Last, but not least, in this series of photos I took on my visit to the Orchideeën Hoeve last week is a collection of butterfly photos. I usually don't like insects much, but butterflies are definitely the biggest exception. I love watching butterflies flutter around or just glide in the wind. I like the way they look. I think it's amazing how they start as a caterpillar, cocoon and emerge as a beautiful butterfly. So I spend a lot of time in the butterfly garden during my visit.

Here's some more photos from my trip to the Orchideeën Hoeve last week. This time it's a couple of miscellaneous photos which I've grouped together for no other reason than they're miscellaneous. Enjoy!

A new addition to the Orchideeën Hoeve is the Lory Garden, which (not surprisingly) is a garden with a lot of lorries in it. Some of the lorries were in pairs, snuggling close against each other on top of their nests, which was really cute.

In one room, next to rows and rows of orchids there were a few terrariums with lizards and snakes. Most of the terrariums had dirty class, so I couldn't take good photos of the animals inside (and in some cases I didn't even see any animals inside), but one of them had very clear glass. There was a small, green lizard in it. As I was trying to take its picture it apparently wanted me to catch his good side because it climbed onto the glass.

Deep in the jungle there is a plant that eats meat. It is huge, with razor sharp teeth and... Just kidding. This is just a Venus Flytrap. It's actually quite small and only eats small insects. These were sitting in a jungle like landscape in the Orchideeën Hoeve though.

There were a lot of turtles at the Orchideeën Hoeve. I like turtles, though I don't really know why. They're kind of boring. They don't really do a lot. These were just sitting around doing nothing. And still I like them.

The Orchideeën Hoeve doesn't just consist of rows of orchids, but also several tropical landscapes, including plants, animals, rocks and... waterfalls. This is my first attempt at shooting waterfalls with a long shutter time. I didn't have a tripod with me, so most of them were a bit shaky, but these two turned out pretty good.

I went to a place called the Orchideeën Hoeve. It's a large greenhouse with orchids, a butterfly garden, a lory garden and a lot of tropical plants and animals. And of course I took my camera and took a lot of photos. The next couple of weeks I'll post some of the photos I've taken today. Since the name means Orchid Farm, I'll start with photos of the orchids.

I spend this weekend in Utrecht. Saterday I went to the railway museum there. I'm not particularly interested in trains, but they do make great subjects for photography. Especially the old steam locomotives.

So armed with my new camera, my 55mm lens and my 100mm macro lens, I took a lot of photos. Here's a small selection of the photos I took.

Winter has ended here by now, but I took these photos in January. I'm not sure why I didn't post them sooner. I guess I forgot.

But anyway, I like winter. I like snow, cold and ice. I love walking in the dark on those cold winter nights. Snow crunching under my feet. My breath misting in the air. A million stars in the clear sky above me. I'm sorry to say we don't have nearly enough of those nights. And now I have to wait at least until the end of the year.

Fortunately I like spring as well :)