wednesday walk - what you can find in the frozen ground - 10 macros

My walk today was very short and lasted less than half an hour, but I managed to get myself frozen and even get under a tiny snowfall. The weather in my city is notoriously changeable... during the last week, the onslaught of spring has weakened, and the retreat of winter has stopped. Just eight days ago I was enjoying the warm spring sun and photographing blooming snowdrops - and now I walk past that place and watch them wither, freeze and die ... however, snowdrops are survivalists, and it is possible that they will survive until warm days.

In fact, I went to the local post office to pick up a small package with 'Be Quiet' 140mm silent fans for my computer: that was the case that lured me out. I bought them second-handed at Russian ebay to put on reserve - as I'm not sure that I will be able to obtain any IT-stuff later, when I need it, because... uh ... because "our future is bleak", and inflation rates, on the contrary, are very tangible. I should buy more batteries for my Canon 5D, as well, I think about it all the time, but I'm too lazy to do it, postpone it till it be late...

So, what I have found? Snowdrops. Lots of snowdrops.

They are alive and well, despite the cold. They are probably waiting for pollinating insects... but I have bad news: it seems that insects will not appear very soon...

Of course, I took my camera with me, just in case, and in the 20 minutes of Wednesday that I spent outside, I photographed something interesting.

And this is the first crocus of this season that I found! It has not yet bloomed, while it only grows leaves, buds and fights the cold.

And this is a maple sprout. Most likely, it will never turn into a large maple tree, there are just a lot of maple seeds dozing around in the ground, and they are full of strength. (If every maple seed inevitably became a tree... only maple trees would grow around, right? but in nature there is a struggle for living space and resources, and not everyone is lucky...) Anyway, maple sprouts are very like visually, they are very touching "unbend the back."

This is by no means a sprout, but quite the contrary! I’m not even sure exactly what it is, but I think it’s some kind of inedible, decorative type of cabbage. She overwintered the winter in a withered form, and will probably begin to grow again ... but some of her branches give the impression of being alive! they are purple and in general, they look beautiful in photographs.

I am pleased with what mysterious, picturesque, colorful pictures this dried last year's cabbage provided me with. Now no one will arrange a photo challenge with the theme "Christmas tree", but if there was such a challenge ... my cabbage would have a high chance, I think. it will be necessary to save the photos and not forget about them in the next New Year's season (if we live to see it, of course).

On the way back home, I met not only flowers, but also birds - crows, pigeons, and most importantly, starlings. ALAS!!!! The starlings posed for me perfectly and let me very close (the photo below is uncut, this is how far they walked, almost a meter away from me, enthusiastically exploring the frozen ground in search of food.

Everything was perfect: the light, the background, the starlings themselves... everything except me. I didn't check the camera settings, and I took a great series of 20 counted photos, at a shutter speed of 1/100 - hehe... that's too little for a 150mm telephoto lens, it's too little for photographing a moving target, and it's criminally too little for photographing birds. .. unfortunately, all 20 photos went to the wastebasket.

In my defense, I can only say that I simply had no hands left: With one hand I held the camera and pressed the button, and with the other hand I held the box and a few more purchases from the green store - bread and a bag of apples. Well, photo hunting doesn't have to be 100% successful every time.... besides, I still came back with prey - snowdrops and withered cabbage-tree. So it turned out to be a great, memorable walk!