With almost two weeks delay, I am making a short post of a ‘hike’ – because it was more of a calm walk – that is typical for what I usually do in February (which is now gone, bah). That means, going to places close to the city, yet far enough to be landscape that allows relaxation.

I really liked this sight, snow-covered path and a tree, with mist shrouding the background.

If the weather is like winter, then these are perfect as mountains are covered by a lot of snow and not so easy to walk. This year, February seemed to try hard on catching up with winter as January was slacking a lot.

For this particular day, it started by a while between fields, then going slightly downwards and following a small river, then upwards to another village.

There, we could see this detailed replica of a wooden windmill and even look inside. I wished I could take a bit better picture, but the fence around it prevented me from that.

Then the journey continued on, eventually leading us to an arboretum, which is usually visited in summer. On the other hand, it was not crowded, which is good, and some of the trees, especially the Asian evergreen ones, stood out.

There was also a greenhouse with cactus collection and indoor section with insects. That part was slightly underwhelming as the old greenhouse was suffering from rust and had to be taken down, but the new one is not built in full scope yet.

Calm winter scenery

Truth be told, for me it was mostly about calm relaxation, much unlike the hikes the week before and week later, when I went to the mountains and kept myself at quite fast pace.

Island with willows on partially emptied and frozen pond.

Now, as the cold that gripped Europe hard in the last few day recedes, I’ll wait and see what craziness the weather will do next and as usual, try to make the most of it on my next hike. I guess it won’t have much snow, so this is probably my last mention of it for the coming months…