Must be primrose season, yes Spring is coming.
Daily Archives: 26/02/2017
Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: February 26, 2017
There is a moment when the sun shines and in this moment your chair casts a shadow. At the same time you grab the camera and capture the moment in time – or is it a chair? Perhaps we were being attacked – ET was here.
Anyone can build a wall, or a fence, but the Swiss: they do it with feeling.
Now what is this? If a baby is born to a family they like to announce it by placing a decorative post with the name of the baby on it where they live. I took this shot, not showing the baby’s name, but you have pleasure of seeing our local castle in the background.
Colour Your World: Tropical Rain Forest
No tropical rain forests in Switzerland, although we do have a few palms growing wild in the Italian speaking part in the South. We will have to make do with Maize which grows during the summer.
Daily Prompt: A Jiggle along the River
I am actually a little too old to jiggle these days, but I do my best. After being confined to the appartment yesterday, I decided it was time to break out again and make the surroundings uncertain. Armed with my camera and cane, I disappeared for an hour. I had planned a walk along the river bank, but this time in the other direction towards town, although I did not actually want to go into our town.
It is carnival season at the moment and this afternoon was the large procession. People dress in fancy dress, play jokes on each other, make a lot of noise and it is not my thing. Of course, there would have been some interesting photos to take of the procession and the music, but I do not enjoy carnival, absolutely dislike it – too much excitement. And so I made a decision to enjoy the quiet of the river, with only the sound of the ducks, gulls and crows, although in the distance I could hear the sound of the carnival, but thankfully only in the distance.
Ok, so what did I see.
I saw ducks of course, lots of ducks, after all the river is their home, I am just a visitor. It seems that Spring is in the air, as they were paddling around in pairs. The last time I visited the river they were still searching for a partner, but now it seems the decisions have been made. The female mallard duck was leading the way and her partner was following. Even in the duck world the ladies take over.
There were a few people taking walks on the river bank. A couple were passing by and I noticed that the male was carrying a camera, but not just a camera. I also had my zoom lens, the 300, but his lens was a third longer and wider. We greeted each other in passing, which is custom in Switzerland when taking a walk, but of course, me with my big mouth wanting to know it all made a remark what an interesting lens he had. I think he was happy about that as he stopped and showed me with pride his super Canon lens which was telescopic reaching from 200 to 500 lens distance, according to what you needed. I told him I never know which lens to take with me, but that would be a good solution. He informed me that he had two other lens in his rucksack just in case he might need them. I was full of admiration – slowly these walks are becoming the photo get together. As we parted, he told me if I walked a little further along the path there were lots of swans to photograph.
Walking long distances is not my thing, so I hoped that the swans would decide to swim in my direction. I think the gentleman was a little mixed up with his ducks. I saw no swans, but gulls and yes, they were swimming in my direction. However they were on the opposite side of the river. Luckily they decided to do a group flight and I managed this photo – not Pulitzer prize suspicious, but being a golden oldie I am not always quick enough for the picture of the year.
In the meanwhile I had found a bench to sit on and could watch the flying show. I am quite good at finding benches, I am now designing a map showing all benches along the river. I think this is a gull in flight, but am not so sure.
I decided it was now time to return home, and then I met a colleague I had not seen for a couple of years. After a conversation catching up on life, we were parting ways when some people walked past with dogs. Not just dogs, but I made the remark what wonderful greyhounds. Another opportunity to get engaged in coversation, which was very interesting. They had four greyhounds, two large ones and two smaller. It seems they were not the normal average greyhound but from a spanish race, cannot remember the name. My dad loved greyhounds, not so much as a dog lover, but as a race lover. Mum, dad and I often went to greyhound races when I was a kid.
And so a discussion developed and I learned that there is also greyhound racing in Switzerland, but not with bets, just for the fun of it probably. And so my little river jiggle was finished (must use the word otherwise people might complain that I am not following the theme of the prompt). And now for a relaxing evening, with the computer and a book and uploading photos. I have done enough walking for today.
Good Morning
If you do not know how to begin the day on the computer, then a sunrise is always a good thing – taken this morning with my phone camera. The sun actually rises a little to the left so I do not get the full impact. Standing outside in my nightdress in front of the kitchen window is OK, as I am sheltered from the eyes of the paparazzi, but I do not really want to take a morning walk – might cause some consternation in the area.
I remember a couple that lived in the street where I grew up in Bethnal Green in the East End of London. He kept pigeons in the back yard, and let them fly now and again for training purposes. They would circle above our heads. When he wanted them to return he would shake a bag of pigeon food and they would answer to the call of food. He also used to race them. They had a dog and at least she wore a dressing gown over her night dress when she took the dog for the walk at around 8 in the morning. There was not a lot of money around in the East End of London in those days, so you made do with what you had.
We also have people taking their dogs for walks where I live. There is one big doggy procession all day, as they make their way down to the river. My feline watches them from a distance and is happy when they are kept on the line.
So what are we going to do today, on Sunday. I have one of those handy lunches that I can start cooking after computer time and let it do its own thing until lunchtime. What is it? A normal pork roast with all the trimmings, served with noodles. I do not have a crock pot, do not want one. I just let it cook slowly in the oven – might be old fashioned, but I like it that way.
Mr. Swiss is now evacuating his drum rehearsal room in town, as the building will be demolished. There is not a lot more to do, as he has already shifted the drum set and a few other bits and pieces back to our hobby room. Now there are just a few light plastic chairs and a collapsable table to move, but Mr. Swiss has also become a golden oldie, so he has organised No. 1 son to help. However, today is the big carnival procession day in town, which No. 1 son likes to visit, so we have a clash of priorities. Mr. Swiss was planning to do the necessary this afternoon, but has now shifted the moving to later this morning, meaning No. 1 son will have to leave his bed earlier than lunch time on Sunday. I seem to have had a family of kids that all slept until lunchtime on Sunday when they were living at home. Must be a modern thing, although I remember doing it myself on Sunday mornings in my teenage years.
I have planned a walk along the river this afternoon to feed my camera with something completely new. We are having temperatures around 13°C at the moment, almost spring. I have crocus already flowering in the garden and noticed that many other plants are deciding to do something instead of just sitting there.
And now I will move on, there are things to do, places to be seen and a vacuum cleaner waiting impateintly to be taken for a walk. Have a good Sunday everyone.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 