Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway, noted for its scenic beauty, is a National Parkway in the United States. The parkway runs for 469 miles (755 km) through North Carolina and Virginia, mostly along the mountain chain Blue Ridge, part of the Appalachian Mountains. The Blue Ridge Parkway was built to connect Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although it is worth to visit the Blue Ridge Parkway all year round, the visit in fall with yellow, orange, red, brown,… colors of the leaves, is unforgettable experience.

This year, 2015, we drove from Marion, NC to Blowing Rock, NC:
Photo Gallery: Blue Ridge Parkway

Last year, 2014, we drove from Marion, NC to Boone, NC.
Photo Gallery: The United Colors of Autumn.

 

Ten new photo galleries

Ten new photo galleries

Finally I put ten new photo galleries from the USA and Slovenia.

Winston Salem, Raleigh, NC ZOO in Asheboro,  Biltmore Estete at Asheville and Grandfather Mountain are nice places in North Carolina and Charleston in South Carolina, USA.

Lake Bled, Dragon bridge in Ljubljana are must seen places for turists and travelers visiting Slovenia. A boat trip on Ljubljanica river gives you a view of the Ljubljana from different perspective.

Short trip galleries

Fauna and flora galleries

Exotic Plants Projects – EPP

Exotic Plants Projects – EPP

I started with »Exotic Plant Projects -EPP« in 2012. For my birthday, my friends gave me as a gift a voucher for Breskvar Horticulture. I went there with the idea to buy three lemon plants, but it turned out that I bought a lemon (Citrus x limon), a lime (Citrus aurantifolia) – it was the only lime plant there and it took as 15 minutes to find it between all lemon plants – and a kumquat (Fortunella margarita). In the winter my citruses are inside, but in the summer they enjoy outside weather on my terrace in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Each year they bloom abundant and I love the scent of citrus blossoms. They also bear fruits.

Photo Gallery: Citrus Project (Citrus sp.)

Later in 2012 I planted some coffee seeds (fresh, green, not roasted of course) and now (2015) I already have two coffee plants about 1,5 m tall. This summer they made first blossoms. It surprise me that the scent of the blossoms are similar to the citrus hence very pleasant but not as strong as citrus.  With their scent and honey they attracted bees, wild bees, bumble bees and I spotted even some wasps. I hope all these insects did their job of pollinating well so in the autumn I could post some coffee berries photos or even make a small cup of hot, home grown/home roasted coffee for a cold winter morning.

Photo Gallery: Coffee Project (Coffea sp.)

 

The Misty Winter Morning

The Misty Winter Morning

The hill Sv. Ana nad Podpečjo (484 m) is not far from Ljubljana, only 20 km. On one cold, misty, winter Saturday in 2010, I sacrifice some hours of sleeping and in the early (for winter time) morning went there. Driving there, on Ljubljana Marshes, the fog was so dense that I couldn’t see 20 m in front of me. Finally, I stopped my car on the parking lot and walked 20 minutes up to the church of St. Ana. It turned out that the church was just on the shore of the calm fog sea. Some churches on the nearby hills looked like they are islands on the milky, misty sea. Soon the show started. The wind and the heat of the rising sun began to move the waves of fog. In less then two hours all was cleared and there were no mist anymore.
Photo Gallery: Sv. Ana, 484 m

The Oldest Wooden Wheel in the World

The Oldest Wooden Wheel in the World

I like history. Actually, I don’t like boring dates and names which are stereotypes for history, but I really love part of history that is called archeology. As a child I even considered idea to study archeology but then nature and forestry prevailed. I was born in Ljubljana and lived near Ljubljana Marshes, which is large, flat wetland, stretching on the south outskirt of Ljubljana. Ljubljana Marshes was in prehistoric and even Roman times (2.000 years ago) a large, shallow lake. Archeologist have found a lot of Paleolithic artifacts (ceramics, fishnets weights, bones of fish, game and domestic animals, stone tools and weapons, canoes made of one timber…) from the culture that was living there around 4.500 BC. They were dressed in animal skins or linen clothes and lived in wooden/mud cottages, they built on the stilts they had put on the lake shore… Of course I could not miss the opportunity to see the exhibition of the oldest wooden wheel with an axle, which is over 5.200 years old – according to the analyses the wheel is dated between 3.350 and 3.100 BC – which was found in 2002 while researching the crannog settlement at Stare gmajne near Vrhnika. Besides the remains of the wheel, they also found the axle which was separated from the wheel. The wheel and the axle belong to a prehistoric two-wheel cart. The exhibition took place from May 2013 to April 2014 at the City Museum of Ljubljana and was very well prepared. Now the exhibition is taking a tour to European cities.
Photo Gallery: The Oldest Wooden Wheel

Climbing and Photography

Climbing and Photography

It’s not easy to climb and take photos at the same time. First of all you need to be fit enough to walk and climb for some hours, you could not suffer from vertigo and you should have sufficient experience in climbing and mountaineering. You must have all necessary equipment for safe climbing (at least good shoes, hamlet, climbing belt and self belay set) and you must know how to use them. You also should have a camera with good lenses and you must know how to use them too. Safety first rule means that sometimes you have to use both hands for climbing so your camera gets in the way. You put it on backpack and when there is a moment you would like to take a shot you need to take it out and moment is already gone. If you are last in line, you are taking only peoples from behind and you would have a lot of “butt” photos. If you are first in line, you need to follow the path and you would have only face photos with posing people. When other climbers are resting you are taking photos and because you are taking photos, you usually don’t have photos of yourself. But climbing and taking photos bring you a lot of fun! Because Robert Capa said: “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” I used 35 mm fixed Nikkor lens 1,8G on my DX cam (52,5 mm).
Photo Gallery Through the Window
Photo Gallery Hanz’s Way