There’s people walking about wearing T-shirts. And cycling in shorts. In Bavaria. In late December. Outside!
It smells like autumn. But it feels just like spring. Even the bees are busy, but busy with what…? Flowers are far and few between. Plant life is dormant. Or trying to be. The poor buzzy blighters can’t sleep – it’s too hot to hibernate.
This non-winter is a tricky situation not just for them, but also for faux photographers like me. Bavaria is pretty in the snow. In absence of a powdery white blanket beautifying the season’s barrenness, there’s usually at least an early morning dusting of frost gracing the trees, making them sparkle in the sunshine.
But this year, with temperatures persistently well above zero, everything is brown and (brownish) green. The gently rolling countryside, though easy on the eye when you’re standing in it, turns into nothing-to-write-home-about snaps of muddy fields and dead bristly bits. And my camera is way too crappy to capture the faint silhouettes of the snow-capped Alps towering above the landscape in the far distance, like ghostly dinosaurs.
I had to re-think my strategy. So, here it is: Big skies, small details, textures and splashes of colour where I could find them. And trying not to get myself arrested while loitering around people’s garden fences.
And I know you’ve all been waiting for this:
Some of you may remember that last year’s winter-time shots of my tiny little village and surroundings were wildly different:
A stunning white Christmas: https://ladyofthecakes.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/a-white-christmas-after-all/
Followed by an equally dazzling New Year: https://ladyofthecakes.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/a-happy-new-year-from-narnia/
Apparently, there will be snow next week. Am not holding my breath…
Now that may have been a challenge, but you have come up with some beautiful shots.
But I have to say it feels very strange having this warm weather over Christmas.
Enjoy the rest of your time there. I hope you get at least a little bit of that cold white stuff
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Thanks Debbie! I am sweltering in my big down coat 😉
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Nothing faux about your photography! There are some absolute crackers in there!
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Thanks, I take that as a big compliment, coming from you 🙂
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Same here in Somerset, England; I have had the Rayburn on for the past three months completely unnecessarily, thinking winter was arriving.
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P.S. Monochrome shot 3rd. down – quite superb.
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How kind 🙂
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I agree, Im in England now and it feels like autumn. Where is the snow and the cold that forces you t sit infront of a fireplace and play games with the family?
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Yeah… this climate change thing is seriously messing with our home comforts!
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I too loved the 3rd photo of that fluffy ethereal looking plant. Beautiful!!
I am really enjoying this no-snow version of winter. The last 2 years delivered enough snow to last me for a very long time.
… but since it is important to you, I hope you get snow 🙂
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They’ve predicted snow for the 1st. Am poised… 😉
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Lovely photos. The weather is the same here – very non-compliant. It literally just started to snow in the last ten minutes. Our white New Year might be on its way!
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You have snow coming down?!? *Envy*
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Same here in the northern U.S. and I understand that above average temperatures will be the rule this winter. On Christmas I saw people wearing shorts and there were golf courses open. The high temperature was 67˚F (19˚C). The lawns are green but there are no leaves on the trees. I took a picture of my parsley last weekend, two days before the official start of winter:
(I hope you’ll be able to see the picture. Photobucket was giving me problems this morning.)
We’ll come back to Earth on Tuesday with our first bout of wintry mix (snow, sleet, freezing rain) that will eventually turn to all rain. Then temperatures will be in the 40s which is still above average for this time of year.
Great pictures. Your mom’s cookies look scrumptious and I wish I had had more time for baking this Christmas season. I’m making cake pops for New Year’s.
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And Photobucket is still giving me problems because there’s no link. Try, try again.
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Let me have the link once you get it to work 🙂
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Have you ever made Plätzchen…?
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I have never made Plätzchen.
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Now there’s a project for you for next Christmas 🙂
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It was a green Christmas in Toronto, too. People were out in shorts and sandals Xmas Eve (which seemed a tad extreme to ne). Supposedly cooler temps are coming next week.
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It’s the whole world gone wrong 🙂
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You seem to have risen to the photographic challenge!
Saludos y feliz año nuevo,
Kim G
Vallejo, CA
Where the weirdness is that there’s “normal” rain.
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What – no jumping off the roof of your house this year???
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Boston is like Bavaria — absurdly warm. The butter is hardly staying solid this winter.
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Proof of the weird weather:
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You did a terrific job with these photos! Not a typical Bavarian winter, but I think you captured amazing textures that would have been lost under a white blanket of snow. The wrinkles in the berries and rough edges of the pine cones are just marvelous.
It’s really warm here too — there are new buds on some of the trees!
Happy New Year!
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Aw, thank you 🙂 Let’s see for how long it’s going to continue. I fear for a bug invasion in 2016 if the Big Freeze doesn’t get a move on soon!
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It is the same here in the UK – all the daffodils are out early and bumble bees and butterflies have been spotted along with blooming blossoms and even….shock….. trains running on time! In Mumbai however another strange thing I never imagined would occur has happened – it is so cold at night my partner has actually switched off the AC!
Lovely pictures!
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Daffs in December??? I am in shock 😦 …the only vague bit of comfort I derive from your comment is that if we’re burning less fuel, and hot countries switch off their aircons, maybe we can slow down this climate change thing. At least by a day or two.
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England is making up for the lack of cold back then right now believe me! Minus figures and the river around my boat is frozen! My man in Mumbai is also freezing and reporting temperatures of 9 degrees at night there – shocking – especially considering the lack of heating and tolerance to cold in that part of India!
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Magnificent captures! I see I’m not the only big fan of photo #3….. what the heck is that anyway? And what is it that looks like marshmallows? And, man alive, such rich reds! You set the bar way, way high! Happy New Year to you.
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I have no idea… some fuzzy climbing weed thing… Happy New Year to you, too 🙂
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I suspect it is a clematis – they grow all over the place alongside the roads here in UK, but you only notice them in winter when their seed heads coat the bare branches of shrubs and trees. Clematis vitalba (also known as Old man’s beard and Traveller’s Joy)
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You’re probably right – thanks for that!
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It still looks beautiful. I think it’s impossible for Bavaria not to look good. It’s like the Angelina Jolie of states… 😉
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It was very pretty today. Finally we had some frost, and the trees were all white. Stunning 🙂
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You might get your snowy post yet then 🙂
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More trees for you… I know how you love them 🙂
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My next post will probably have a lot of trees. Unless I get eaten by wolves before I write it 😉
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I was rather hoping for marzipan cakes…
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The wolves will probably eat them too…
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I rather approve the new strategy 🙂 Love those reflecting (thoughtful) trees 🙂 Happy, healthy, joyful 2016 to you!
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Thanks Jo! Same to you 🙂
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…finally! Got to the cakes, yummy yum! HNY to you!
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Cheers! Same to you! And to a cake-laden 2016 🙂
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Horseees! Actually, I feel ya. Moscow’s been the same. It only got cold in the last week and we just baaaaarely received a dusting of snow. This is what Russian (RUSSIAN!!! CENTRAL RUSSIAN!!! Not Sochi or Crimea!!!) countryside looked like when I was flying back from Berlin a couple of days before Christmas: https://www.instagram.com/p/_l8C22g_W7/
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And it’s still the same… but now the sun’s gone away and it’s all grey and dreary 😦
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