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The guest of the yesterday’s instalment (on the 8^th of June), the last one before the upcoming summer holiday, of the Łambinowice Museum Meetings was nature existing on the grounds of the former Stalag VIII B (344) and the Old Prisoner-of-War Cemetery. Maciej Aleksandrowicz, chief specialist of the Department of Rural Development at the Marshal’s Office of Opole Province, passionately talked (and showed) about the trees, bushes and birds which can be observed there.

The meeting with the participants of this botanical and zoological walk started in front of the Museum building in Łambinowice, from where we cycled to the Chestnut Alley, one of the few remains of Stalag VIII B / 344 Lamsdorf. It was there where Maciej Aleksandrowicz – a naturalist, sozologist by profession, specialist, among other things, in dendrology and dendrochronology, was introduced by the Director of the CMJW, Dr. Violetta Rezler-Wasielewska. He explained to the walking group the intricacies of recognizing the types and species of trees by paying attention to the shape and colour of needles and leaves of the European larch, chestnut, maple and field maple, small-leaved linden, and Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green/red ash). At the same time, he easily recognised the singing of the nuthatch, common blackbird, European robin and Eurasian blackcap.

The second part of the meeting took place at the Old Prisoner-of-War Cemetery, at a monumental beech and a wych elm resembling a giant umbrella. The group also stopped at a magnificent Norway spruce, a towering ash and an interesting specimen of a small eastern white pine from the north-eastern part of North America. During the walk, the participants were also introduced to various methods of determining the age and history of a tree. One of them was the counting of the rings of a felled tree, and the other was the use of an instrument called Pressler borer.

The meeting ended with a quiz, in which by giving correct answers to the guide's questions, several people won an interesting publication entitled Site Of National Remembrance in Łambinowice. The historic and natural path, of which one of the authors is Maciej Aleksandrowicz.