Learning map-reading skills
Poppy fields
Below: Paeonia tenuifolia
Common name: Fernleaf Peony.
A very different, relatively low-growing herbaceous peony. Stems of upright habit; height: 1 (to 2) feet. It has a rhizomatous rootstock and established plants can become quite large in area.
Native to SE Europe: relatively widespread through Yugoslavia/ Bulgaria/ Romania/ SW Russia/ Crimea/ Caucasus and a few nearby localized areas.
Its natural habitat is in dry grassland and dry stony hillsides, sometimes in scrub, sometimes on limestone.
Flowers are about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, single, with 5 to 10 petals of satiny blood red to deep crimson, with a showy cluster of yellow anthers in the centre. Semi-cupped and upwards-facing, one per stem. Superb. It is one of the earliest to bloom.
This and flowers and many others are best viewed enlarged!
Heading down to the grotto. Because I'd injured my heel recently, and I was wearing open-backed sneakers, I chose to forego this, and….
….. take pictures from above….
….. looking down at the kids in the grotto.
I'm really embarrassed about this panorama – the colors are mismatched and I couldn't even cut off all that excess white. Maybe someone can tell me how to do it properly (and easily) – but I wanted to give you a very small idea of how awesome the scenery is…
Great landscapes
Nice scenes
Nice job
Thanks