In the Still of the Mountains

Usually we have had several picnics at this time of the year. This year we had to be patient. Always when we thought that the next day would be the perfect day for a snack in the loggia of our hut something prevented the project (a meeting, an appointment, arriving guests were to fetch from different airports etc).

A part of our lunch. The table is small and semilunar, so there is not space enough for everything. We had a Greek farmer´s salad, toasted sandwiches with cheese and broccoli, spicy Liptauer spread with “cherries” (made of cherry tomatoes, chive and basil leaves), our favourite prosecco and much more delicious things.

Even as the sky was blue and decorated with fleecy clouds the view wasn´t that good. On the far left there is the Graz Basin (not quite sure if it is really translated like this), in the middle and on the far right of the panorama one can see mountains in South Styria.

A mini pond serves the wild animals to quench the thirst. Even the stag, the deer, the badger and the marten love taking fresh drinks. Furthermore it is a paradise for insects. Even there, “on the mountain high where the eagles fly” (nope it is the buzzards), insects are buzzling, among them even the dragon fly.

I love everything blue: the sky, every blue plant such as berries and particularly blue flowers. Bluebells are always favourites, in the mountains there is another species. It seems that the blue is brighter. Is it because of the light or because the plant is a kind of strawflower?

A better view towards the South from an hour later: the Graz basin (from the left to the middle and in the background) with the easy to recognise stone quarry in Graz-Andritz.

A beautiful lighting mood on the way home.

A softly murmuring brook which is one of the wonders in nature. In the last years there was almost no water in the river beds.

When I saw this, immediately an early 20th century painting came into my mind. Whether impressionistic or expressionistic, in any case an artistic interpretation of a light flooded wood.

Arriving home, this guy welcomed us in the garden. Many years ago we fenced it as the deer ate our roses and other blossoms. It didn´t take very long and the deer moved in again. They are very tricky in building passages under the fence. And now we are touched to share the garden and the plants with them (by the way, there are hares, squirrels, birds and insects too, the latter two eating almost every fruit).