Looking outside at this time of year, it is mostly gray and rainy in the west of the republic, so it is important for us to add a little color just before Christmas, why not with a small article about the cornflowers that always met with us during the summer, often accompanied along the way, whether during the hikes or the bike tours.

After checking in at the camper pitch and aligning the caravan directly opposite the Monastery Andechs (by the way one of the "hopefully soon not more" few pitches, which also allows caravan as a user, because caravans are now self-sufficient in the water and sanitation, too), we go on a first reconnaissance.

Once more on the road in the area of Lake Constance, our goal this time was to attend the spectacle "Southside", the fair and exhibition for off-road fans and their sometimes very unusual vehicles.

The poppy has always been a distinctive cultural companion in our arable and cultural landscape due to its blood-red flowers, a splash of color in the otherwise predominantly monotonous gray monocultures.

Slowly they ripen, so their red color becomes stronger, the smell more intense until the first fruits fall - the pomegranates, which grow almost uncultivated along the paths and shine so much beautiful in the sun.

Slowly our meeting of authors in Halle approaches to the end. We took advantage of the rainy, but already autumnal morning for last talks.

A short stopover at a small chapel within the surrounding trees on the way up to the ridge of the Jablanica mountain range along the border between Albania and Macedonia had attracted our attention with regard to striking greens at the trees.

Who does not know them, the characters from the Asterix-Comix, especially the infamous Druid Miraculix and his magic drink. And if there should be someone not know:

During our hike through the Falkenstein Castle Park, in addition to the really impressive stone formations and the almost natural-looking paths.

The kumquats or cumquats are a family of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, in the genus Fortunella which is often included in the genus Citrus.

The surroundings of the Campsite Rino in Struga also offers a real lure and challenge for hikes in the area, in addition, the autumnal leaves of the trees lured in unimaginable splendor of color, plus the still lovely sun.

Right now again very much in the news an essential feature of sunflowers, cause they are used massively in advertising for a car brand: heliotropism. But what does it really mean?

Already last year we had noticed strange green balls on the ground in the immediate vicinity of the White Tower, which seem to be kind of green tennis balls on first view.

The really rare Kyllenian Adonis is growing in the northern part of the Peloponnesus in Greece, mainly on the mountain ranges Killini, Oligyrtos, Trachy and Saitas.

The first intensified solar rays in Thessalonica not only lure people back out of the houses and onto the promenades next to the White Tower of Thessalonica, but nature also shows first reactions: almond trees push their buds out and show their first blossoms.

Our hikes and explorations through the nature within the scope of our project work, of course, always let us meet with known plants, so at least we thought at first, but then it turned out to be just little known, when we did some more detailed research.

Aloe vera, also known as the medicinal aloe, is a species of succulent plant that probably originated in Northern Africa, the Canary islands and Cape Verde. Aloe vera grows in arid climates and is widely distributed in Africa, India and other arid areas.

Coffea arabica is a species of coffee originally indigenous to the mountains of Yemen in the Arabian Peninusla, hence its name, and also from the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan. It is also known as the coffee shrub of Arabia, mountain coffee or arabica coffee.

It is from the species of hippophae, a bush or tree type which is forked, thorny and sheds leaves in winter. It is generally between half a meter and 6 meters, rarely it may reach 10 m. high. Its leaves are lanceolate, 3-7 cm’s long, narrow, alternate, gnarled, its upper part is grey - silver colored.

Our trip to the island of Shurdhah in the dam project of Vau i Dejes also brought us a new experience with a fruit and flowering plant which we had already noticed in Platamonas in Greece.