It looks better than it actually is. This was 8.00 a.m. this morning, but since I began writing this piece another couple of hours have passed. We now have sunny weather after some heavy showers of rain during the morning. It rained most of the night, but I am not complaining. Temperatures are now more normal and I can enjoy it much better. The heat wave was really not so good for me.
Yesterday the gardener came and went and left me with a wonderful tidy garden. The grass and weeds growing between the paving stones are gone.
When the gardeners were finished a small flock of birds came to examine the work. I thought they were sparrows, but after a closer look I decided they were something completely different. They have red tail feathers. Could it be a so-called black redstart which are also at home in Switzerland, although this one does not look very black on the wing feathers. If anyone recognises it let me know. I have never see them before in my garden. There was a little flock of them flying around examining the garden, probably for anything edible.
Otherwise I made myself busy yesterday backing a focaccia – a sort of Italian flat bread. I had quite a bit of bread left from the week-end and baking a new half kilo loaf would have been too much. Focaccia is quite good for a bread fill-in. The picture is before I baked it, with fresh rosemary needles from my herb bed on it for the flavour. My No. 1 son found it quite suspicious and stuck to the bread from the week-end, but he tried a piece and eventually it was all eaten, so it seemed to be a success.
It was a cleaning lady morning. I also got a delivery from my store. I had ordered a large piece of pork neck, so I was busy cutting it in slices, vacuuming and freezing it in portions. I now have enough for the next couple of months. It cooks nicely on a slow heat and is quite tender.
I will probably remain at home today. It was quite an exhausting morning with my various chores and dinner is also cooking.
It would not have been a normal day yesterday without a visit from Roschti, the neighbour’s cat. He is getting quite fussy. I always give him a small selection of cat treats, but now he just has a sniff and moves on. He might come back a few hours later, although our other cat visitor might pass through and eat them all, and then Roschti has had some bad luck.
I will now leave you. Have a good day and make the most of it.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Good Morning!
We got a bit of weather too. Although not as interesting as yours, it is strange for our mild climate. It drizzled a bit overnight. There is nothing strange about that, except that it was so warm and dry just recently, and now it will stay cool and damp for a while.
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It must be news when it rains in California. They even wrote a song about it because it never rains in Southern Caliornia. Better than having fires.
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Ha! You remember that?! How funny. Brent and I still joke about that, as well as ‘Do you know the way to San Jose?’. I thought that I was so smart because I really DID know the way to San Jose.
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I do remember that tune, some time in the seventies I believe. I was also a fan of the Beach boys, although they were from the Los Angeles area I think. You probably know the actual way to San Jose better than me, but I do know the song quite well. another blast from the past.
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That was what made it so silly. Our neighborhood was just a very short distance from San Jose, so we all knew the way there. Unfortunately, thousands of others found their way to San Jose also, and then, San Jose found its way to our neighborhood, annexed the entire town, and now, no one knows the way to San T(h)omas Aquino. Almost everyone there is from somewhere else, so does not remember (or care about) any of the smaller towns that San Jose consumed.
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The things I learn astonishing
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Good morning … great photos … we also have cloudy skies and rain although it is a bit cooler than yesterday which was 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot … SLP …
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Pleasant here but now the storms. We have warning for our village tinight
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Could it be that Roschti has some teeth problems? Or maybe he feels his age. And that bird – European/Eurasian or common redstart …
Gartenrotschwanz in German Phoenicurus phoenicurus The black redstart is called the Hausrotschwanz, phoenicurus ochruros. And is indeed a little darker.
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Looking again, might be I am wrong, it could be Phoenicurus ochruros, the black head and chest gives it away …
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Here Wikipedia has a photo that looks quite similar:
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I speak with the guy he owns now and again and the only problem Roschti has is that he is feeling his age now and again. He has a mark on his nose which comes and goes. The vet knows what it is and so does his guy, but it is nothing very much you can do about it and it is not very dangerous for him. He is now getting on for 19 years old and is very well taken care of
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And Roschti at his age cannot easily go through a dental procedure, far too dangerous, he might not wake up again.
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Oh, and thanks for the tip about the bird. Something a little differentin the garden and I will keep an eye open for the visits.
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Roschti coming by now that you have lost your Tabby reminds me of a boxer dog escaping from his home and coming around – after our Bosco (also a boxer dog) died (had to be put down only aged 6 because of lung cancer).
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It is lovely to have his visits after not having any more cats myself
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Yes, I know. Bosco was my grandparents last dog. We had a stray cat coming to us in 1984, but from the death of Bosco to 1984 were quite some years where we were pet-less
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