A couple of weeks ago, early in the morning, I drove about a hundred - hundred and ten kilometers north of my hometown, straight to the town called Buzet, and then continued driving, hiking, and photographing the nature and villages in the mountains north of that town.
I visit this area rarely, and I have never been here in early spring. The sunny atmosphere was very new and exciting to me. It was a long day, the shooting was intense, and I took plenty of photographs. A bit too much for just one post, so I decided to split this journey into two parts.
In this photograph, you can take a look at the typical landscape in that part of Istra, near the border with Slovenia ...
... and here, you can see the old homestead in the village of Brest. On the maps, the village is shown only as Brest. But, since there is another Brest in the area, about twenty-thirty kilometers further, this Brest is better known as the Brest pod Zbevnitzom. All these photographs were taken early on the trip, but not at the start.
The first stop was here ...
... just outside Buzet ...
... on the road that leads uphill ...
... towards Chicharia.
Buzet looks great from here ...
... so I took a few more shots ...
... before continuing uphill.
A couple of kilometers further I crossed the railway ...
... and parked the car behind the small station.
From here I could photograph a bird's eye view of Buzet.
The industrial and suburban stuff in the valley also looked pretty cool ...
... from this angle.
After taking this shot, I continued the journey ...
... and didn't stop before reaching the mountain meadows.
Here I encountered some beautiful plants ...
... that can't be found in the rest of Istra, this peninsula on which I live.
In this series of shots, you can see the lovely flowers ...
... of the Narcissus elegans plant.
For this photograph, I mounted the macro lens.
Here I came a bit closer, to take a better look at the pistil and the anthers in the center of the flower. These macro shots were taken with the flash of my camera on, to make all the small details visible, while for the following photograph ...
... I used only the ambient backlight which created a more elegant picture.
I had plenty of fun photographing these flowers ...
... because I have never seen them before.
Here you can see a cluster of minuscule flowers ...
... on the Globularia bisnagarica plant. This is yet another species that I have never encountered before. I mean, I probably saw the plant, but not the flowers until two weeks ago, when these photographs were taken.
On this flowerhead, the flowers aren't completely developed.
This is the Polygala vulgaris ...
... a close relative of the very similar-looking Polygala nicaeensis plant that grows in the southern and central parts of Istra.
Here you can see the Scorzonera austriaca, a plant that can't be found south of these meadows.
In this photograph, you can take a look at the young, colorful leaves ...
... of the Ajuga pyramidalis. After the close encounter with this plant that doesn't grow in my southern, seaside area, I sat in the car ...
... and continued tripping through Chicharia.
For a couple of kilometers, the road was bordered by conifers ...
... and then ...
... I was surrounded by meadows again.
It was time for another stop.
From here ...
... I walked to the nearby village of Brest ...
... and I photographed a bit of landscape on the way there.
This curvature of the narrow country lane about a hundred meters from the village looked pretty cool.
Here you can see some moss-covered rocks and trees by the road.
Near the first houses of Brest ...
... I found these Primula veris flowers ...
... and then, a bit further ...
... I came across a butterfly that looks pretty exotic from my point of view. The Southern festoon (Zerynthia polyxena) can't be found in my area. I never saw it in nature before, only in photographs, in books, and on the Internet.
Across the road ...
... forty or fifty meters from the butterfly ...
... an old lady was tending her plants.
This part of Istra is very sparsely populated.
Villages here, are for the most part abandoned.
I saw ten or twelve houses that are still inhabited ...
... and some cool ruins ...
... on my walk across Brest.
Here you can see the large building at the edge of the village. The biggest building in Brest. It looks like a school or something like that.
As I was walking back to the car ...
... the man with the wheelbarrow was going in the opposite direction ...
... to the long pile of firewood.
A scutter passed by. I took one last shot and then walked directly to the car.
AND THAT'S IT. FOR TODAY. PART ONE ENDS HERE. YOU CAN SEE THE NEXT EPISODE OF THIS TWO-PART JOURNEY TOMORROW. AT THE SAME TIME. IN THE SAME COMMUNITY. ALWAYS ON HIVE.
AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.