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Panorama vom Hirschberg-Gipfel (1.670m) in den Tegernseer Bergen, links vom Gipfelkreuz ein Teil des Tegernsees. Am Gipfel selbst war ich gestern alleine, bis auf die rund 10 Butterhirschen, die den Gipfel auch für sich beanspruchten :-))
Panorama from the Hirschberg summit (1,670m) in the Tegernsee mountains, to the left of the summit cross a part of Lake Tegernsee. I was alone at the summit yesterday, except for the 10 "butter deers" that also claimed the summit :-))
Google Pixel 8 Pro PANO
I was walking by the pond and out of all the frogs that jumped in, this guy was content to stay on the rocks. He seemed amiable to having his picture taken, so I took the opportunity.
Another endemic somehow thriving in the alpine zone of the Pirin Mountains. Ferdinand's Saxifrage (Saxifraga ferdinandi-coburgi), on the Five Mountains Trail (E4) near the summit of Banski Suhodol (2884m), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
I've noticed that the beauty comes in stages; first the daffodils followed by the dandelions. then comes the lovely purple stalks of flowers that the bumblebees find delicious. Those are followed by the delicate tiny buttercups that dot the whole mountain from clearing to clearing. My husband refuses to mow until the pollinators have their fill. The buzzing of the bees and songs of the birds are carried on the mountain breeze as it rushes up one side of the mountain, then plunged down our side and across the ridge down into the hollow.
Just a snap of the road leading to our house. I love driving (or walking) into the forest. Both sides of the road are plentiful with mountain laurel and rhododendrons growing wild including an assortment of trees. It's very peaceful and quiet and I rarely run into anyone else. There's only 6 houses back this way and even tho it's a public road, at the top of the mountain it turns into a jeep road.
After a decent stretch with lows around or below freezing, today we hit 60°F for the first time this year. I walked down to snake heaven to see if the snakes noticed and found a half dozen or so that had slithered out--about two weeks earlier than last year--from wherever they were hibernating to enjoy the sunshine. Most of them were quite small, like this one, which was about pencil thick. Puget Sound garter snake, Olympia, Washington.
Hungary takes its name from the tenth century invasion of the Magyars, a nomadic Eurasian steppe people who crossed the Carpathians and raided deep into Europe in the late 9th century. They were mistaken by Europeans for the Huns, who had cut similar capers in the 5th century. So, when the Magyars settled down and converted to Christianity, their new kingdom (misleadingly) came to be called Hungary.
Despite this deep history, what you actually see in the capital of Budapest is very modern. In addition to periodic catastrophic floods, the city was razed several times by invading Mongols (1241), Ottomans (1526), anti-Ottoman Christian forces (1686) and Soviets (1944-5).
Many of the prominent buildings and elements of infrastructure date to the late 19th century, when Hungary was planning a millennium celebration to mark a thousand years of history. This would be a major exhibition, aimed at reinforcing Hungarian pride in an era of growing nationalism, and also staking a claim to equality with Austria, long the senior partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The problem was that no one knew quite when the Magyars--who at the time of their migration were a nonliterate and nomadic people--had arrived. In 1882 a committee of historians was tasked with determining the date, but historians like to hedge their bets and the committee could only settle on somewhere between 888 and 900. The government felt it needed something more precise, and picked 894 for their arrival, making 1894 the date for the millennium celebration. Construction then began on ambitious new buildings like the enormous neo-Gothic Parliament Building (above), along with the latest forms of transportation, such as electric streetcars and subways.
As is often the case with these things, the projects ran over time and it became clear that the city would not be ready to celebrate the millennium in 1894. So, the government stepped in and declared by legislative fiat that the Magyars had actually arrived in 896, buying two more years to prepare for the millennium. As it turned out, that was still not quite enough time, as the Parliament building, with its symbolic height of 96 meters, was not completed until 1904.
The Danube and Parliament Building viewed from a balcony of the National Art Gallery in Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary.
Still Here
by Langston Hughes
I been scarred and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,
Looks like between ’em they done
Tried to make me
Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’–
But I don’t care!
I’m still here!
We must have seen a couple of hundred chamois in the Rila and Pirin sections of the E4. Usually they kept their distance, but around Banski Suhodol, Kutelo and Vihren they were right up close, or at least close enough for photos. Balkan chamois on the shoulder of Kutelo (2908m), on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.