Epilogue

A photographic walk through my wondrous territory concludes. I deliberately did not assign descriptive texts to the photographs. I do not find them to be essential and necessary. Only devoted lovers of the White Carpathian nature can recognize the magical places where I repeatly love to return: Nivy, Pláňavy, Losy, Kopanice, Stará rieka, Rybárech jamy, Zaskálie, Margéta, Rokytka, Šiatory, Horné Salaše, Damachová, Jarošová, Pálenice, Kražiny, Červená skala, Mokrá skala, Branná studňa, Dračia studňa, Zvonová hora…

I have included several photographs of people in the nature photo gallery, who I met at the beginning of my discovery: Mrs. Solařová, living for decades alone in a wooden cottage at the end of Sidonia, Mr. Pavel Chleban, thanks to whose diligence and liking to prune fruit trees I still find some of the fruit trees in the mountains with their branches full of fruits, Mr Húserka’s family, who I found at the turn of September into October in the orchard in Bradelsky in the moment of rest after picking plums and Miloš Růžička, with whom I experienced many unforgettable moments … At Saint Wenceslas’ Day, a few moments before noon, we were lying at the foot of an ancient solitaire beech at Záskalí and ticking the beechnuts with which the moss rug was covered. In front of us, a houndred-fifty-headed herd of bovine animals gathered in the sound of the bell-bell chant, and a pastoral dog Ondra slept between us. The streams of the river in the pass below us were hidden in white fogs, and the warm rays of the autumn sun dried the last drops of rainbow beads from the spider webs in the grass. In these blessed moments, in the midst of the earthly paradise, a deer blew from the shady wetlands of Kornačky. I pulled out a glass cylinder from an oil lamp - I will answer him! Miloš Růžička looked at me, he smiled shyly and whispered softly, „Hide it or you want to alarm him?” I disappointedly returned the cylinder to its place. „Now silence!”. I got a command. Miloš put the burning cigarette in the moss, put his hands to his mouth, and sounded like a deer. In a few moments, with a terrible shout, a huge fourteen-year-old deer ran out from the wall of the forest, and walked through a herd of heifers. The white spikes of the royal antlers and the wet coat with a long mane on the neck in the backlight burned with gold. The king of the forest stopped forty meters ahead, screaming and ripping the ground with its antlers. Ondra’s coat came on his back and the deer understood his mistake! He turned, and the red curtain of leaves of cherry blossoms closed behind him forever. The camera layed idly in the bag and only memories are left …

Photographs were shot in 1980 - 2017 on Pentacon six, Moskva 5 and Mamiya Super 23 cameras using ORWO and FOMA films in the cadastral areas of Brumov, Bylnice, Štítná n. Vláří, Svatý Štěpán, Sidonie, Nedašov, Nedašova Lhota, Horné Srnie, Bolešov , Červený Kameň, Vršatecké Podhradie and Mikušovce.

Antonín Kostka