A DAY TO BE OUTSIDE ALL DAY

and I almost was. I did not start too early and cycled slowly inhaling all the spring pleasures I came upon.
At the Madestein pond I found Hetty feeding the swans, she could tell from what families they were and some other news, good and sad.
From there I took the path through de Uithof, saw the stork pair, the geese and many other birds that live there.
But my journey was not to end there. I went to the city farm in Wateringen and took with joy pictures of the amazing creatures who live there.
Not far from there another 'kinderboerderij' on a dike is located and I found so many parents, grandsparents and children there. A feast to see and hear!
My blipfoto I eventually I found when I took a path along a 'vaart', a kind of small canal, and I followed a grebe who made sounds that would bring his partner back to him.
And there she was, at a far distance from where I had started my quest and they greeted each other and did their sweet dance under a bridge.
Some minutes later I saw this amazing scene, where the male grebe dived and brought from the bottom underwater a kind of cloth and presented it to his love.
She responded and favoured his find. Then he or was it she dived and coming
on the surface there was a big fish in his/her mouth.
To my amazement he/she swom swiftly from the place where he/she had found the fish and far away he/she swallowed the fish. No sharing of the meal with partner here.
The coot at the background of the picture had brought an enormous twig to the place where the new nest would be build and she had her eyes on the scene of the grebe pair, anxious perhaps that her good spot would be taken from her by the pair.

My haiku:

Accept my present
And be mine forever since
Ages it has been said

And the proverb:

Hij/Zij acht hem/haar zoveel, alsof hij/zij op den muur geschilderd ware.

Translation: He/She esteems him/her so much, as if he/she were painted on the wall.