THE PASSING OF TIME

 

Well, the title isn’t exactly optimistic, and the photo even less so, but despite this gloomy start, this won’t be a post about the end of things.

The bumblebee was just unlucky—there was a frost overnight, and unfortunately, it didn’t find a suitable shelter, which ended for it the way it did😟

But that’s not what I wanted to write about.

This passing of time is a terrible thing (I’m whining again), but everything in nature changes at such a pace that a week’s absence from the forest makes it feel like we’re in a different reality the next time we visit, even though the place is the same ???!

So I head out into the wilderness as often as I can, and every time I discover something new.

I started with a trip with the Professors (Małgosia and Andrzej) to the Stobrawski Landscape Park.

Mainly lichens, 

mosses, and some mushrooms,

a few spiders scurrying through the leaves 

and a ladybug—finally some color 😂🙏

Another weekend—we went with Joanna to the forest we’ve been visiting for thirty years, and when we’re alone, we walk the same paths (in the previous post I wrote that my sense of direction is zero), which  in turn frustrates my wife—“the same thing again” but she’s understanding—or has she just gotten used to it??? 😂

By the fire pond in the forest, we came across common toads in mating season—which I’d been secretly hoping for—there they are!

Common toad (Bufo bufo)

They migrate to the pond, lay their eggs and in a week it will all be over.

And here are the results.

On the way back, we met red-breasted carrion beetles—also busy with their own affairs.

Red-breasted carrion beetle(Oiceoptoma thoracicum)

Not many flowers—just coltsfoot. A few lichens.

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

The next day I went to Janikowo to see what was going on there.
The weather was sunny but quite cool, so there wasn’t much “traffic” on the paths.

I found two female European oil beetles—one was digging a burrow.

European oil beetle(Meloe proscarabaeus)

Other than that, as always—some lichen on the trees  

and a bumblebee  on a flowering fruit tree.

On Saturday, however, we went to the Lipa Gorge to see if there were any salamanders yet—unfortunately, there aren’t any yet. 😜

But there are quite a lot of flowers.

The climate here is probably a bit cooler, so primroses, anemones, corydalis, common toothwort, and my favorite common hepaticas are blooming.

Anyway, the thing with the hepaticas was funny because as soon as I saw the first one, I started setting up my gear to “capture” it and just as I’d made myself a little nest in the leaves—I looked up… and saw the whole clearing dotted with blue flowers—so my powers of observation had also faded 😒😱

Next to one hepatica flower, I saw another one, but… it was green.  

I started wondering what it was, but since I couldn’t come up with anything sensible, I wrote to our union (Wildlife photographers) colleague - Wojciech—a biologist whom I’ve already introduced in the post “Spring on the Nysa Kłodzka.”

Wojtek explained to me: “That green flower is a kind of calyx that doesn’t fall off after blooming. You can’t see it while it’s in bloom because it’s hidden by the petals”—it’s worth asking an expert 😃😎

On the way back, we stopped by Orchid Hill—it’s still too early; only the leaves are poking out of the ground—the flowers will be here in about two or three weeks.

And speaking of transience, before I even realized what was going on, it dawned on me that I can now go by trams for free (at least in Wrocław)—but not because I’m a student—no—definitely not. 

Well, as Heraclitus said: “Panta rhei,” or rather “Panta rhei kai ouden menei”—everything flows—nothing stands still.

On an optimistic note—100 days until retirement 😜

I’m happy for now……

Photo: Marek Czubaszek