Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Here most flowers haven't yet sprouted, only the grass is greener, but temperatures passed from winter straight to summer.

Today I re-did the trip shown in Springtime Romantic Roundtrip six years ago in reverse direction. Getting off at Szokolya station on the standard-gauge branchline, most of the forest is still 'transparent':

These modern DMUs are temporary visitors here, for the time their 'home' line (in a region populated by well-off exurbanites) is in total closure for an EU-funded upgrade. The station is a half-hour walk from the village across a water divide between two creeks, hence the single other passenger. On the water divide, the cows were out in the field:

On the other side of the water divide, overlooking the south end of the village. In the distance right of centre is the castle hill of Visegrád, the village along the Danube which gave its name to the Visegrád Four.

Interesting tree with shadow on the outskirts of Szokolya village. (As for the ugly concrete power mast: an exclusive for asdf.)

The grass is green but the trees don't yet obscure the village church completely (church bells were tolling when I shot the photo).

No sign of spring except the grass, but interesting signs galore. The building on the right is the village savings association.

An old man walks home as the narrow-gauge DMU approaches in the distance. I'll be damned if I know the name of the decorative brush with the yellow flowers.

At terminal station Kismaros, the railcar is shunting.

In Kismaros I arrived on the sunny north side of the wider Danube valley. You see some flowers on the edge of the cutting of the mainline station.



*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Fri Apr 19th, 2013 at 03:59:53 PM EST
DoDo:
the decorative brush with the yellow flowers

Forsythia.

There's more in the last photo.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Apr 19th, 2013 at 04:23:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Another one with yellow flowers which is common in the region is Laburnum. Can you distinguish the two? (BTW there is one on the church photo, too.)

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Fri Apr 19th, 2013 at 04:35:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Forsythia is usually bush-sized and totally covered with bright yellow flowers in early spring, before the leaves come out.

Laburnum is usually tree-sized. The flowers hang in bunches (unlike forsythia flowers that are close to the branch and cover it). They appear along with the leaves, so the overall aspect is yellow and green.

Laburnum is not a good choice for a family garden, since all parts of it are toxic.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Apr 20th, 2013 at 02:28:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Heh, those are details I don't notice consciously but all of them rang a bell after you described them... Forsythia is indeed much more widespread, but Laburnum exists, too. (I wondered if I can photograph one today, but having checked, it apparently flowers from May only.) Regarding the toxicity, I do remember being told as a child to not touch it. (BTW, the Hungarian names translate to "golden tree" for Forsythia and "golden rain" for Laburnum.)

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Apr 21st, 2013 at 02:59:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
(church bells were tolling when I shot the photo).

Moments.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Apr 19th, 2013 at 04:27:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series