Autumn in our garden

As promised and as has become customary for me every season, here is a gallery of photographs taken in our garden this past autumn. Get a cup of tea and sit down to enjoy them, I’ve got 293 images for you!

Events

Photos from a recent snowstorm

I know late winter snowfalls are a hassle for most people. I know. Especially after spring seems to have arrived. Having to deal with piles of snow after dealing with it all winter long is not fun for most people.

I am not most people. I love winter. I love snow. I love the cold. And when more cold weather comes, I enjoy it. Like this recent snowstorm. I went outside and took photos in the thick of it. Came back wet, because the snow was melting as it was falling. My camera was thoroughly wet. My lens was wet. Neither of the two are waterproofed. Thank goodness they’re still working.

Remember, it’ll be warm soon enough, and before we know it, it’ll be so disgustingly warm that we’ll be sweating through our clothes and our cars’ ACs won’t be able to handle all the heat. That’s disgusting weather for me. That’s filthy weather for me. It’ll be here soon enough, unfortunately. So I’m going to relish the snowstorms while I still can.

Enjoy the photos!

This is melting snow, cradled in the curled leaf of a honeysuckle vine.
This tree is over 30 years old
During a recent snowstorm
During a recent snowstorm
Blowing in the wind of a recent snowstorm
Sitting under one of our fir trees during the snowstorm. She’d come outside to be with me as I was taking photos.

Places

Spring fog

We had some lovely fog during this week. Dreamy but driveable, as I call it: enough visibility on the road to see where you were going, with enough atmosphere to make everything seem otherworldly. As I’m wont to do, I gallivanted through the local forests with my camera, enjoying myself. I couldn’t do it too much, because duty called. In my case, my current duty is to purchase materials and supervise the ongoing restoration work at our country estate: an old Saxon fortified church and parochial house in Magarei, built during medieval times, now in sore need of loving care. So as I was driving back and forth between Mediaș (known in Saxon as Mediasch) and Pelișor (known in Saxon as Magarei), I’d park the car on the side of the road and run off into the forest, camera in hand, clock ticking on my wrist, spend 10-20 minutes hopping over the molehills (there are quite a few of them this year, just about everywhere around Magarei), take my photos, take a few seconds to listen to the sounds of the forest, which are lovely this time of year, then I’d run back to the car to see to my work. Only a few birds have begun to sing among the trees, so what I mostly heard were the sounds of water droplets (fog condensate) falling onto last autumn’s foliage on the ground. It was a lovely sound, a muted sort of “mpphhh” that punctuated the fog-muffled silence of the forest, and since I love silence and hate man-made sounds, it was quite perfect.

Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
In the countryside near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania

Some mornings I wake up early. It’s not often that it happens. I’m a late sleeper, always have been. But when I do wake up at the crack of dawn and it’s snowing outside, I will get out of bed, put on some warm winter clothes, grab my camera and head out for a walk. Today was one of those days.

As I write this, about three hours after taking the photos, it’s still snowing lightly. This was a good snowfall. We’ve had some other ones this year, of which one in particular sticks in my mind. It happened earlier this week, with snowflakes almost as big as my palm. That was magical — but it didn’t last. With -1 degrees Celsius outside right now, this snowfall looks like it might last longer than a few hours, so that makes it the first good snowfall of this winter.

As always, I hope you enjoy the photos. These were taken in the historic town center of Medias — known as Mediasch in German and Medgyes in Hungarian — and known to me as my hometown.

A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania
A dawn walk through the historic town center in Medias, Transilvania, Romania

Places

A morning walk through the snow

Places

The fortified church in Mosna

The village of Moșna, known as Meschen in German and Muzsna in Hungarian, is first mentioned in written documents in 1283, and there is evidence that a settlement existed there since the 1st century AD (source). Moşna was also the home of Stephan Ludwig Roth (1796-1849), a famous Saxon priest, pedagogue and human rights campaigner (source).

The Saxon settlers in the area first built a Romanesque basilica in the 13th century, which was then modified and expanded in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in the Gothic style. The man responsible for the project was Andreas Lapicidas of Sibiu (Hermannstadt), a master stone mason, known as Endreas Steinmetz in Sachsen. His initials can be seen inside the church, carved on a lintel.

The Moșna fortified church is one of the biggest in Transilvania and it is a remarkable work of Gothic architecture. The church itself is structured around three naves with ribbed vaults for ceilings. The naves are separated through four pairs of columns, the ones in the west side having been made of bricks and decorated differently so as to preserve the eastern group of columns intact, since the latter was erected using stone from the pillars of the former Romanesque basilica. Inside, the most noteworthy architectural elements are the door to the sacristy, the stone pulpit and the monumental tabernacle which measures 11.05 m in height.

The fortifications include five towers and a 9m defense wall that surrounds the church and allows for ample space inside the fortress. The bell tower has seven levels and three bells, the oldest of which dates from 1515. The gate tower in the south-eastern corner has five levels. The northern side of the fortification is guarded by a tower with four levels. A shorter, three-level tower stands to the south and it hosts a museum dedicated mostly to the trades and customs of the Saxon community but which also includes exhibits discovered during various archaeological explorations, such as coins and fragments of weaponry.

When we visited in 2011, we arrived right around noon, which as some of you may know, is the worst time of the day for photos. I also had with me a camera that was more remarkable for its zoom (30x) than the dynamic range of its sensor and the quality of its photos. I plan to visit again soon and take some photographs that will do the place justice. It’s undergone significant repairs and restoration work since 2011, so it looks different now. We’ve actually revisited it just a couple of months ago, but it was for a photoshoot for Ligia’s ongoing project, Straie Alese, so I didn’t focus on capturing the architecture.

Enjoy the photos!