In the Kanton of Schaffhausen there are sunflower fields everywhere. This field is in front of my son’s garden. I said to son No. 2 it must be wonderful when they begin to flower.  He said that had already happened two weeks before and now only the remaining seed heads were left. The farmers rotate their fields and next year something else will be planted in this field. Eventually the heads of seeds will be harvested and the seeds processed to sunflower oil. These fields were dotted around all over the area. Where we live in Kanton Solothurn, we grow rape seed for the oil.

This is an extended view from his garden and you can see the vineyard in the distance. Grapes are grown everywhere in Kanton Schaffhausen. I never realised that have such a large wine production. My son took us on a drive around the area where he lives and it seems that every village has it own church on a hill somewhere.

The problem being that I cannot remember which village was which. I believe this might be Hallau, where he lived before buying his present house.  Again you can see the vineyards outside the village.

The various villages basically look alike – to me. They have their centre with a road running through it, a local administration, a few shops and of course some sort of building concerning wine production. Here the tables had already been prepared for the evening celebrations with the wine.

This building is very old, a couple of hundred years, and was the centre for wine production originally. It has now been renovated and a lot has been preserved. There is a restaurant next to the building where we stopped for some refreshments. They were grilling sausages and meat outside for consumption, but as it was Suday morning we just stopped in for a drink. My son pointed out that they had preserved the original wine press.

Today it is all done with machines, but in those days they had to do it manually, everything being made of wood.

Although Switzerland is a small country, there are many contrasts, and each Kanton (State) as its own characteristics and dialect, like any country.

And back to the present day – it is raining again, but I am not sorry. Our garden was a little on the dry side when we arrived home and one of the first jobs we had was to water the garden. Switzerland generally has the same weather in most places, although in the East it tends to be a little cooler, but still hot enough in the heat wave days. I noticed that where my son lives he really has a wonderful open view of the sky which seems to stretch forever: a welcome scenery for the camera. And now back to normal life. It is always good to go places and see something a little different, but nice to return home.

Enjoy your day, have fun and as goodbye a view of the evening sky from my son’s terrace taken by Mr. Swiss and his telephone camera.