The titan arum in the Botanical Gardens is in flower. That is a spectacle worth seeing, firstly because the flower can be seen in our latitudes only in the botanical garden and secondly because it happens infrequently. It’s even worth an article in the newspaper. We went with my youngest to see this spectacle. The weather was lousy, cold and rainy. And in the Botanical Gardens there was a long queue. That gives it even greater rarity value. Many people wanted to see this natural wonder. Next to the plant stood the happy Director of the Botanical Gardens and gave all who wanted to hear information about this strange plant.  He beamed with delight as if he were announcing the birth of his first child. It was impressive, the atmosphere was replete with pride and wonder, simply a wonderful event, which will long remain in our memories.    

We then moved on to visit grandmother. And in the streams in the surrounding woods beavers have settled. For more than 30 years they had disappeared and now they have returned. Within a short time, their creative urge has left a significant influence on nature.  The beavers have felled numerous large trees, dammed the water, raised the water level in the stream by half a meter. The beavers are shy and rare and we wandered along their tracks in astonishment.

But we have promised grandmother to fetch her some paint from the village. We continued our journey. In the meadow beside the road cows are grazing. It’s a strange breed, which I had never seen. They are black and in the middle they have regular white stripes. It looks as if an artist had taken a wide paint brush and marked all the cows. There were also a lot of very small calves. And suddenly we noticed that almost next to the road behind the electrified fence at this very moment a calf is being born. The cow had turned anxiously towards us and we chose a distance, which no longer seemed to disturb it. It was a special happening to follow the birth so closely in the nature and to be amazed at how easily the cow had managed it.        

We had to fetch the paint the next day because we were so fascinated that we didn’t arrive in the village until the shop was already closed.

These were unique, one-off events, which you couldn’t have planned. The appeal of the special, the unique is astounding and given to what it drives the individual, the more so.

The titan arum is still in the Botanical Gardens but now is only an inconspicuous plant, because it flowers only for a week, while the construction skills of the beavers can still be viewed. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll send you the GPS coordinates.