The last photo of my sedum until later this year. This was taken on 20th September, 2017 when it reached its darkest shade of pink. It is still in the garden, but now only with dry flower heads. I always keep it until Spring is around the corner to add a little bit of colour to the winter garden.
Last year throuout the summer months, actually from April until October, our life was dominated by builders, by their noise, their dirt and their machines. One day they disappeared from our lives as quietly and sneakily as they arrived The scaffolding was removed, gone to the place where poles and rivets rest until their next work.
The voices of workers with their mixed tongues of german, italian, some french and arabic disappeared. The crows and the magpies returned. No longer were there metal objects such as nails and rivets laying between the grass blades in the lawn, it was replaced by grass seed and earth worms: nature returned to claim its rightful place.
One day I was in the garden, and what did I see? A crane was looming above my head. I could only see the top part from my garden. Were they returning, would they be back? No, it was in another part of the village. This was not a complete renovation of an already existing building as was in our case.
This was the building of a new building. The old one had served its purpose, had been demolished, and in its place there would be new, more modern, better isolated house, with the newest norms, because it is all due to the norms. Norm is the word of the future. I took a walk in the village, rejoicing in the cows mooing in a nearby field, welcoming the rural pleasure of silence and then I heard it. The drone of a turning crane.
As I turned a corner I saw it. Where there was once a nice house, not more than 20 years old, there was an empty space and a hole in the ground. The foundations were being laid for yet another new house, but this time a building containing 7 appartments. How do I know this? This morning I read in the local news that protest had been made about this new building. It was too big, too massive for our little village. A new house, perhaps with two appartments, would have been more appropriate. Neighbours living in the area have filed a protest with the local gods, but the local gods have turned it down, saying there is no reason to stop the building of this new block.
As I walked on further in my part of the village, I noticed one comfortable house after the other, populated by families of doctors, lawyers, businessmen and dentists, or just those that were born with what it needs. Each house has its own garden, a garage to accomodate the BMW and the wife’s mini. There might even be a pole holding a basket ball net, perhaps even a goal construction for the boy’s football practice. Every garden a neat little paradise in its own right. You might see a scaffolding here and there where the facade of the house was having a new coat of paint.
I belong to the lower class of inhabitants of the village, I live in an appartment house. There are 13 appartments alltogether, but newly painted and renovated. Life is good if you can afford it.
Things are looking good this morning. It is not every morning I get a sunrise like this one, and there are even a couple of planes running through it. It’s cold, but not too cold and you even get an outline of the Bernese Overland in the distance. In the montains they still have villages cut off by snow and avalanche danger and there are high water levels everywhere. One of our local railway connections was affected by a landslide. Luckily it was in the evening and only one person in the train as passenger, so no injuries. The railway line is now out of action for a few days meaning that the journey to behind the next Jura chain will now take an hour instead of a few minutes.
In the meanwhile today is the day, Trump will be arriving for the WEF conference in Switzerland. I have heard that his only task will be to make a closing speech although he is booked in at a hotel. He will be living amongst snow for a couple of days, so I hope they find a heated golf course to keep him busy. I do not think he does any winter sports. There have been big protests in Zürich about his visit. There are always protests again the WEF conference but this time everyone is showing banners showing “Trump go home” putting it mildly. We have quite a reactionary left wing in Switzerland and protests have been organised in Zürich and Geneva. Shop windows belonging to Amerian concerns have already been smeared with paint balls, although none have be smashed up to now. The police are holding themselves back. The actual conference is being held in Davos and our brainy police have banned all protests in this village, with the excuse too much snow. Probably they just want to keep it all under control and show a nice face to the public and Mr. Trump.
I took a wheelie (with wheelchair) through my side of the village yesterday afternoon down to the river which is quite high at the moment. Wherever you look there are piles of tree trunks from the trees that fell in the storm last week, waiting to be transported. As I sit here I can here a chain saw in the distance sawing through the logs to make them smaller.
I had a bit of a problem with my photo programme yesterday evening. He who will not be mentioned and also has a link, pressed something on the iPad which should not have been pressed. This resulting in 500 photos being uploaded which are already there in a file which is only temporary for new photos. It disappears when I organise the photos. I spent just over an hour deleting them all, whch was most inconvenient. The computer took over unfortunately.
Apart from deleting photos yesterday evening I had a wash to hang and in between read further on my latest book, “Mr. Mercedes” by Stephen King. Stephen King is always a good read, and this is his first attempt and a policie criminal story. I noticed that all these police criminal murders by various authors have a strong similarity. Of course it depends on how it is written, but I miss the supernatural surprise effects by Stephen King. I believe this is the first book of a Mr. Mercedes murder series.
And now to move on. The local supermarket is waiting for my custom this morning and my appartment is waiting for the visit of various cleaning appliances. I can already hear the sound of a vaccuum cleaning motor in the living room. We divide our daily chores.
Keep safe and relax. Trump is now away on his Swiss holiday. I will leave you with a view of the Jura mountains from our village (with a bit of a crane on the righthand side).
I am Ahmed Abdi, a Wordpress blogger and storyteller who searches for stories that inspire people. I love writing because it’s a reflection of how I perceive the world around me. Lost in a world of endless chaos in my childhood, Unforgettable moments of tragedy and triumphs taught me the art of storytelling where I found myself through letter writing and then turned into stories but then sadly had lost everything I wrote for years. In 2018, I decided to create a Wordpress blog site that would allow me to store and retrieve every piece. Stories from my community, city and people are what make my writing so interesting and inspiring! I’m a tea lover so a cup of tea sometimes makes my blog.
"Summer is the Season of Inferior Sledding" -- Inuit Proverb. Martha Ann Kennedy's Blog, Copyright 2013-into perpetuity, all rights reserved to the author/artist.
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Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 