Now spring is coming

Last Sunday my husband and I sought relief from watching the disturbing news from Japan.
We strolled through the outskirts of Vienna
where we found a landscape still wearing the colours of winter,
but showing the first signs of spring.

What a fancy thing:
the colour of the river Danube exactly matched the colour of the first violets!

Some bushes even showed a pleasant yellow!

Liverwort is a common sping flower in the decidous forests of the Vienna Woods, and its colour is also "Danube-blue" :)

We walked back to the city through the endless wineyards, still bare and grey,

towards a city with nearly 2 million inhabitants
(which actually looks like a very big village... )

Here we found the first snowdrops - the wetlands of the Danube must be full of them by now!

Sky Watch Friday - Summer evening sky

A warm summer evening in the outskirts of Vienna:
A summer sunset behind Leopoldsberg.

Watch the sky all around the world HERE:

Yesterday, my friend Brigitte and me ("The Vienna Skywalkers")
made our weekly evening tour in the Western part of Vienna.
We went by bus to Kahlenbergerdorf and followed the steep "Nasenweg"
to the top of Leopoldsberg.

Soon, a beautiful view over Vienna and the Danube opened:

You may enlarge the pictures for a more detailed view!

At the foot of the hill you can see the lovely village Kahlenbergerdorf.
There is the Danube (which is actually blue today!!) with Donauinsel and the New Danube,
and in the background the many bridges connecting the "city" with "Transdanubien",
as the Viennese fondly call the northern part of Vienna.

Here a look over the deep green wineyards on the soft rolling hills.

Soon we came across a small "Heurigen" in the middle of the wineyards with a nice view over the flat countryside northeast of Vienna.

We drank a delicious glass of red wine grown on the neighbouring hills, Zweigelt from Hajszan, and slowly walked back to the city.

The last rays of the setting sun deepened the colours over the city and bathed the meadows in a golden light, the hills behind already dark.

Today's flowers - Messengers of Spring

Kuhschellen/Pasque Flowers/Pulsatilla vulgaris

We found this early spring flower yesterday on our hike through the ridges of the Wienerwald
on the steep hills of Leopoldsberg on a sunny and extremely dry place.

Maybe the flowers have chosen this place also for its lovely view over Vienna and the river Danube?

Enjoy many, many more flowers from all around the world here: