Views from Everywhere: photos

And I don’t mean the jogging one, although in its time it too was fun, but rather that trip to the airport or train station.

My husband travelled a lot and as we were early risers anyway, it really didn’t matter that he often took the first flight out of Geneva at 6:00. For two years we lived just 5 minutes from the airport then - although all the way across town – there was no traffic: I could get all the way to the airport at 5:00 (remember this was back when arriving an hour ahead of time was not only feasible, but legal and doable) without seeing any other cars and the bonus was sunrise on the way back. Also the bar was open and we often had a coffee together before he walked through the then-easy security check. When our first son was born, it still didn’t matter as just put him to sleep in his carrycot and threw that in the car along with the suitcase.

In the early 80s we were in our “new” (now 33-years-old!) house and again early in the morning I could get there in 18 minutes without speeding if the lights were all green (and they often were). Now I had not only drive in along the lake as it changed from night dark to dark blue to shades of blue and gray, but also the bonus of sunrise over Mont Blanc as I drove across the one bridge linking left and right banks.

There was a smattering of cars going in and maybe two more coming out – still no big deal.

I continued to take my husband to the airport - and was probably the only wife in town who didn’t mind doing so at the crack of dawn – as I loved that peaceful time of the world waking up, of seeing it before about 99% of the rest of the inhabitants in our state and town.

Traffic grew, but the early morning run is still not only doable, but pleasant.

My younger son needed to catch a train this morning at 7:15 and was very surprised that I offered to take him in – but oh what a blessing to yet again experience that early-morning calm and the beauty that was this morning before the sun came up!

A walk in the mountains

1. That this blog should probably be split into several: could; should; won’t

2. That this blog merits checking and re-writing: could’ve; should’ve; didn’t

First thoughts were on blogging itself:

· There are so many thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of blogs out there that one needs simply to pick a subject and do a search (avoiding actually writing “g_____ it”) + blog and you’ll come up with a plethora of authors.

· There are as many styles as writers: fun, simple, serious, logical, rants

· Writers have hundreds of reasons for blogging: a short list, which is by no means exhaustive

o Many, like myself, simply because we have always written and still enjoy writing: I have written diaries, journaled, written letters home or to corporations or to … take your pick. No thought of ever being published, yet no thought of ever not writing.

o Others, published authors, I might add such as my housemate, use it as an exercise in writing every morning

o Others, for professional reasons – or turn blogging itself into a profession

o Yet others, as a means of publishing their trip (be it one single trip, a family event or an ongoing events) or travels as to not have to send a dozen e-mails every time they come across free wi-fi, or a decent connection whilst in Timbuktu.

o Some as a way of breaking into writing

o Some, me again, as a way of allowing oneself to do another favorite hobby: in my case taking photos. If it’s not a blog directly about the photo I can take photos to illustrate the blog!

o Whatever other reason you need that allows you to get an opinion, an experience, a wish out there.

· There are many ways of following a blog: faithfully and in its entirety; sporadically; once. I currently follow only three although I could easily spend all of every day reading blogs on a variety of subjects. So for those of you who noticed that I forgot to put the links to the “doubly washed clothes” saga in my blog of yesterday:

o My housemate’s husband, who moved to Europe after re-meeting her : a very highly entertaining look on how someone experiences Europe when they aren’t a twenty-year-old student . http://lovinglifeineurope.blogspot.ch/2014/05/the-laundry-saga-part-ii-or-no-i-dont.html

o My housemate: a published writer who’s latest book “Murder in Poel” came out this spring. Check out her website for further details: http://www.donnalanenelson.com/

http://theexpatwriter.blogspot.ch/2014/05/the-laundry-saga-part-iii.html

o My younger son: although English isn’t his mother tongue, he has just written a couple of pretty fabulous blogs on his trek in Peru, which will have you feeling that you were actually with him. http://scottschmitzleuffen.blogspot.ch/2014/05/salkantay-trek.html?spref=fb

o http://scottschmitzleuffen.blogspot.ch/2014/05/20th-of-may-2014.html

· I follow these three by being lazy: most bloggers have figured out how to add an app to their blog that allows one to sign up to receive them via e-mail. This means that you get the blog once they have written it and don’t have to remember to go looking for it (my sister K is smarter than I and she has a whole section of blogs that she follows feeding in by SSR feeds…). The beauty of this system is that one can read them either when they come in, glance at them and decide that you don’t need to read it so hit the “delete” button with no one the wiser. Personally I don’t mind the fact that I may be deleted, the statistics run by the site I use don’t seem that correct to me anyway: sometimes there are countries during a week that don’t show up on the monthly statistics; sometimes it reverts back to counting my having re-opened the blog for whatever reason; I don’t do ads (yet, now if there ever comes a day when I need more income, watch out readers).

So, go ahead, look for a subject that interests you, write or read as you choose: enjoy.

My thoughts throughout the walk wandered to the pleasures of being able to walk; not only the physical process (I tend to prefer going uphill as at my age, my heart and lungs seem to be preforming more efficiently than my knees or toes), but also the more metaphysical one.

Did I get my love of mountains and trees from my grandfather, a lumberjack once he emigrated to the USA at age 19? Or from the fact that my mother grew up in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in Wisconsin? Or from the many summer holidays that we spent camping in some of the world’s most beautiful National Parks? I enjoy the beach, but it had better be a remote one at the bottom of a rocky gorge – the only “flat” beach that I ever liked was the one near my little sister, Pismo, CA. For whatever reason I thrive in the mountains: sleep better (which many explain as being an altitude thing), eat better (o.k. so I eat just fine anywhere, but that looked good) and in general a walk in the woods soothes and restores me.

Yes, I can see the Matterhorn from one point on my walk.

Today’s was no exception: overcast, I re-visited many spots that I have seen throughout the years. Not comparing myself to my younger son’s trek as the altitude difference was only 170 meters, but a decent walk nevertheless. The only negative – only half the 10’000 steps that one is supposed to get per day to be in good health. Oh no, do I have to take another walk this afternoon?

Bah, bah, black sheep; have you any wool? Nope I've been shorn.

So now I could go back and change the intro as it turns out that I only had two separate subjects. However, one of the privileges of blogging is being able to write however one wishes: the reader can decide whether or not to pursue so it’s all good “in my opinion” (a “The Good Wife” fan, I have learned not to proclaim anything as the truth, but rather as an opinion: Life is too short for lawsuits!