April 21-23. Daytime Walks in Eastern Crimea

I was lucky, and I got to Crimea for three days. It was still cold there: a strong wind was blowing in from the sea, which had cooled over the winter.

Spray over the water... ...and yet the surf still reminds one of summer.

Sea urchin.

View from Primorsky toward Feodosia.

Do you see that dark little cloud where the straight shoreline ends and the cape that extends to the left begins? That is smog over Feodosia.

In a small pond (around which I walked on my night strolls) there were pond frogs. What a brazen face, isn't it?

And this is Koktebel.

A view toward Ordzhonikidze... ...and toward Karadag.

A self-portrait in the mirror of one of the roadside diners on the embankment.

A starling has driven away the sparrows... ...while the owners of the bowl are in a relaxed state.

And this is Feodosia.

In my opinion, it is cold even for the gulls.

Swans pose by the shore.

The young ones are marked by dirty patches.

This makes their contrast with the adult plumage clearer.

Coots.

And why is it doing that with its legs?

The favorite topic of conversation among Crimeans is how the new masters of life take control of any property and demand a share of every money stream flowing through Crimea.

And this is the surroundings of Ordzhonikidze.

The settlement lies on a cape.

This is the road to the westernmost beaches on the northern side of that cape.

An old man in a black burka tends goats on the mountain slopes.

A thoroughly Asian landscape.

The sea is cold, but from afar it seems gentle.

Iris.

I should ask what this plant is called... ...but at least there was plenty of it.

Very hairy beetles, reminiscent of rose chafers.

More irises.

Crimean lizard.

The swan's bones have been neatly gnawed, and the snow-white feathers turned out to be useless to anyone.

There are plenty of fossils around Ordzhonikidze.

The stone bares its teeth.

Looking for interesting stones. ...As soon as I got into the water, the weather turned bad. The camera battery unexpectedly died, and as I made my way back through the heavy rain that seemed to have covered all of Eastern Crimea, I myself could hardly believe that just moments earlier the seashore had been sunny and pleasant.