Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

I am not very good at random subjects, so I took a few photos from those that I made over the last couple of weeks, bearing in mind that they should show a few good contrasts in black and white.

St. Katherine Cemetery 13.01 (13)

This is the stream that flows through the local cemetery after a week of rain and a storm, so it was quite fast flowing.

Road to Langendorf via Solothurn 1201 (8)

A drive through our main town of Solothurn and a view of the rooftops.

St. Katherine Cemetery 13.01 (2)

Across the cemetery.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

Colour Your World: Plum

Confetti

It will soon be carnival time in Switzerland, mainly in the catholic areas, which is also where we live. The Kanton of Solothurn is one of the main places to celebrate although Basel has the biggest show, even if it is not a catholic area, but it belongs to their tradition. Our supermarket is already armed for the season and there are bags of confetti that you can buy, even plum coloured.

Colour Your World: Plum

Flower of the Day: 18.01.2018 Kalanchoe

Kalanchoe 15.09.2017

My advice: always have a kalnchoe at home, and you will always have a flower somewhere, at least this that is my experience. These little potted flowers are reasonable in price, arrive in various colours and flower constantly. They do not demand too much attention, just soak them once a week, or when they are dry. They are the survivors and someone told me that the leaves will root to new plants. Of course they might not live forever, but a long while. They will grow taller, but keep their feet/roots to a normal size. I repotted one once, and almost killed it. They are happy plants and comfortable.

Flower of the Day: 18.01.2018 Kalanchoe

Daily Prompt: Shock of the Day

Today it arrived by post. The parcel had crossed the big pond from the United States of America to Switzerland and arrived safely. It was carefully packed in a polstered bag to prevent any injury and I was delighted to receive it. My American cousin, who has the same birth names as I have, sent it. We met somewhere one day on a social sight, and birds of a name feather flock together.

She was doing a stock check of her Pussy hats, in memory of some wonderful marches and noticed she had some to spare. I mentioned that Trump will be visiting Switzerland and it would be ideal, although I will not be demonstrating, just watching the developments. There will be demonstrations in Davos when he attends the WEF Conference (World Economic forum) and perhaps there will be many Pussy hat clad women there. I know that I now have my Pussy hat. She spontaneiously said she would pop a hat in the post and today it arrived.

At the moment we are all homebound due to the three storms that arrived over the last week. It began with Eleanor, was followed by Evi and now we have Frederika. They are all ladies, perhaps they also have knitted hats like this one. This newest storm has topped them all and Germany have closed down their railway system. Roads are blocked in Switzerland and there is a cold wind blowing.

However, I can now spite the winds, because I am protected. I have my Pussy hat. It is even a secret weapon against being invaded by unwanted political visitors. Hold on, here is the shock.

Kitty Cat hat

I tried to do a selfie, but could not capture the ears properly. Mr. Swiss obliged and now I have the perfect photo. Donald Trump are you watching, then beware. I am armed.

Daily Prompt: Shock of the Day

Good Morning

Snow A 17.01 (1)

Yesterday in the middle of the afternoon we had snow. Nothing worth headlines but after the winds and a bit of sun it made a change. It was only half an hour perhaps disappearing again afterwards. This morning there was snow laying on the ground and it is snowing at the moment. Yesterday we had storm Evi which has now changed into another new storm called Frederica, just as powerful  but with snow. It is not a big snow deal as there is a strong wind blowing and it does not really get a good chance to settle. The result is that I am again house bound today. There is no shopping to do and no chance of going for a wheelie in my chair as I would probably get blown off the paths.

Snow storm Elanor

In the meanwhile Trump is planning his occupation of Switzerland for a few days. He is attending the WEF (World Economic Forum) in Davos, Switzerland. Three Black Knight helicopters are already sitting in the airpot in Dubendorf waiting to be used. They were flown in from one of the American airforcd basis in Germany to Switzerland. The idea is probably that when the Trump gang arrive at Zürich Airport, they will be picked up by the helicopters and brought to Davos.

The airport in Dubendorf used to be a military airport for Switzerland, but has now been relegated to a place where you can have open air pop concerts. My No. 1 son attended one once. Now we are being taken over by the “yanks” (pardon the expression). The Swiss are also bracing and preparing themselves for a few demonstrations in Davos showing their dislike of Trump. Looks like it will be an exciting time in little old Switzerland in the next couple of weeks. It seems that Trump is planning to hold a speech at the WEF, I read somewhere that the whole thing is costing America a few million dollars with the organistation of shifting Trump to Switzerland. Who knows, perhaps he is planning on requesting political asylum in Switzerland: one refugee more makes no big difference.

Schlumbergera

In the meanwhile yet another success in the Angloswiss plant world. I bought this schlumbergera, Chrismas cactus, last year and it is flowering again. No big deal, just 4 flowers at the moment, but there might be more. I must say again this camera on the iPhone X is really good. I am discovereing new gimmicks all the time. After choosing the style of photo (portrait mode is excellent with its different styles). you even get depth of focus. I can make adjustments to the conrast and light and even crop on the phone before uploading into my Flickr programme. It is very good for the quick shots for an immediate upload via Flickr.

Today is a day of window cleaning, just about 45 minutes, although I am not so sure if it is worth while letting in the cold winds through the appartment. Perhaps I will do something more constructive, like reading or playing with my computer.

Candle Arrangement

I will leave you with a view from my computer on the kitchen table. I received this arrangement from my lovely daughter-in-law and it burns brightly every morning to accompany my breakfast. Enjoy the day or night, and see you around.