I bought a new mouse today. In Pula. Pula is the nearest city. My old mouse fell on the ground quite a few times in the last few months. That mouse fell on the ground one time too many at least, so it doesn't work properly anymore. I'll show you both mice, the old one and the new one, in the opening photograph of today's post, but this isn't a post about them.
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My old mouse, which looks exactly like the new one, is a dead mouse now. I paid a little more than 4 EUR for the brand-new mouse, but who cares, that's not what this post is about. In the following photograph ...
... you can see the pines in the suburban forest park called Busoler. I spent some time there after buying the mouse in the Pevex store on the opposite side of the city.
These lovely red berries ...
... are the fruits of the Ruscus aculeatus plant that grows under the pines in some places along the path which leads deeper into the pretty large park on the edge of Pula. What looks like leaves in this photograph, are actually thorny cladodes. Cladodes are flattened structures made of the same tissue as the stem. In this plant, they look like leaves and have the same function. Cacti, for example, also have cladodes, but their juicy cladodes aren't so easily mistaken for leaves.
Here you can see the resilient, fibrous structure hidden under the dark green surface of the cladode.
With a thorn at the end of each cladode, Ruscus aculeatus is an annoying shrub that can hurt you if your clothes are light. But is also a beautiful plant that offers interesting details to photograph and edible fresh shoots in springtime.
The berries are poisonous to humans, but many birds eat them and disperse the indigestible seeds.
It wasn't very early in the morning, but in some shady places, the grass was still decorated with dew.
It was a great opportunity to collect a bunch of photogenic droplets and add them to this pretty ordinary post.
Here you can see the flowers of the small Prunus spinosa tree.
AND THAT'S IT. I DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TIME TO WALK AROUND THE FOREST PARK, SO THIS POST CAN'T BE VERY LONG. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
