The temporary lacework of the night frost will remain visible as long as the sun’s rays don’t reach it. The blue-green leaves of the wild daffodils pierce through the arid carpet of leaves, and the beginning of a yellow flower bud can be seen here and there . The grass-green leaves with a ‘bow-shaped’ top of the bluebells also start peeping through, but that is not exceptional in this period. The leaves of the Lords-and-ladies have developed more. Yellow dogwood and hazel are in bloom at the edge of the forest. Yellow dogwood with small yellow flowers, hazel with its striking yellow male catkins. Its female flowers are less conspicuous as they have no petals and consist only of a small flower bud from which the red stigmas protrude; these are sticky and ready to catch the pollen that the wind blows from the male catkins. The Rose Bedeguar galls stand out on roses. The spherical, moss-like galls are like “apartment blocks” with multiple incubators for the larvae.
With some luck you can see a roe deer. Bring along your binoculars if you have them: as there are no leaves on the trees and shrubs yet, you can quietly observe the animals from a distance.
The bridge in the middle of the forest over the RO will be broken down in the summer, after the construction holiday. It will be replaced by a 65 m wide ecoduct, with a 5 m wide path for walkers and cyclists. In preparation, some trees will be felled before March 15th where the embankments of the ecoduct will come.

Snowdrops, the first signs that winter is gradually turning into spring. Their narrow leaves pierce through the frozen soil and the carpet of leaves on the ground. Fortunately, they can withstand a layer of snow and the frost that will certainly strike again. They can withstand temperatures down to -30°C, thanks to homemade ‘antifreeze’ in their leaves. Starch from the bulb is converted into sugars that act as ‘antifreeze’ in the leaves. As they flower so early, snowdrops do not rely on pollinators to reproduce. Instead, they spread via bulb division. That is why they are often found so close together. However, they may still be visited by bumblebees and other insects on a particularly warm day.
The flowers also start appearing on the yellow dogwood. The male catkins of the hazel tree sprout and wait for the first warmer days to send their pollen into the world via the wind.
It is now planting time in the forest. The planting material that was previously bundled in the ground to protect it from drying out is taken to the planting sites. Parts of the forest where the Norway (European) spruces died in large groups due to an infestation of the Larger eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle, an annoying beetle for a number of tree species, have now been replanted with different species of deciduous trees. And between the Hallerbos and the Lembeekbos some more trees have been planted at the ‘Heldenbos’ where the first trees were planted in 2021.