“Today, Wednesday April 21, 2021, is the official start of the 10th edition of Springsnow in Amsterdam! As previously announced, this year we will bring spring snow to people’s homes, in the form of the book Iepenstad, with beautiful photos of elm seeds on the street, sidewalk & steps by Maartje Jaquet and poems written by Ronald M Offerman, to whom the book is dedicated as he passed away last spring.

The book is available for € 20, = at Stadshout (Amsterdam) (Van Woustraat), Scheltema (Rokin), Linnaeus Boekhandel (Middenweg) Espressobar Puccini (Staalstraat), Boekhandel Zwart-op-Wit (Utrechtsestraat), Island Boekholt (Westerstraat) and many more. Find all info on http://www.springsnow.nl

We are delighted that part of the shop window at this last bookshop has been set up to celebrate the appearance of Elm Town! ”

Today, Saskia Hoogendoorn and I personally brought a copy of “Iepenstad”, my latest book, to Ronald M. Offerman’s wife: Mieke Bolte, as well as one for his son Thomas, who will receive his copy from Mieke. In their neighborhood, De Baarsjes, we went to look for a suitable elm to hand over the book. Previously we had seen on the elm map that the elms are also numerous in this part of the city, but suddenly we saw all kinds of trees around us, except elms: weeping willows, pollard willows, magnolias, you name it. It seemed as if the gods were playing a game with us. The first large elms we finally sar turned out to be inaccessible, but then … we saw the elm next to the ‘De Havelaar’ community center, with on a sign the beautiful quote by Max Havelaar: “Seen from the moon, we are all the same size”.
At this beautiful place I handed over the book to Mieke and recited the poem ‘Iepenstad’. Ronald is no longer there, but his words continue to touch, move and delight people. In the most beautiful city in our country and beyond.