Kozolec

I went for a walk again today and I took a photo of this marvelous "kozolec". Those of you, who have never been to Slovenia, have probably never seen one of these before, so let me explain what it is.

The only (and official) name for this structure is "kozolec" and it's a wooden structure used by the farmers to dry hay on. As you can see, it has vertical and horizontal poles (which are quite thick - so the structure is not as fragile as it looks) and a mini-roof. The hay is stacked between the horizontal poles (beams, I think, would be a much better expression) and left to dry in the sun. The tradition of "kozolci" (=the plural of the word) is quite an old one. Every meadow in Slovenia has at least one.

The one you can see here is a so-called single "kozolec", and it's quite a long one, too. Usually, they are shorter. You see, the size and the length of the "kozolec" depends on the size of the farm - the bigger the farm, the longer the "kozolec". There is another kind - the double one - which is called "toplar". I'll take a photo of a "toplar", too, and post it on my blog so that you can compare the two.

A Long Afternoon Walk

I decided to go for a walk this afternoon. I took one of my cameras with me - just in case I found something interesting to take a photo of. As I stepped out of the house, I found this family of yellow crocuses on our flower bed.



So, off I went. After quite a long way, I decided to have a rest in the woods. Just as I sat down on a rock, I noticed the primroses, sunbathing in the afternoon sun.



On my way back, I found this fellow looking up at me. It's a green Christmas flower. They are quite common in our woods. We have the white kind, as well, but you can't find them anymore - their season is around Christmas only, so now there're just the green ones left.

The final touch to my walk was making the panorama shot. It's my first panorama shot ever, so don't be too critical of the photo. I know the light is all wrong, but blame it on the sun - it was very bright today. Just enjoy looking at the magnifiscent nature instead :-)

The Crocus Family

Today, we had a sunny day. The sunshine woke up some flowers, including the Crocus family. If you look 4 posts back (to my flower collection), you'll see that I posted a photo of a bud of one of the family members. Well, this afternoon, I took the photo of the whole family! Mum Crocus, Dad Crocus and Baby Crocus, still on its way from beneath, are on the photo on the right. On the left, you can see a close-up of one of the flowers. Beautiful, isn't it? :-)

I Got a Reward!!!

A friend and fellow blogger, Dancin' Fool, has awarded me this "Treasured Blogger" badge!! Yeepeee! My first on-line award ever!! I'm so proud of it, especially because it was given to me by such an expert! Thank you so much, Dancin' Fool!

The Hawfinch

A few minutes ago I managed to take this photo of a hawfinch in my seed bowl. These birds are extremely beautiful - they even have some feathers at the end of their wings (near the tail) that are of very unusual shapes, and which I have never seen on any other bird before. Hawfinches usually come to my feeder during the winter. A couple of years ago I counted more than 20 every day! This year, however, there's just one bird that drops by for a bite every now and then. It was extremely difficult to make this photo. Hawfinches are among the most paranoid birds I know! They move and twitch all the time and they fly away at the slightest move they notice! This one usually panics and flies away even before I manage to take my camera out of the box, but this time, hunger was bigger than fear and he stayed just long enough for me to take this shot! :-)

Mrs. Moth

This morning I was greeted by Mrs. Moth. She wanted to use our doorbell, but just a few centimetres under it she succumbed to deep contemplation. As she was standing absolutely still, I took the oportunity and made this photo.

A Little Bit Of Spring...

I went "hunting" today. After a hard day's work I came home and just had to do something relaxing. As you've probably figured out by now, photography is my latest hobby. So, I took my camera and off I went. I decided to look in our garden first. I found these little beauties:

A DAISY and A SNOWDROP

A PRIMROSE and A DEAD-NETTLE

A DANDELION and ANOTHER DAISY

this plant I don't know the name of and A CROCUS

and A MOTH :-)

Blue Tit

I managed to freeze this moment on tape. Among my favourite birds are blue tits. They are such lively little creatures - always moving around, jumping, flying, never standing still. So, getting one on tape and making a reasonably good photo is a nightmare. A couple of days ago I was lucky, though, and this little fellow posed for me - just for a split second, but long enough to make the shot! (And, mind you, I took the shot without the curtain between the bird and me!! Sadly, there's a reflection of it on the photo, though.) After that, he took a sunflower seed and flew away.