It is another sunny morning in the Swiss countryside. Even the birds are now singing, but no dawn chorus up to now, just a little later. They are still having a lay-in in the morning.

Yesterday afternoon was again shopping, but the store was quite empty which I was glad for. There were enough parking spots free and I managed to capture the one at the end next to the trolleys, meaning not so far to walk with my stick and shopping bag. I generally walk around the store crossing off the items on my iPhone list that I have picked up and when the list is empty it is time to go home. At the moment it takes a little longer as I am driving on the main road and I get the Friday evening traffic. On my normal country road they are doing repair work which means one way traffic and competing with oversized road machines.

As tea was just a bought pizza from the supermarket, I had no stress with cooking. No. 1 son is off this evening on an open air concert so another stress free cooking evening, although he really does not give any extra work, although it means that I will have to shift the laundry into the cellar on my own to fill the machine, as he usually obliges: all part of the daily work.

I noticed in our area that the farmers are now busy ploughing their fields and sowing the seeds for the crops. There are often tractors on the roads. I used to take their photos but now no longer have an opportunity as I am driving and no longer operating from the passenger seat.

I also noticed that the builders are busy at the local cemetery. After a certain amount of years (about 40 I think) the graves are removed to make room for the next customers otherwise the graveyard would no longer have any free spaces. This is custom in Switzerland, although if you are amongst the wealthy you can buy the ground and then no-one can touch it. Nothing seems to last forever.

Here is another photo of the stork that decided to land on the farmer’s field. There is a small problem with the local storks at the moment. It seems that a stork pair have now built their nest on top of our concert hall in the local town. When I read this in the local newspaper I decided that would be the target of one of my next wheelies into town for a photo, probably this afternoon. However, the town authorities are not so happy. Apparently storks have quite a lively recycling system and the results can be quite messy, which means that the concert hall will not be appearing from its best side. Also the stork nests are large and heavy, meaning that when mum and dad fly off to Africa or Spain or wherever in our Winter, they are left with removing them and will probably need a crane which in the long run we are all paying for in our taxes.

Yes nature is wonderful, you just have to keep an eye on it.  It can get a little expensive.

And I will now move on with my daily tasks of cleaning my nest.  My mother-in-law always spoke about making her nest, when I realised that the word “nest” is a Swiss German slang expression for bed, although Mr. Swiss said I should not use it, it does not sound very nice. We foreigners do tend to pick up the wrong expressions now and again, especially if profanities are included. It sounds so good.

Have a good Saturday everyone and enjoy. I will now enjoy the daily chores and take a walkabout with my vacuum cleaner, or perhaps just take it easy, but first of all to the bathroom.