Arum cylindraceum.
They're right now beginning to flower, and flowering fully, and withering away already - all that at the same time.
Which is easy to explain: they have a fly-catcher flower, flies are trapped inside that flower until they have pollinated them; when they have the flower will wilt, and after a couple of days release the insect trapped in there. The last picture in this series is one of those which soon will release its pollinator.
It is a mean trick, isn't it? Those insects have to do work for which they are rewarded with nothing but a few days in prison.
Well actually not Vienna but Lower Austria for the most part - with Korneuburg in the background and Bisamberg to the right.
It is still winter, as you can see.
Warmer weather is predicted for the next week, but for now temperatures again fell below zero Celsius. This pine tree grows on Leopoldsberg, one of the Viennese Wienerwald hills in case you're interested.
Well, Schiele reincarnated of course, as the real one already rests in (hopefully) peace.
But this clearly is a Schiele, just watch the hand, and google for Schiele's Selbstbildnis.
Well, an abstraction of Schiele then, okay?! Most likely from Schiele reincarnated into a female body, obviously, yes?
I found this in the Free Viennese Art Gallery of the Upper Donaukanal, Döbling, Vienna; and this one really was standing out from the usual graffiti art you get there (mostly stylised writing or - which seems to become more popular lately - skulls and otherworldly creatures).
The poisonous fruit of Arum cylindraceum are ripe (German Aronstab - this one being the variety which grows in the east of Austria only); they only grow on rich and fat soil, these I found on the slopes of Kahlenberg where there were plenty, they also can be found in black locust forests.
Today I was in Heaven.
Literally. One of the hills above the noble western 'Grätzl' (as neighbourhoods are called here in Vienna) of Grinzing in the district of Döbling, lying still inside the city limits of Vienna, is called 'Himmel' - the English equivalent would be both 'sky' and 'heaven':
Only the early bird catches the town like this: the place where I took this shot is overcrowded during daytime, and especially on sundays, even if it is as cold as it was today - around about eight to nine degrees Celsius below zero, which would be around fifteen degrees Fahrenheit.
The Himmel has a long history of popularity to show, already in the nineteenth century the Viennese liked to picknick up there. Sigmund Freud too was a regular guest up there in a pavillion only a few metres away from where this shot was taken, where one day (supposedly on 24th of july 1895, as stated on a memorial there) the secret of dream interpretation revealed itself to Dr Freud.
