Hostas have big leaves, this year mega leaves, king sized, because of the monsoon style rain we have been having. At last they are beginning to flower. These are the first, but it looks like there will be many to come – watch this space.
Daily Archives: 19/06/2016
Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: 2016 Week 25
Looks like it is melon time again
The 3 M’s are everywhere, beware. They tower above you, observes everything, there is no escape. The 3 M’s are watching you wherever you go, judging you. The Swiss secret agency for the local supermarket – Migros, the more M’s the more powerful.
Daily Prompt: Being Aimless
When you reach the stage of Golden Oldie times, the aims are less: mainly becaue you have no idea what to aim for and when you do, you forget what you were aiming for in the first place. I am sure these two plants were not aiming to break through the crack in the wall, it just happened. It is like taking a walk and wishing you had stayed at home, because you realise the walk was not really worthwhile in the first place: probably something to do with being healthy and getting some exercise. I really only take walks to take photos with my camera and try out my new walking stick.
These two plants probably felt the same, “let’s see what is on the other side of the wall”. Now they have arrived and decided it was a mistake, there is nothig on the other side of the wall worth seeing except for someone holding a camera and now they are trapped, so what was the point in going there in the first place. At the age of 70 (almost, another half a year to go) aims shrink, disappear, you just aim to survive the day.
When I was young and lovely I aimed for everything. I wanted to go places and see things, and I did until I met Mr Swiss, had a 4-kid family (2 of my own) and was glad to stay where you were realising that aims could be exhausting and things happened in any case, whether you plan them or not. I aimed to learn another languge, cockney english was not exactly an international asset and so in Switzerland I learnt German, actually Swiss German, no it was Zürich german at the beginning, but due to my aims of building a life with Mr. Swiss, my Zürich german transformed into Solothurn german, which is probably the cockney of Switzerland – another wrong aim.
You see, aims are fine as long as you know what you are aiming for. If you have no aims, then what is the point of finding out what they are. At the moment my aim is to write this blog. I believe in short term aims. There is no point in planning too far ahead, especially at my age, anything could happen and it would only result in disappointment. Mr. Swiss bought two almond croissants yesterday aiming for us to eat them for the afternoon break yesterday. This did not happen as I made a spur of the momet decision to take a walk, even golden oldies take risks now and again, and so my almond croissant aim existed no longer. Today I decided it was now or never, and ate half of an almond croissant, a daring decision. It was delicious, baked in the local supermarket yesterday and still very fresh. I had completed my aim, OK, just half an aim, although a day late beause yesterday I changed to another aim.
I just had a check to see if the plants above had grown further, but they are still where they were. They are still endeavouring to find their initial aim that they had when growing through the crack in the wall.
So you sometimes have the feeling that when you begin to write a blog, you actually do not know where you are going with it. Perhaps the title is not right, perhaps you should forget this aim of writing and do something else. Go for a walk. Wait a moment, the sun has disappeared behind a black tbreatening cloud, rain begins to fall, your aim for a nice healthy walk has become aimless. Perhaps you take a step and fall, break an arm (I am talking from experience). Your aim of a nice quiet relaxing afternoon at home is now a nice quiet week in hospital recovering from the broken arm. Believe me, remain aimless, it is healthier and safer, and just surprise people, like the ivy poking through the wall, go places and do things, but aimless. It is much more fun and surprises everyone.
Good Morning
I decided to take a walk through the village yesterday, just half an hour, in the surroundings. I had been warned by various articles in the local newspaper and by Mr. Swiss that things are changing in the village. We are under siege from the state road repair service. It has been decided that our road surfaces are no longer coping with the increasing traffic, although our motorway has been extended to shorten journeys and to relieve the pressure of traffic in the quiet Swiss villages – go figure.
The first thing I saw was this barrier on the opposite path to my home. You can walk through of course, but it is showing the shape of things to come. I decided to turn left towards the main road. I could already see the next barrier looming in the distance. There was no longer access to the main road. You could see it and traffic was normal, but no way could you cross the road. On the other side of the road there is the path to the local castle, but this was now out of bounds. Crossing the main road was a no go, at least in this part of my village world.
The sign is showing that pedestrians can walk towards the right or the left, but straight ahead is a no go, although on this photo I managed to capture a brave jogger who was running towards me. Did he break the law by crossing the road: a very brave man. I decided to take my life in my own hands, if he could jog on the path, there must be a possibility to walk straight ahead. I discoverd at the top of the path, I could turn right and walk along the fresh new surface of the street
until I arrived at another point of no return. I came from the direction ahead and realised I was in danger, confronted by a raw surface of stones and rubble where the workman had left it for the week-end: again I had to turn left this time towards the village. However, I was now becoming a rebel. Despite walking with the support of a cane, I was defiant. I live in this village, it is my territory and no sign will tell me what to do.
I would also explain at this point of my journey to the unknown, that taking photos with a cane needed for support in one hand is not easy. I had my smaller Canon camera and it was suspended around my neck which was no problem. The problem arose when I actually took a photo. I needed both hands for an exact focus and one was occupied with a cane. I discovered leaning against a wall was helpful, if I found one. Otherwise resting the cane against my legs was a good method, however, if I happened to move my legs the cane slipped in a downwards movement to the ground and I had to pick it up afterwards. Another opportunity was to wedge the cane on the branchs of a bush, if there was a bush nearby. In spite of all these interferences, I took quite a few photos to document my journey. When Scot of the Antartic left his shelter for the last time, he also left some documentary eveidence behind. Mr. Swiss said if you go for a walk take your mobile phone in case of danger, a good piece of advice. He was also on a walk, but somewhere in another direction.
I continued, undaunted and disovered that it was now becoming a patchwork path, some of it had been renewed and some was waiting for renewal. We have our local railway running parallel to the main road which does not help. I noticed that borders had already been placed to show where the future railway walking path would be. Somewhere along the way I discovered that our underground tunnel connection to the other side of the road still existed, which was a possibility to get to the other side. I remembered the joke, which is for me no longer a joke, “Why did the Chicken cross the road” although the answer “to get to the other side” was no longer appropriate in our outpost of road repairs where civilisation ends and your are confronted with the realities of the real world. Did the chicken survive, or are the eggs still waiting to be hatched?
I decided I had seen enough of this brave new world, where you had to be brave to walk along it, and turned into the village. I saw this as I turned the corner.
Not only was our main road under siege, but the enemy was slowing encroaching on the village. Too many building sites are not good for me. I wanted a nice little walk, take some photos and no stress. I decided enough was enough.
To put you in the picture our village main road is being renovated, but we can still use it, although only until the end of June. It will then be closed for a month – no problem. It seems one exit to real life will remain, the one at the end of our estate thank goodness. We had visions of making a detour in the other direction adding half an hour to normal a five minute drive to the supermarket, although this is more heresay that an actual fact. I am now restricted to walks only on my side of the main road as crossing over using the tunnel is too far for me to go alone – perhaps with Mr. Swiss, but it would not be fun.
These things pass eventually, and I can show my photos to my descendents about the day when Feldbrunnen was isolated from civilisation and how we survived. Survival? – we do not even have a village shop, it closed a long while ago because people never found it.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 