Finally the weather has warmed up and the snow has stopped falling on the local mountains … and we have planted our balcony flowers – the first at Landhaus Lilly …
I’m not sure how large they will all grow (and hopefully I’ll remember to feed and water them) – but for now I’m delighted and look forward to them blooming all summer long (with a bit of luck!)
Various flowers have been emerging recently – in the undergrowth, around the trees, alongside the river and pathways near our house and around Lake Hallstatt. As we take Leo on his (at least) twice daily walks, it’s been interesting to notice the subtle changes in the surrounding woods and pathways from one walk to the next. Now, I’m sorry to admit that I do not know much about flowers – especially the Austrian varieties that could be emerging at this time of year in the Salzkammergut area. So – how fortunate we were to have a lovely guest who happened to mention that she saw an abundance of flowers on her walk at the weekend. We chatted for a while about her walk and then she kindly volunteered to write down the names of the flowers … and as a bonus, she added a little picture and description too, so I would know what to look for …
So armed with this knowledge I felt a bit like a mini-adventurer on our next walk … I had a purpose of not just walking the dog and moving a bit – but to see if I could track down some of the flowers as well. Admittedly we did not go on exactly the same route as our guest – but we did come across some of the flowers and I started to photograph them. As time when on, however, it was not only the looking for flowers that made the walk so special…
We are pretty familiar now with the route that we took … and the scenery is absolutely spectacular (we have to pinch ourselves regularly to remind ourselves how incredibly fortunate we are to have such dramatic scenery on our doorstep!) But during this walk I was looking both at the stunning scenery, appreciating the warm sunshine – and also keeping an eye out for things I could capture in a picture. I started just looking for the flowers that we had spoken about – but there were so many other interesting things that I wanted to capture as well! So … our nature walk started with a search for flowers – and ended up being about just noticing (and often capturing on camera) anything that seemed potentially interesting.
I’m still on the hunt for the other varieties of flowers and look forward to exploring again soon on future walks. But a big thank you to our lovely guest for this gift of knowledge about flowers … it’s amazing what a little chat over breakfast can lead to!
