I was determined to get into town yesterday afternoon, come what may. It did not look so promising when I left home with an overcast sky, but at least it was not raining and temperatures were bearable. My first view when I wheel along is the Jura mountains across the main road to Solothurn, our town down the road which was my target. I wanted to go the day before, but we had a rain shower and sitting in a wheelchair you are exposed to the elements.

I arrived at my target, which was to see the new developments of the building for our town trade fair. My No. 1 son goes through town every day after work and reports on the new developments. We have never had such a tower before, so it was worth a few photos. It all looks quite strange with the background of the town walls. This part is all being built on the old moat. Strange to think that it was all once filled with water, but more in the middle ages to keep the enemy out, which were probably the inhabitants of the non-catholic Kantons. Religion seems to have quite a war history, and we have still have not learnt anything in the meanwhile.

It seems that women’s equality as now reached the building trade and I noticed this lady was also doing her part of building the various pavillions. She might even be in charge. It looks like there will be part of the fair built in wood at the entrance and I am now getting curious as to how it develops. I am hoping they make it all a bit wheelchair friendly as I would really like to pay a visit when it is finished, with my camera of course.

I wheeled on into the old town. This is on the west side, with the Bieltor (tower) which points towards the french speaking part of Switzerland. Biel is about half an hour away by road and has a 40% french speaking population.  Again we have the fairly narrow roads (paved by bumpy cobblestones) and the style of shutter on the windows and the street lamps on the building fronts. I wold add it is all electric, just nostalgic copies.

There was a lady feeding the bird life of the town, so there were a few pigeons around who had already eaten their food, and sparrows who were still gathering their trophies.

After spending an hour with my camera in town I made my way home. I usually cross our bicycle bridge for the other side of the river and cross back again on a very good path on our other bridge which runs beneath the road bridge. It was then I spotted the swan family. They were at a distance, but as luck would have it, as I began to cross the bridge that swam below and I managed to get some really good close-up photos.

I took many photos of them, about 40, but chose this one to show that some of the kids were still in their brown feather dress, although others were now mottled. They still swim around with the whole family together. I find swans are such devoted creatures. The adults are always in pairs, and it seems they mate together for many years.

On my way home along the river bank I met this pair standing on some stones in the river and again I stopped for a few photos.

And now I must go. I overslept this morning, yes even golden oldies do that. Mr. Swiss also overslept: not that we have an important appointment, but we do have some cleaning to do and a shopping trip for the week-end. I hope you are having a good day and managed to awake in time. How comes that a golden oldie has problems with a sleep in – no idea, must be in the genes.

I hope you are all wide awake and ready to go or having a good sleep, keep safe. I will leave you with a photo from one of the town windows of this years geraniums.