Daily Archives: 03/08/2018

A Photo a Week Challenge: Music

Posted in A Photo a Week Challenge, Uncategorized by

017

You asked for music so here it is. My husband Mr. Swiss, on the drums on the left, and the others have been around for so many years, they more or less grew up together in the jazz world. No traditional jazz here, think of mainstream and you are near to it. Mr. Swiss loved jazz from the beginning when he had his first drum lessons as a young teenager. We now have two sets of drums, in the hobby room in the cellar. Thank goodness we have good insulation and he can practice.

The photo was from a jam session in 2012 in a  renovated farmhouse that belongs to one of the music colleagues. They sprout up everywhere here. Now we are 6 years later. The jam sessions are now few and far between, the youngsters now golden oldies, but they can still play and still have their fun.

And here is another one in a local restaurant with another group. And me, I can play piano, but nothing to appear on stage with and I am one of the most qualified experts on Bebop and mainstream as a part time job. When you are married for 50 years to a jazzer,  you become a part time expert.

Music Leue 036

A Photo a Week Challenge: Music

RDP #64: Novel

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Snow 07.11 (4)

Snow in August in Switzerland? Yes. the heat wave  has at last released its grip on Europe. The Swiss are now busy fetching their skis from the attic and garages are inundated with requests for fitting the winter tyres on the cars. No longer do Mr. and Mrs. Swiss have to water their parched lawns, nature is doing it all for them by snowflake.

After the summer of the century with temperatures hitting over 35° C daily, we now have Winter at the beginning of August. A little earlier than usual, but it all has to do with the climate change it seems. And there are still a few ignorant politicians that refuse to believe it. Instead of taking a cooling swim in the local river it has now become the local ice rink. What happened to Autumn, you might be asking. It seems that this year Autumn was cancelled from the programme. The trees shed their leaves some time in Summer due to the high temperatures and lack of water. There are even some stores that have already begun to advertise for Christmas Shopping and are selling Christmas Trees.

Put your bathing trunks away, deflate your swim rings and put on your winter boots. Get out the snow shovels and start shovelling. Make the most of this novelty, it might not last very long. There are already reports of Sahara sand clouds moving towards the alps, the Sahara decided it also wanted some snow and is making room for it.

In the meanwhile a lonely cat can be seen searching for some shade beneath a tree. He has not yet noticed that the seasons are a changing.

The lonely cat

RDP #64: Novel

GoodMorning

Posted in Good Morning by

Sunset

We are living a strange summer this year. Perhaps not so strange, warm hot weather belongs to the summer, but this year it is a little over exaggerated. No. 2 son paid a visit yesterday evening and we were sitting out on the porch. I was explaining my methods of taking photos with the phone camera, and there was a cloud above. It was approaching the twilight hour, so caught one of the last sun rays as a reflection. This photo is the result. Looks quite eerie as if it had a hidden meaning, like the apocalypse us coming, although that is probably my wild imagination.

As you get older you forget some things, but I cannot remember such a summer as this one. The heat is continuous, it does not even cool up so much at night. The fields where the crops are growing are drying out, fish are dying in the rivers because of the heat. An advantage is that the snail and slug population seem to have disappeared, but there are other insects scuttling around and even they are getting slower and less.

Bench
At the moment it is a real end of the world doomsday feeling and we golden oldies are feeling the disadvantages. My excursions into the unknown with my wheelchair are now reduced to none. It is too hot and I notice that there are less and less people around. The town is empty but the river is full of swimmers cooling down in the water.

Swans and swimmers on the Aare

Even the swans are wondering why their space has so many other species with two legs at the moment.

We have a week-end shopping trip before us, but are really out of ideas on what to buy and eat. The appetite suffers under the hot weather and you have no wish for any food.

Golden Rod

My golden rod is now flowering in the garden. Every evening Mr. Swiss and I divide the task of watering the garden. I notice my neighbour is also busy at the same time with her hose.  We used to have showers of rain now and again to do the job for us, but that seems to be a thing of the past. I have a camera ready to take photos, but in this heat I no longer have interest in going anywhere. Is this the result of the climate change? Or is it just one of those things that can happen? There used to be dinosaurs on the earth and for some mysterious reason they all disappeared, so who knows.

And now to move on in my usual routine and hope to find a rain maker somewhere. Europe is quite hard hit with the heat as it is really exceptional. I am now off to cool down with a vacuum cleaner, so have a good day everyone.

Hibiscus