The photographs in this post were taken on the 12th of September this year ...
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... in the area between the town of Zminj and another small town called Barban.
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I stopped by the side of the road, somewhere along that fifteen kilometers long route, probably just a couple of kilometers from the last houses of Zminj, and took a walk through the woods.
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I came across three flies of three different species there, in the shade under the oak trees.
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Here you can see the Phaonia pallida, a species from the Muscidae family. Adults consume nectar and the larvae feed & develop in various fungi or in rotten wood.
After an hour of aimless rambling ...
... I decided to drive back home, but ...
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... but soon I stopped again.
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More or less halfway between Zminj and Barban this time.
I stopped because I saw a small flock of sheep.
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There was this lovely construction that looked like a large birdcage or one of those small gazebos that you can find in the parks.
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It was filled with hay.
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It was a fantastic scene. I mean, I see sheep often on my drives and ramblings around Istra, but this was the first time I saw them eating together around a simple but elegant gazebo-like thing.
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By the way, I didn't know what that thing that can be seen in the parks is called. It took me time to get to the gazebo. I always thought that a gazebo is something else. Can't tell you what exactly but not that little construction. Soon after finding the word on the Internet, a song came to my mind. I remember it from the early 80'. Heard it on the TV when I was a kid. It was a minor hit. "I Like Chopin" by Gazebo. It wasn't clear to me if this was just some guy called that way or a band. Today, while writing this post, I first found that song on youtube and listened to it again after many years, and then, I found the entire album that I never heard before.
I didn't care much about the 80' music back then in the eighties. Late 60 and early to mid 70' rock and various kinds of prog and hippie music sounded more exciting to me. I kinda liked some hits heard on the radio or TV but wasn't into collecting posters and buying contemporary cassettes. I would have surely liked Tom Waits if I knew about him, but I discovered that music only in the mid 90'. Now, while listening to the Gazebo eponymous album, I like it. It sounds cool to listen while driving through some urban area if possible with plenty of neon and wet streets that reflect the stoplights and headlights. A nice time capsule of 80' aesthetics.
With the following photograph ...
... the focus is on the forest again. You can see a partially eaten oak leaf here.
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This little thing was photographed on the same branch, on one of the neighboring leaves. It looks like a spider cocoon.
After some more walking, I stumbled upon a fairly big piece of rotting wood down on the ground.
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This small mushroom was photographed there.
Very soon, a fly landed on that piece of wood.
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This is the Tachina magnicornis, a species from the Tachinidae family.
I have more stuff from the woods to show, but now, let's take a break ...
... and go back to the sheep.
There was a donkey among them. I mean, the donkey was grazing the fresh grass in one corner of the property, relatively far from the sheep when I arrived, but ...
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... but then he walked to the feeding - gazebo and became a part of the group around the hay.
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They ate harmoniously like a well-coordinated team.
This cloud was photographed much earlier ...
... on the road to Zminj. Only about twenty kilometers from my hometown. I stopped in the large parking lot near the railroad on the outskirts of Vodnjan, another small town, and I took a couple of shots from there.
In this photograph, you can see a small fragment of a rainbow that appeared under the fluffy clouds. With the following photograph ...
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... the story is fast-forwarded through time and continues through the woods that we already visited in this post. You can see a spider hanging in its web built among the lower branches of the oak.
I got closer to the arachnid here, and then, to get the following photograph ...
... I used the macro lens. This is the Araneus diadematus, a spider from the Araneidae family. Under the tree ...
... a shrub has produced a handful of lovely red fruits.
Crataegus monogyna is the name of this plant. The berries are edible. Great for jellies, jams, syrups, or wine.
On the blade of grass near the shrub, I found and photographed this Hybos culiciformis, a small fly from the Hybotidae family.
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Here you can take another look at the sheep. And the donkey.
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Now, you may think that most of these sheep - shots are pretty unnecessary. And I can agree to a certain degree. They are similar and repetitive, but if you one day find yourself extremely bored and therefore decide to take a good look at each photograph, you'll see that there is always something slightly different going on around that pile of hay.
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AND THAT'S IT. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS STUFF FROM THE CENTRAL PART OF ISTRA, THE PENINSULA ON WHICH I LIVE. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.
