I haven't ever mentioned the term 'Gstettn', have I?
Also written 'Gstättn', which is pronounced the same.
Or even 'Gsteckn', in some dialects, with different pronunciation.
I can't translate this into proper English. In rural areas (where, mostly, the pronunciation 'Gsteckn' rules) this translates as slope (both slopes that are mown and those that aren't), but in urban areas it is used for a kind of wasteland where no crops are grown and no lawns are mown.
Such a 'Gstettn' may be used illegaly as a waste dump, or it may be overgrown with bushes and trees, or in some cases it is mostly dry, grassy lands not so very unsimilar to the 'hot lands' (Heisslände) of Lobau.
The ones shown here are of the latter kind, as you can see.
These kind of Gstettn and the 'hot lands' really are the only signs of fall yet. Apart from the weather which already has an end-of-summer touch, very much so. The hottest days in this year's summer weren't above 32 to 34 ° Celsius which is some degrees below the usual top, and the nights were never as tropical as in the past years: in Vienna usually there are weeks when the temperature doesn't drop under 20 ° C during the night - this year we only had a very few such nights. Also there was plenty of wind, and plenty of rain.
So quite a nice summer, this year. Let's hope for a nice fall; the autumn crocus is due to flower soon - as ever it will be the landmark for the coming change of the seasons.
