Views of Bashkortostan

The beginning of autumn

Bashkortostan has white birch forests intermingled with dark green pine.  There are trees that I cannot name in either English or Russian, but there is one tree of particular importance here:  the linden.  The linden tree flowers in the spring, and bees produce honey from the nectar of these flowers.  Russians regard Bashkirian honey as about  the finest in the land.

A meadow at the edge of a birch forest

 In winter this meadow will be covered with snow, because it is actually the end of a ski slope.  I looked up, up, up and decided it was a slope I preferred covered with grass.

Lake Bannoe

The photo shown here does not do justice to the dramatic look of the hills behind Lake Bannoe.  The low hills surrounding the lake are golden in bright sun, covered with the grass of summer that has turned yellow.  Behind these hills are higher hills shrouded in purple haze.