Springtime Stroll in Lyngby, Denmark
Let me invite you to accompany me on a photo journey of a springtime stroll in Lyngby, Denmark, taken on today’s date, April 3, last year.
My husband and I were visiting Copenhagen, and we went for a walk in a woodland park near the lovely Sinatur Hotel north of the city. We stayed at this beautifully situated hotel on two occasions, for a few days each time, while visiting our daughter who was at the time living in nearby Lyngby.
Heading out in the morning from our hotel, my husband and I and our daughter headed across a small bridge spanning a narrow canal, passing by patches of scilla and small daffodils along our route. There are images showing the lovely view of the back of the hotel with several small boats docked along the shore. Our window opened to let us look across the outdoor patio towards the water.
The surrounding countryside was lovely. As we walked by an open field, containing a large water pond, horses grazed and walked lazily around their enclosure. The leaves on the trees were only starting to bud, but little white spring flowers were in evidence everywhere, along with plantings of anemones and daffodils. A number of neatly groomed shrubs and small trees dressed in their yellow spring colours caught our attention. Large clay pots and planters on an outdoor patio were rimmed with hardy spring pansies, showing blooms of lavender, deep purple, rust-red, gold, and pink.
The woods were peaceful, and just beginning to show their spring colours. Moss on the bark of the trees created a soft green hue. We stepped along the paths carefully to avoid flattening the forget-me-nots pushing up here and there through the dry leaves on the ground. The small white flowers encircled the trees, hugging the thick moss thatch around the broad tree trunks.
What a beautiful woodland area for a stroll. The lake, which served as a training and competition centre for rowers and kayakers, was calm and peaceful on this quiet spring morning.
I love how the Danish preserve the tall grasses around the edges of their lakes, shown here and in so many other areas we visited, providing habitat for nesting birds and insects and acting as filters to clean and purify the water. It was easy to see that these well tended grounds would be rich with colour and life through the summer months and into the autumn.
In the afternoon, we walked around the downtown area of Lyngby. The photos show the spring landscape and environment in this community on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Looking down from the balcony of our daughter’s apartment, you can see the established garden plots bordering the community soccer pitches. These types of small garden sites are typical throughout Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, as of course are the soccer fields. The gardens are, literally, everywhere, hugging the rail tracks and tucking into outlying corners of the town sites. It’s wonderful to see these small garden plots and cottages reclaiming lands that are other wise difficult to maintain. The garden plots shown in this photo series were right next to the rail line travelling through Lyngby.
The top-down view from our vantage on an upper balcony includes a shot of the apartment’s own gardens and landscaped parking stalls, situated along the front of the property.
In days when aerial images taken from airplanes and satellites show an ever-increasing tendency in North America to pave the urban landscape, widen curbs, remove trees, build concrete medians to save on expenses, or to simply eliminate things that take care to maintain, I am heartened to see evidence in Europe of another philosophy and approach.
Many people, like the folks living in Lyngby, Denmark, deeply value their urban green spaces and semi-wild settings on the edges of their towns and cities. These folks pay attention to the small details, and to the intermingling of rural and urban features, that help villages and towns fit well into their natural landscapes. I hope we can find ways to emulate the fine example they set for us.
Photos and Text: NKampen
Copyright: NK/cookiebuxton
Photo Location: Parklands behind the Sinatur Hotel; downtown Lyngby, Denmark.
Photos taken April 3, 2014
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