First day of Winter, oops

I mean of May.

Which is turning out to be one and the same in any case.

This year has been topsy-turvy and weird all around: no winter to speak of, I think it snowed once at home and certainly didn’t stick, and in recent past we have had horrible, gray, rainy and cold days, interspersed with lovely 20° C days where one would have been forgiven to think that summer was coming early.

I have moved my things back up to the summer rental – so, of course – it is logically that winter followed me, especially since I swapped my winter tires for summer ones just Friday!

Big thick flakes at 6 a.m. this morning made for lovely pictures when I went out mid-morning for a walk: sticking scrupulously to the paved roads – after all the broken bones in my arm are finally solidly knit and I really, really, really, don’t want that to change.

6 a.m. May 1, 2016

This is Spring in the Swiss alps – even at low level as I am at only 1’100 meters.

Magnolia

A cup of snow

Forsythia

Tulips

Purple sticking out of the snow

Snow covering purple flowers

Weather and Life

As I am finally back to walking more and can almost always make the morning trek up to the village for coffee, I also have time to reflect upon the great and the small.

This morning it struck me how similar the weather and life are: I set off in fog so thick that not only were the mountains and the lake missing, but also the row of trees not 300 yards from the sidewalk that I take. No rain though as that had been in the night.

Archive picture - today you couldn't see the trees!

Upon my return, I amused myself taking pictures of the raindrops adorning leaves, branches and plants – fog lifting.

By noon it was one of those beautiful days, warm in the sun and one could almost imagine summer.

By four in the afternoon clouds were appearing here and there, for the most beautiful cumulus.

Some gray in various points of the compass, but by six p.m. again only sunny skies could be seen from out my window. Then as evening drew night, the clouds came back, but with silver linings.

So it is with life: although we perhaps notice the “gray” days more, every life has plenty of everything – unless one is on the extreme scale of awfulness or the other extreme of nothing-ever-bad-happens. For most of us however, life varies with us sometimes being totally surrounded by the fog – incapable of seeing what could be beyond for better or worse. At other times, we are entirely in the sun – beautiful events such as weddings, the birth of a child, a birthday – have us thinking that this is the best of life.

Neither, or both, is the only reality: we only notice the sun thanks to the rain, the gray days thanks to the brighter ones. I would even dare to advance that “life-on-an-even-keel” could be mighty boring.  How else to know the highs if one has nothing against which to measure them? How else to have hope when things are seemingly, endlessly awful?
 

Then there is the mix in between, the mundane, the I-haven't-been-paying-attention to how fabulous life really is. These too count and contribute to the mixture that adds contrast both in weather and in life.

So I’ll take it all, the good, the bad and the indifferent: each is necessary in its own right. And there is beauty in the shadow and the light.

an orchid in sunlight shows the shadow of the overlapping petals

Weather’s wonders

Although rushing to and fro these days, I do try and take the time first thing in the morning to walk up to the village for my coffee as well as to pick up my mail.

Time allowing I wander back through the vineyards – if not I head straight back down the road. Each route has its own charms and reasons for being.

Yesterday was our first true frost (there had been sunny, clear skies and nothing to interfere in between

Sun and earth with the result of horefrost.

First a lot of droplets where the sun had already shown

blades of frozen grass - in the shade

heavily frosted leaves in the open fields

some kind of hunting bird...huge but at a distance

 Then as I was driving back from taking my younger son home in the early hours this morning was rewarded shortly before reaching home with a half moon just coming up – so large, so present – a thing of glory that I alone (or at least there were very few of us !) witnessed.

Later this morning as I drove up to the village (yep a very short night and plenty of fog left me without my usual « need » to walk it), parked then did a few errands on foot came across one tree that has it’s seasons completely mixed up : my calendar says December, the tree thinks it’s spring !

mixed-up tree

Happy families don’t have any history…

And maybe bloggers don’t either – or, as is my case these past few days (weeks) my blogs are rather autobiographical.

 

Now what Tolstoy really said was: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”.

And, although some of you may be bored with the minutiae of my life, others will be enjoying the glimpses of the Swiss and French Alps that they don’t know or can’t readily access. Since I can’t please everyone at the same time, this time I am choosing to please myself. 

First thought upon awakening this morning early – o.k. get up and go take that walk before it gets too hot. The second actually setting out on the walk and turning around at the top on the flat was “hallelujah” it may be a wee bit cooler.

It was – blessed relief.

Since there was a bit of a breeze I decided that lunch up the mountain would be a very good idea and took myself up the cable car and to the restaurant at La Creusaz (for my French-speaking friends as the link is only in French: http://lacreusaz.weebly.com/informations--accegraves.html

A very fresh mixed salad

Steak tartare and its' accompiaments

A burst of freshness as the berries are very tart but ah with the sugar - exquisite.

A bit of a walk then back down the mountain comfortably in the gondola.

looking towards France

Alpine orchids - who knew?

 

Last look at "my" mountains

I might not have much of a history, but it is happy for the moment.

Back in the clouds or…

I’m an angel.

 

Well probably not, but it sure sounds better than simply talking about the real reason that I’m back in the clouds: i.e. the weather.

Which will soon become “THE WEATHER” in our conversations. I mean back when we had our hot spell and I was having to water the hedge for fear that it would die as my neighbour’s gardener had cut it more than half back, I laughing said: “well that’s summer so get ready for July and August to be topsy-turvy awful”. From my mouth to the directors of the climate it seems.

Since I was tired of home under the rain, I thought that I would try the mountains instead. Was glad that I knew the roads well so the fog didn’t faze me. Slept better than ever, but that may have also been the glass of red wine and not the weather.

However, after only 300 steps throughout the morning, thought that I had best brave the elements, regardless. Even in the wet, it is beautiful and the rain can’t totally hide the lovely flowers.

I will remember the cool when I complain about the heat.

Shades of gray streaked with blue or…

Finding the light where one can.

Some of my readers may think that I have a thing about the weather: I do.

When one lives in a place where sometimes the sun doesn’t appear for what seems like months on end (generally from November through April if it’s a bad year), one does tend to fixate a bit on the current state of the weather: shades of gray become interesting; a possible lifting of the fog a topic to be discussed ad nauseum (what else is a blog for?); and the potential of sun a great event. The possibility of snow would be welcomed about now as we have had unusually warm days, more rain than normal and in general even taking apart the shades of gray is less attractive.

So one looks for the odd brighter moment, such as the one below: I was out walking in the natural reserve that Reuters contributed to in return for the land to build their headquarters last weekend. The odd bits of blue made a lovely contrast to the ambient shades of gray.

Recreation of the former swamps along the Seymaz river

Guest Editor Scooby-Doo 3

Ah – lunch was Mexican and good even if not exactly the Tex-Mex of my youth, so why did my hostess think that one measly yogurt for supper was a meal? I mean, really, I need sustenance.

Especially in light of the short night: that storm they had foreseen for late afternoon managed to announce its booming presence – at 4:30 a.m. totally interrupting my beauty sleep.

That, of course, led my hostess to think that I could perhaps benefit from a coffee tasting – in spite of what my mistress had told her (that I couldn’t hold my coffee and would need to be within a 3-foot radius of the facilities all day long!). Some people just refuse to understand certain realities. Good thing she had a husband and a mother who took anti-diuretics and knows where every toilet is in Geneva or any other spot where she spends any amount of time.

Decisions, decisions, cup? coffee?

 

As the weather man was correct, for once, in his predictions that there would be 100% chance of rain, we didn’t move much. What he didn’t say was that it would be for 100% of the day!  My hostess, wishing to spare me I suppose (as I had neither winter jacket nor rain equipment) left me to my own devices, i.e. a nap, and went down to Martigny for coffee and a look around. She returned pronto as all the tourists were shopping and she doesn’t do crowds.

Ah the comforts of home.

Weather wise and just to impress upon you the variations that we deal with here in the Swiss Alps: when we arrived Saturday afternoon it was 32° C on the car thermometer; today when she went to the valley it was 12°C (90°F and 54°F approx.). And then we wonder why we are tired?

Well tomorrow is another day – we enjoyed the break in the weather – and the sun will probably be out again. I could really get used to this “vacationing” thing.

Mixed Day

So, finally after 9 days (yep, one for each hour) I slept through the night: another bout of jet lag is buried; only to be resurrected the next time I fly… in four months.

The laundry is done: both that of the trip and that of my “flight to the mountains”. The latter is back in its suitcase ready for the next trek up to the chalet, the former redistributed.

Have managed to catch up on the mail, and even start getting back into rhythm with the sending of cards, reply answers, replies to inquiries and the like.

Am caught up on Facebook, LinkedIn and my e-mails.

Have started physically replying by telephone to friends, setting up lunch and dinner appointments: have a dinner date with my kids and a couple of luncheon dates with friends as well as the odd coffee date: social life is switching from my travelling family and friends to my hometown ones.

Have also delved into the work world, two general assemblies and one cocktail party already under my belt: work for a client making progress.

Still a ways to go: half way through my four-nights-in-a-row-out; many more phone calls to make, business, doctor’s appointments, friends; dozens of cards, “thank you”s and the like to write, never mind getting back to the cleaning and sorting (an ongoing and seldom productive task) of household affairs.

Weather still cold and rainy, but coffee with a good friend and a great concert tonight makes for a truly mixed day.