The photographs in this post were taken on a Sunday afternoon, a couple of weekends ago. The weather was dry and sunny just like today and every other day between that Sunday and the current Saturday.
Accompanied by a couple of friends, I went on a rambling road trip to the northern part of Istra, the peninsula on which southern cape I live. We saw plenty of hills ...
... we visited a river that looked like a creek due to the summer drought ...
... and we photographed a bit of flora and fauna along the way.
Before reaching the northern hills and the river in the valley, we spent some time in the city of Pula because two of those friends had to do a bit of weekend shopping in one of the suburban stores that offer a great variety of stuff at very convenient discount prices.
I was waiting outside, in the parking lot. Soon I pooled out of the bag the camera that always goes around with me to make the waiting a bit less boring. Here you can take a look at the gas station across the street, and some of the people there.
My car was parked under a tree that wasn't providing much shade because the branches were mostly barren.
Here I zoomed in a bit more. I don't know what kind of tree this is.
When I took this photograph, the shopping was done.
One last look at the storefront window, and we were ready to continue northwards. Pula is the only relatively big city on the peninsula. It's situated about ten kilometers northwest of my hometown, and it can't be really considered a big city, but is definitively considerably bigger than any other settlement in Istra.
The next stop was about ninety kilometers further ...
... in the place called Sovinjak ...
... a small village on the top of the hill ...
... with a great view of the surrounding hills, valleys, fields, meadows, orchards ...
... and some even smaller villages ...
... surrounded by woods.
In this photograph, two of my friends are preparing their cameras ...
... because a butterfly was resting on the nearby shrub, and it didn't look like the lovely insect will fly away soon.
We all photographed this Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), but you'll see only my photographs in the post.
Here you can see the unripe fruits of the nearby Quince (Cydonia oblonga) tree.
Five or six meters further I photographed the green wall made of various shrubs covered with the climbing plant that goes by the name of Clematis vitalba. Here you can take a look at the leaves and seeds of that plant. In the following photograph ...
... you can see one of the two passages in the wall of shrubs.
A bit of zooming through that passage revealed another small village on the slope of the neighboring hill.
Half an hour later, while rambling back and forth around the same area, we encountered the same Red admiral. On the same shrub.
Males of this species are very territorial. And territoriality is related to mating. The larger the territory, the bigger the chance to attract and court the females. But the chance of more rivals also grows proportionally with the size of the territory.
Here you can see the lovely passage in between two big old houses made of stone. Two of the only a dozen that are still inhabited.
The succulents in this photograph were photographed in front of one of those houses.
On the small, decorative stretch of wall that wasn't made to enclose the garden. Sempervivum tectorum is the name of this plant that often appears around the houses in Istra.
This beautiful white cat ...
... was meditating a bit further, in the middle of the garden.
Here you can take a look at the small church across the street. It was built in the first decade of the 16th century.
In the short, recently trimmed grass near the church, I photographed a well camouflaged Mantis religiosa. The mantis has caught a grasshopper. Half of the meal was already eaten.
Meanwhile, twenty or thirty meters from there ...
... a friend was stalking some other insect. Some minutes later, I passed by ...
... and continued down the narrow path ...
... bordered by dense vegetation.
I stopped to photograph a group of Inula spiraeifolia plants ...
... and these leaves ...
.... on the small, young Ulmus glabra tree.
Some minutes later and about fifty meters further ...
... I reached the clearance ...
... with a great view ...
... of the surrounding landscape.
Here I zoomed in a bit on one of the hills in front of me.
A village was partially hidden by that hill ...
... so I used all the zoom power that my camera can provide to explore the details of that distant place. If you enlarge this engageable photograph, you'll notice a surprisingly big herd of cars on the outskirts of the small settlement. Ten minutes later, we all walked back to the car and drove out of Sovinjak. The following photograph ...
... was taken a couple of kilometers downhill, in the valley of the river Mirna. Mirna means quiet in my language.
The vegetation near the river was lush and green ...
... and I found some flowers there.
The small but colorful flowers of the Allium coloratum plant.
Some minutes later I photographed a spider not far from those flowers. This is the male of the Argiope bruennichi spider. While photographing the spider ...
... I noticed a grasshopper nearby. A young, not completely developed nymph. Can't tell you the name of the species. But I can tell you that this grasshopper doesn't live in my southern seaside area.
Here you can see the Conocephalus fuscus, a bushcricket commonly known as the Long-winged conehead.
Closer to the water ...
... I encountered a bunch of frogs ...
... the very common Pelophylax esculentus frogs.
The night was very close. The light was getting low.
I took one last look at the river, and then we drove back home.
AND THAT'S IT. THIS POST ABOUT SOME RELATIVELY RECENT WEEKEND ACTIVITIES ENDS HERE. AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.