A winter's dream - Flamingo's Gazette

This article is an ode to winter season and more of an excuse for me to share some beautiful wintry scenery with my readers. For the past few years, I found myself yearning for the warmth of summer in the middle of unfriendly weather, as opposed to my whole childhood and young adult life when my image of true beauty was always covered in white. Since I moved to Switzerland though, I slowly began to remember all the reasons I found winter so mesmerizing.

Zürich is not the most wintry of the Swiss cities, but from here you can reach glorious winter in under 30 minutes. So whenever rain gets boring, I can find my way to some snow. While at first those snow trips were mostly for my son’s benefit, those feelings I had long ago started to come back with every snowflake that fell. I forgot about the cold that bothered me and I started to enjoy everything that was around.

The silent winter woods are the most magical for me, they bring me joy like the sound of the waves of an unsettled sea or ocean. The pristine untouched snow around the beaten path in the woods, the evergreen trees dressed in heavy winter coats, the creeks making their way between big frozen boulders and the fat snowflakes in the crisp air are a dream for my mind. It’s like my brain goes into a trance and doesn’t remember one bad or sad thought.

The snow squeaking under my boots while I pull my son’s sled, the moonlight shining on the fresh silver blanket and the white smoke floating out of the chimneys of the houses in my neighborhood bring back so many memories from past winters. So I can definitely say I got back that joy I always had for winter.

Snow isn’t the only thing I love about this season, Christmas and all the December celebrations were always my favorite time of year. Ice skating, baking winter treats, savoring mulled wine and dressing cosily with or without snow are still the highlight of my winters. Did I mention my new obsession with holly? There is nothing more beautiful than a few drops of red fruit and deep green leaves in a completely white and ebony landscape. Holly reminds me of Snow White.

There are lots of people who like to hibernate during the cold season with warming thoughts about summer. I was one of them for too many years, but Switzerland just makes every season worthwhile and I got to relieve my childhood’s winter dreams. I remember my father pulling my sled through the silent park in the evenings towards the ice skating rink, where we spent hours full of fun. I also remember my mother baking all kinds of delicious cakes and reading my favorite winter story, “Sabot D’Argent”, aloud to me out of a French fairytale book. So I hope I also give my son a lot of marvelous winter memories that will keep him happy over the years and which he will also pass to the next generation.

And as I am left with an empty sack of wintry epithets, metaphors and the likes, the pictures will speak a bit about the real beauty of a winter landscape and my favorite season.

Photos from Flamingo‘s archive. All the pictures are shot in Switzerland. For a better view use a tablet or a desktop.