After work at the Volksgarten

 Every year there is a week that calls me to the Volksgarten. It's the one week where you find lilacs in bloom. The park is as central as you can get in Vienna.

Initially I went there to enjoy the smell of syringa in full bloom, but the light was too intriguing.

 Vienna City Hall in the background

 A few weeks from today, people will enjoy these seats in the cool shade. Today it was 17°C.

 

 Syringa as beautiful as every year.

 Hanami, followed by crow watching. 

Best down time I can imagine, following around a crow. Take your time. 

 Be sure to leave the garden before this gate closes!

 I know Vienna by heart. What I did not know until recently was the fact that the Belvedere garden is really dull in early spring.

Two weeks ago while cherry trees all over they city were in full bloom, not a single plant nor flower was in bloom at the Belvedere garden. Disappointing, the least. But not tragic. ;-)

This year (like every year?) the lilac season and the tulip season coincide.

Sunday Morning

... looks like this at the Paula residence:

These Tulips come with a tiny CO2 footprint, 45km travel distance. The grew in Mr Paula's parents' garden in Lower Austria. One week ago they looked very different from now.

For regular readers, this is sight is probably nothing new to you:

 old stripes

 Guess who is in favour of the red half and who is in favour of the blue half? You remember this?

EDIT: 
For the next 8 - 10 weeks you are not going to read anything sofa-related on this blog. Promised!

And this is how the Sunday morning sounds like:

United Future Organization feat. Mc Solaar, Ensemble On Est Ensemble Sans Se Parler. Mc Solaar was the reason I started to learn French. Two decades later the reason sounds still veeery reasonable to me. :-)

Enjoy your Sunday!
Paula

Attentive

This was the tulips-bed, two weeks ago:

And this is today:

 

 

It seems only children take their time and stop to admire the beauty-en-passent. T. says I managed to stay in contact with the child within me. Only do I have to bend my knees to be eye-to-eye with those blossoms. Outch, my back! ;-)

Soft Compositions Striking a Cord

credit:http://www.s44.at/blog/index.php/photoblog/category/beautiful/P30

Tulips in Vienna, 2011

Oops! I just realised I've missed last years tulips! Probably because those yellow/white-flower beds were boring, compared to the glamour, that caused a stir back in 2010:

It were those flower beds in 2010 that made me curious. I wanted to know more about the project tulip in Vienna and ended up paying the municipal gardeners a visit. Recording device included. You do know they start very early in the morning, the gardeners ... 

So ever since then, Mr Paula and I look forward to the new tulips, until they show their colours. 

This year their appearance is lets say, less dramatic, compared to 2010, one could say "more subtle", but way more exciting compared to 2010. It seems they did a wonderful job, those gardeners, who ordered the 1,1 mio tulip bulbs. Take a look:

 The gardeners anticipated the new trend, colour blocking, quite well

So what have we got: 3 shades of fuchsia/pink:

1.

The bright fuchsia to be found in the monochromatic colour-blocking beds as seen above. But attention, did you notice those  tulips inbetween, the ones which are not in bloom yet. Who knows what colour is still to come!

2. 

Two colours, "berry-violett" +  pale pink

(as seen below)

I would call the pale pink colour soft and delicate, compared to the mayimum-hue berry-tone. At the same time, those pale pink tulips are taller than the berry-coloured ones, which puts the whole composition into a unique setting. 

(Consider yourself lucky that I was not your art-teacher. I porbably would have forced you to write pages on stuff like that, flower beds and the meaning of colours. Thoughts on colours in flower beds ... Thinking back, I might have been tortured to write pages on no-sense topics like flower beds in the past.)

For this photo I nearly risced my life - i kneeled down in the middle of the Landesgerichtsstraße, a 3-lane-road in the rare moment while no car was heading my way.

 

Vix, our tulips can be admired under very different circumstances compared to your tulip-experience. The gardeners probably planted those tulips for the pleasure of the drivers stuck in stop&go-traffic during rush-hour?

Mr Paula is still away, I updated him a few days ago and told him the gardeners once more have done an excellent job. I really like the softness of the composition, they do strike a cord in me.

Just in time Vix posted a highly impressive tulip acre in Oregon! I guess that would make this posting a cross-posting? 

Any tulip lovers around to join the passion for the tulips? Show us your beloved tulip flower beds!

Vix, one more year and I promise I will add the label "Tulips", to simplify the search in this blog!

The tulip-documentary has turned into a veritable chronology. So I like to finish with a guess for 2013: orange tulips ( maybe together with white tulips?) 

And my apologies for letting out 2011. Now that I remember, I really had other things on my mind around that time of the year, including an ICU. Isn't it wonderful, how "past" the past can become over time?

Drugged Lilac Lunch Break

Hi again! Here comes a follow up posting.

My lunch break.

Somehow this postings turns out to justify the #1 rank of Vienna on the mercer list. See for yourself:

The not very busy bicycle lane next to the not very busy car lanes
at the ring road (the road goes around the City Center)

This is the gate to the shopping district in the City Centre, the Kärntner Straße.

Douglas House of Beauty.

This photo does not justify the magnificence of this department store. In the back the ceiling elevates and hundreds (thousands?) of Swarovski crystals lighten up the room. This is how I imagine a department store in Ginza, Tokyo. No. Wrong, this IS how a department store in Ginza is. Quiet, friendly sales women smiling when you walk by.

Do you remember the flower bed that was not at bloom yet a few weeks ago? Now it is in full bloom:

Again I am amazed how few flowers get stolen. Only a few have been picked.

on with the lunch break:
Again, people waiting and looking at the fountain. (fountain has been posted a few weeks ago)

Me taking photos of people who take photos

People taking a rest

... admiring the blooming bushes

Funny moment: a pigeon flies at the center of the photo.

These blossoms smell better than any perfume!

I sat on a bench and admired the bushes, eating my Humus sandwich and very much to my surprise the humus was made with olive oil, no sun flower oil. And sesame paste. And lemon juice. This is rare, in a country where the average pesto is made with sun flower oil. Pesto(!)

In case you ever come and visit Vienna, go to the place where they make the fabulous sandwiches.

Paula
writing this post in a drugged state, drugged from from the captivating scent of lilac

PS: Please don't miss the last posting, only a few hours old: So the cranes are moving on the skyline ...