The Gouwzee is frozen over, with frozen reeds forming amazing sculptures and a colourful sunset. Those are the ingredients for this winter vision. In search of ice floes, I stopped at several spots along the Waterlandse Dijk.

Around the Markermeer one is completely dependant on wind directions for finding ice floes, They can be found either on the Waterland side of the Markermeer, or on the east side at Almere. A distance of at least an hour apart.The Gouwzee, however. It is a relatively small lake-lagune.

From one side to the other takes about 10 minutes by car. I always choose the Gouwzee for winter pictures when I have little spare time. On this particular day, it turned out to be too early for ice floes.

A thin layer of ice still interconnected the thickly frozen parts. Fortunately, the wind had covered the reeds on the banks in a thick layer of ice, creating unique sculptures. This relatively big sculpture formed an excellent foreground for the frozen Gouwzee. To the right, in the distance, is the former isle of Marken.