Snowing again

Spring appears to have disappeared again. Last week we had a few sunny days with a maximum temperature of 17°C, but today it's freezing and snowing again! The snow hasn't been falling very heavily but it has kept coming down steadily the whole day and it looks like there's quite a layer of it now.

Even though the roads still looked quite safe when I had to leave for the sanctuary, I decided not to ride my bicycle this afternoon and I took the tram instead. I only used my compact camera this time because the wind was blowing the snow in all directions and it would have been impossible to keep a larger lens surface dry for more than a second.

During my walk with Hercule I took some shots of my four-legged walking companion, wintery park scenes and snow-covered benches but the one I like the best is this photo that I took at the small pond. You can go around the pond by walking through the artificial grotto at the bottom and there are some steps that lead to the top where there's a sculture of an African boy which is called "Het Moorken" or the little Moor. This is what I've been able to find out about him.

"Het Moorken" (sculpture of an African boy)

In the 1880s the Ghent explorers Josef and Lieven Vandevelde made an expedition through the Congo. Josef died there, but in 1884 his brother Lieven brought Sakala to Ghent as living prove of the succesful expedition. Sakala went to school in Ghent and was very popular for some time. But later he was forgotten. When Lieven Vandevelde returned to The Congo in 1887 he took Sakala with him. A year later Lieven died and Sakala was left to his fate. In Ghent he was no longer welcome. Shortly afterwards he died. "Il finit tristement" the newspapers wrote about his life.

The scuplture on top of an artificial rock grotto was raised in 1888.


Thank you so much for all the very kind comments and the stars on my Wood Pigeon blip from yesterday. :)