Dreaming of a White Christmas

The first 3 weeks of December have been very snowy here in Belgium. Statistics up to two days ago show that this month will probably be an exceptional December. While an average December sees 4.1 days of snow for the whole month, the first 21 days of December this year have already seen 15 days with snowfalls in Brussels ! It has only happened once since 1901 and the first official weather records in Belgium. And snow is continuing to fall… Already more than 70 cm (almost 2.5 ft) of accumulated snow in the Hautes Fagnes, much less (about 20 cm) around Brussels. But even with these 20 cm of snow, it is chaos on the roads 🙂

I have had a little bit of time to enjoy the snow and take some pictures in the park of the La Hulpe Castle (Solvay Domain). Not too difficult to reach for me, even in these weather conditions. Here are a few pictures from two separate visits.

Groups of 3 trees are a recurrent theme in the parkThe castle of La Hulpe in the snowLone pine tree in a white worldBeautiful patterns created by snow and wind on the ice

And 3 days later, after another shower of wet snow, everything looked like covered in icing sugar. I lost track of my bearing while wandering in the Forest of Soignes and even managed to get completely lost in all the white around me !

Early morning at the entrance of the park of the La Hulpe castleI have been thinking of taking this picture for a long time and finally decided it was time to give it a try. A hill just behind me makes it impossible to get back enough for one shot embracing the whole tree. This image is made of 11 pictures stitched together.Snow covering everything converts a familiar wood into a fantastic universeEven the tall beech trees of the Forest of Soignes are transformed by the snow. So much transformed that I got lost in it !

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