It was not a hot day; actually it was quite cold, with stiff westerly winds and rain clouds looming on the horizon. (It did even rain later, and while I can count myself lucky that I didn't get too wet nature would have preferred a proper downpour: it is still way too dry for the season.)
As you can see you can't see hawthorn flowering yet: but if you take a closer look (well - not in that photo, but in nature - as I did) you'd find a few buds open yet. It'll take probably only a couple of days for Lobau hot lands being full of the sweet, pungent smell (or shall I say stench?) of hawthorn flowers; and on very sunny places hawthorn bushes are even flowering fully already. Barberry bushes (Berberitze - Berberis vulgaris) however are proudly presenting their petite yellow flowers:
And of the orchids growing on the hot lands all are out now except for bee ophrys; here's my favorite, Neotinea ustulata:
But spider ophrys also is magnificient:
Meanwhile Anacamptis morio (formerly Orchis morio) already is withering in some places - it seems that they did not only appear later this year but that they'll be gone earlier too, probably it was just that tiny little bit too dry this year:
And what you see behind this specimen of Anacamptis morio is Orchis militaris - the Military Orchid; never one of my favourites because it is just too pompuous:
Here you see a white variety of it in the background:
Orchis militaris is only just beginning to flower, and it does so approximately at the same time as last year; and as you see, grasses already have begun "flowering" - the grass flowering season not being so spectacular of course, but just wait for feathergrass, it is quite a sight. So here again, the Military Orchid:
All signs are now set for the beginning of summer; even elderberry flowering has begun already. It is still spring of course, but it won't be for long anymore - not here in Vienna at least. On the mountains however there is still plenty of snow, and at about 2.000 metres above sea level where spring is supposed to begin in june the flowering season might start significantly later this year, it'll take some time to melt that snow up there.
