Waves of Happiness

My roommate and I share something wonderful: every once in awhile we’ll feel just immersed in a happiness wave. They come unbidden and not often, nor are they explainable as to why then or there, they just appear.

I had one yesterday as I left the mountains for the trek home to celebrate the Swiss National Holiday August 1^st.

After the cold and rain of Monday, followed by a general clearing out of clouds and bad weather on Tuesday, Wednesday was a brilliant day: the greens were greener, the blues as blue as they’ll ever be – everything was shiny and seemingly new.

Then today – the Swiss National Holiday: it was in 1891 that the date of Swiss National day was first decided upon – August 1 (the chosen date of August 1^st harks back to summer of 1291 when three cantons bonded together, not as a country, but in a pact of mutual support should they be attacked by the reigning Habsburgs).

Then, the Swiss not being particularly rapid when it comes to many things, took over a hundred years before running a vote to actually give themselves the day off. Following the vote in September 1993, the day became an official national holiday in 1994.
 
Celebrations are similarly low-key with a gathering of the community, the reading of the pact and a bonfire. Often children carry lanterns (and yes, some still have real candles in them) and parade around the village.  It is a very special sight to be on a boat in the middle of some small lake in Switzerland’s interior and see the bonfires on all the surrounding hillsides.
So happy vacation to all of you wherever you are – enjoy the beauty of your surroundings.

La Batiaz Bridge, Martigny

Chalet, Les Marécottes, VS

Lac Léman just out of St.Gingolph

August 1 decorations

Guest Editor: Scooby-Doo 2

It is different sleeping in the mountains: tired, but excited so didn’t sleep all the way through.

This morning, I learned that a Sunday in the chalet is entirely different from what I have observed up until now: the hostess got the Sunday paper and proceeded to have coffee and breakfast (peanut butter and jelly) for almost an hour – who could have imagined?

Sunday paper in Switzerland

My window

Then as it was already warm outside I was packed into a backpack and we set off to discover the wonders close to home: waterfalls, wooden bridges for the walkers, etc.

Fountain - many along the way.

Pedestrian bridge

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I even got to hug a tree (don’t I look relaxed about that? The second time I was feeling a bit more confident).

Wild strawberries- nummy...

After resting on a bench in the full sun I could understand her muttering about the heat so, after sniffing out a wild strawberry, I graciously allowed that we could return home (after all I didn’t want her to end up fainting like my mistress’s mother a couple of weeks ago, nor have her throw me over a cliff… amongst the mutterings was “he is just too hot to be carrying”).

The chalet was a cooler 24° (75° F) and as I write, she is taking a shower, so I hope that she will come out with her usual good humor: wonder what’s for lunch?

Sight and Sound

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Both are precious as I possess both glasses/contacts and hearing aids

 

Mountains, clouds like caps on the peaks, summer haze, old wooden chalets, irises, mini pansies, white daisies, roses, lilacs, wilted rhododendrons,

 

orange poppies against wood

stacked for the winter, 

peonies not yet blossomed, 

spring-green trees, stone walls, 

tumbling streams, 

fresh-mown grass… 

 

                                    the odd chickens back in their enclosure.

Crickets, crows, hammers pounding (a roof being repaired), lawn mowers, hedge cutters, the wind in the trees, the odd car or truck, a plane high in the distance, voices, a tinny transistor, rushing streams… 

my pedometer as it counts the steps of my first walk in a week.

24 hours at the end of May

in the Swiss Alps where you can have fall, winter, spring and summer all rolled into one day:

May 23 17:30

May 24 9:00

May 24 9:30

May 24 13:00

May 24 13:00

May 24 14:00

May 24 17:00