The first snow

Squirrel

These photos were taken by Tamás from his window. In every year around this time, in early December some of the sillier squirrels appear on the Turkish hazelnut tree standing immediately at our house.

Some of them is so reckless to slip even into the basket near the entrance door where we keep for them the nuts and peanuts for the wintertime.

It’s so happy to see it here. But it is very dangerous, because it has to pass through all the garden where it always can run across a cat. So when we see it, we always close the greatest danger, our own cat, in the room.

Thank God, this far every squirrel managed to get away with a whole skin.

Chef d'oeuvre

Some – like me – have to struggle for those light, floating compositions that enchant so much one’s heart.

Others create perfect things by instinct.

Saturday afternoon

Some things I am satisfied with.

This one has enchanted me for days. It became sooo Mediterranean. Not in the way it is fashiionable now, which means heaping up plants that require a climate which is milder by two or three zones than ours. No, this was composed with plants of our climate, but it has an atmosphere like shady Mediterranean patios.

This composition was made in this spring, and I am satisfied with the result. A Molinia 'Karl Foerster' between a Nepeta and a Sedum.

Phlox 'Orange' or 'Orange Perfection'. I replanted them in this spring, and they are still small. They are famous for finding their place with difficulty. Here it is in the company of Miscanthus, Carex and Artemisia lactiflora.

Country feeling in the spice garden.

The pink-yellow bed. I will work on it a little bit more in the autumn, but I already consider it fine.

The same, seen from the pink Phlox. This picture was really inserted because of our cat Muska. By the way, the Phlox is called Windsor. An excellent flower. I planted it in this spring, and it is already this beautiful. It also resisted the heat of this summer. And I find it very fitting to the warm yellow tones.

And finally a somewhat cooler image with some Miscanthus in bloom.

Squirrel

At the end of the winter the squirrels often come up as far as the house.

Yesterday this same squirrel was jumping in our window, but then we could not photograph it. Tamás today managed to take some pictures of it.

This beautiful red one with white belly is my favorite one.

It keeps a Turkish hazelnut in the mouth. Interestingly they prefer it to common nut. But as one can see at its good conditions, in the winter they also eat the nuts they find in the garden.

Bears

The February winter has brought us some bears, too.

Source, seventeen pictures altogether: English Russia.
... And here you are a bear tale and some cultural bears too, from the Wang river, the blog of Tamás.

Butterfly or what...

This little miraculous creature with orange spots on its wings was attracted to the garden by the Phlox. It looks like a butterfly, but I’m not sure it is.

In fact, on its forehead it has a very elegant, curved sucker that is almost as long as the animal itself. It looks very much like a small tropical bird. I am really happy of its visit. The Phlox season just begins, so I hope I will often see it.

Squirrel, May 3, 2008