Oh dear, what to write about a good morning when the mornings are dreary and dull outside, no snow, no rain, no nothing, just complete boredom seems to reign. However, I always have something to say or show, even if it is only a normal average breakfast, and normal on my side means that the computer is sharing the joys of the morning. I have now fired it up and am ready to go.
I also had a few additions to my cloud shopping list, shared with Mr. Swiss and had a brilliant idea to make a cloud of reminders. The things that golden oldies tend to forget two minutes after they decided it would be a good idea. I did not want to keep it to myself but let Mr. Swiss share on a cloud. He does not seem to be so keen on the idea. Shopping lists are one thing, but the important stuff that should be dealt with often gets lost on the way. I seem to have nothing better to do.
Today is the big day, I will pick up my new iPhone X. I enjoy all these new gadgets, but when they are working. I do not enjoy setting them up, but the guy in the store will do it for me. My cloud etc. is synchonized, so what could possibly go wrong?
We had various prints in the snow outside when the snow arrived. The big ones with the imprint of a shoe are those of Mr. Swiss as he plodded to the bird house to fill it up with birdseed. The birds are eating rapidly at the moment and are we buy a 5 kilo bag almost weekly. We have the biggest, fattest birds in the area. They are having problems balancing on the trees due to overweight. On top of this I feed the crows and magpies every morning with the bread remainders. They stand and wait for the food arrival.
The other prints are those from blackbird feet as they are the only birds that tend to hop nearer to our living quarters.
Otherwise I am deep into my second Essex Witch Museum Mystery: A Strange Sight the second book in a trilogy involving ghosts and witches, not only in Essex, but in this book, in a restaurant in London. The authoress, Syd Moore, writes in the first person of a lady that relunctantly inherited the museum from her grandfather. However, she continues with her partner, the curator of the museum, to get more involved in the mysteries that occur. I very much like the amusing style the writer has. Things are not always as they seem. Even her grandfather’s family has a few strange occurrances, especially when the grandmother disappears leaving two small children with her husband in the middle of a performance she was giving in connection with her powers as a medium. OK, read it yourself, but I can recommend book 1 which I have read, and book 2 which is for me a bit of a page turner.
And now to get ready to prepare for my shopping tour on the road to the supermarket. It is no longer as snowy as it was, it has got warmer, and rain is predicted until Christmas, afterwards overcast, but no snow for the time being. It does not look like a white Christmas here, but more a wet one.
Let’s have fun all the same with our computers and daily life and remember, if you are freezing, somewhere in the world they have a heat wave.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Whoa! Those trees look cool with the snow stuck to them like that. They look cold. Can ‘cold’ be seen? It must be cold for the snow to stick like that.
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When temperatures are freezing then everything is cold, even the trees. One of the reasons we have no palm trees in our part of Switzerland.
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You know, the windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, lives in Seattle and Oklahoma City. There is a dwarf palmetto that is native to the Southeast corner of Oklahoma, which means that Oklahoma has as many native palms as California, Arizona, New Mexico and even Hawaii. (Only ONE palm is native to Hawaii!) I think that is funny trivia, and shows that there are some palms that tolerate very cold weather.
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There are plams growing in the Italian part of Switzerland: Lugano and Locarno etc. and there are also some in Montreux. There are just a couple of special places in Switzerland that have a warmer climate, but probably the type of palm you mentioned in your comment that are more of a hardy variety.
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They are quite tough. The funny thing is that, as much as I enjoy palms when I am down south, or even in San Jose, I do not like them everywhere. They look silly here with redwoods. I think they look sort of odd in Oklahoma too.
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The Witch Chronicles sounds like a must read. I will download it to my Kindle fire soon. I must also check to see if it’s available as an Audio Book.
My job keeps me busy but I’ve taken every opportunity available to photograph the many Holiday Window Displays and decorations around New York city. The Holiday Window Displays and decorations are quite creative and fanciful.
Congratulations on your new Apple iPhone X.!
😀😁😄😎🤗⛄☎☏📞📠💻🖥⌨🖨
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I can only recommend the trilogy, but I would begin with the first book, Strange Magic, to put you completely in the picture from the beginning. I also take photos everywhere of everything. I am sure you get some good shots in from New York at Christmas
I now have my Apple iPhon X and am ready to go.
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Thanks. I will get the trilogy. Glad to hear that you received your Apple iPhone X. Please let us know of the picture quality. Looking forward to seeing your snapshots. 📸📷📹🎥
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Are your blackbirds ‘Amseln’? Those tiny footprints next to your hubby’s ‘huge’ feet…. touching!
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Ja, sie sind Amseln
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That sounds quite an interesting book. I may have to check it out.
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I can only recommend it, but I would begin with the first book of the trilogy “Strange Magic”. What I like are the references to Essex. Although I grew up in East London, Bethnal Green, all my family moved into Essex when they began the slum clearance in the East End. My parents also moved to Dagenham and I had an uncle in Harold Hill near Romford.
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I usually like to start at the beginning of a series whether it be books or television or I find it hard to get into it. My dad’s family did more or less the same as yours moving from Stepney into Essex so it would interest me too.
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Enjoy your new phone! I need to get a new one. I am still using one issued to me from work…in 2010! It is no longer a smart phone…
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I just came home after picking it up. Everything fixed and all I have to do is play a bit at the edges.
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Looking forward to hearing how it goes with the new phone!
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I picked it up half an hour ago. The guy at the phone place set it all up for me and I am ready to go. I will now spend my time in between exploring the possibilities.
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I love the shot of the tracks in the snow! Enjoy your new phone!
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I just had to capture the bird feet, it was almost a work of art.
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