forest areas is the many many paths that have been made in them, so even if the amount of land covered isn't all that huge you can still feel like getting lost in them and even after eight years of living here a new path can still surprise me.

Tomorrow we will move on to the next and last part of our tour which is all about some random goodies on my island!