daphne

dragons reloaded

I've said it before here on this blog: Here Be Dragons!
Every time I see them it is dragons I am thinking of, and of the descriptions on old maps where they are located (also best known to Terry Pratchett readers).

So they're back, the dragons!

perchtoldsdorf heath

hazelnut

pasque flowers

They're back!

woolly things

The first shoots of pasqueflowers!

spring flowers

It is cold out there, and when I say 'cold' I mean it! (Well actually it isn't, or is a mere 10 below zero in degrees Celsius cold, pray? Compared to weather conditions on the Balkans this would be considered cosy and warm.)
Even so, spring flowers are out and about! (Of course they're frozen now, those photos were taken just before hard frost arrived.)

it's christmas time ...

... but I don't care. Not much, anyway, sorry for that, but I'm one of those non-Christmassers, or is there a noun for them? To me, Christmas is something I endure, rather than enjoy. By looking through my photo archives, for photographs I didn't give much attention so far:

frost

You see that I can keep promises!

So I was out in the frost, early in the mornings. But it is warmer again, not sunshiny though - but windy and rainy and foggy, ugly all in all.

Now tomorrow is our national holiday - Queen's Birthday of Austria, or the 4th of july if you like, or la fête nationale or whatever; and on this day, by ancient tradition (!!), every Austrian who is proud of his country has (!!!) to go on a walk, however short it may be - and good Austrians will make a longer hike of it. I guess that tomorrow many "good" Austrians won't even do that, as nasty as the weather will be; but I of course will, you can trust me there. I'll show proof soon!

flower and frost

still some flowers!

Flowering season isn't over yet - there are still some to be found.

this is ancient obviously ...

... but if you've got any idea about the whereabouts of this guy Paul Holly then please leave a note here. I'd like to have a word or two with this guy who, it seems, arrested one Ligustrum vulgare.

take an educated guess!

Guess what happened today when I took this shot?

Ah, I guess that's unfair, how are you supposed to know?

So here's the story - those grew roadside, and they're really REALLY tiny. So I had to lie down in order to get a good view, right there on the street. Cars passing by slowed down, one even stopped (I gave signs with my hand that everything's okay), and as I took my time to get everything right (which wasn't so easy as it was very windy) I'm only glad that this street wasn't too busy.

b&w

Black and white, or green and brown, that is here the question.

yes you're frightening!

You wouldn't believe how stubborn salamanders could be. Take this one here:

That guy was sitting on a mountain bike track where, I can assure you, your ordinary biker wouldn't even care to look whether or not there's an animal on the track. And this one here sat there, and did not move at all for minutes!

I tried to convince the poor bugger that his bright yellow colours wouldn't work as a deterrent against bikers; and when he insisted that they be deterred I even assured him that I found him very much frightening, and that I wouldn't get near to him no matter what circumstances. (I did though, but didn't care to tell him.)

Well, the end of the story is short: I just put him aside, on a place safer than the middle of the road. However I fear that he didn't take long getting there, imposing and impressing the bikers on the track; I only hope the bikers were of the kind which is susceptible to such threats.

wienerwald

Ramsons everywhere - and their fragrance also lies in the air. Soon they will begin flowering, and I guess it would be worth visiting this lovely place when it will be covered in white flowers.

other people's judgement

When lying on the ground shooting flowers I oftentimes hear people talk about the things I'm shooting (or, on occasion, things they think I'm shooting while I'm actually doing something entirely different), like today when a couple asked me whether this plant were a 'bog flower' (it wasn't, on account of the place where I was lying on the ground actually not being a swamp), or people calling some flowers the 'blue ones' (they're Hepatica nobilis please) or the 'yellow ones' (they're Adonis vernalis, for God's sake).

Well anyway, that's them - the yellow ones:

spring!

Well, there were already snowdrops - and a few other ones; but the early spring period truly really begins with the pasque flowers, of which I've found the first ones today. They certainly were there already yesterday, or even a couple of days before, but yesterday I was busy getting rid of my car (which cut some hole into my budget), and before that I was busy working. So please excuse the delay - but here it is anyway!

just flowers

hemimycena cucullata

Oh - I probably should say that this is only a guess; anyway - it should be of Hemimycena genus; possibly another species but genus should be correct.

(And NO, they aren't for eating. Wouldn't make a relevant meal anyway, they're just a wee bit on the small side. They're just for LOOKING at, understood?)