Quite an impressive sunset yesterday evening, accompanied by some strong winds, but no rain. I thought I heard some drops during the night, but nothing impressive and everything was dry this morning.

Today was quite pleasant, sunny but not too hot and a pleasant breeze, just like it should be. Lucia, my domestic helper, was here today and I now have a wonderful clean home again. Her weekly visit really is a pleasure, not only because of the cleaning, but she is my companion and advisor and really knows so much. Next week she will be coming with me when I at last get my new bedroom organised. I have been thinking about it for some time and I now know what I would like. i am glad she will be with me as she really is an expert on such matters. Afterwards we will be going for a drink in a restaurant in a village along the river, well known for its stork colony, so that will be an opportunity for some good photos I hope.

I paid my usual visit to Mr. Swiss this afternoon and now the weather is slowly becoming normal again, without the tropical heat, it seems that the animals are also becoming more active.

This rabbit had even found her appetite and was having a munch on a leaf. Yes they only have female rabbits where Mr. Swiss is. I do not think they wanted to have hundreds of baby rabbits to look after.

We were also being observed by a bird perched at the top of a roof.

Otherwise no special events today. I will spend the evening running the washing machine and the dish washer, and giving the garden its dose of water.

As I left my estate for Mr. Swiss I noticed the clouds were appearing again in the sky In the heated days there were no clouds, just a plain blue sky with a shiny sun in the middle of course. I have really become a cloud lover, it just makes a pleasant difference.

I wish all a good remainder of the day.

I do not know if we will have such a good sunset this evening as yesterday, but we can always hope.

Another hot day today, but a cool breeze to help survival. I had a typical lazy Monday: clearing up after the week-end, although not a lot to clear up with just me and No. 1 son. No. 1 son decided to go to the local pool yesterday and I was alone at home. Today I visited Mr. Swiss in his home and we had a quiet relaxing afternoon.

We were sitting outside when I suddenly noticde that the birds were gathering on a roof.

The reason might have been when this duo arrived playing their special horns, which had the sound of Alpine horns, and I think the birds were disturbed by he tone of the instruments. I had never seen such an instrument before. I find it good that the home organises such interesting things for the people living there, although I think Mr. Swiss would prefer a jazz band.

The chickens were also having a problem with the heat and this one seemed to find it relaxing by digging a hole in the ground to keep cool.

This one decided to search for somewhere cooler.

The fish in the pond all gathered together. They are now growing. There used to be many tiny fish swimming but they are getting bigger, although they still have plenty of room. Must ask if Mr. Swiss has fish on the menu in his home in the next days.

I am not sure whether to give water to the garden this evening. According to the weather forecast for our area, and it is mostly correct, it will be raining some time at midnight and I am glad when I have no strenuous actions in the evening. Since No. 1 son is on holiday, I have absolutely no stress. I make something to eat in the evening whether he is home or not, and I put his food in the fridge so that he can eat when he arrives home. He is 52 years old and old enough to do his own thing in the evening. What a wonderful relaxed life I now have. No. 2 son phoned this morning and is OK although has a bit of stress with his work. I just love this Face time. It reminds me of the old science fiction where not only did the people call on their phones but actually saw who they were speaking to. This morning I saw No. 2 son and my grandchildren, although they also can be a handful for No. 2 son.

Tomorrow my cleaning lady his here, Lucia, and it is always interesting to hear how her week had been and what she plans for my home. Since it is just me at home, the emphasis is now on getting the apartment clean and tidy. It used to be mainly the bathroom, kitchen and shower, but they are now well organised. She does a great job and I am lucky to have her.

And I am now off for my evening adventure, probably with a book. Keep safe everyone and enjoy whatever you are doing.

We had a bit of a cooling down session yesterday evening. The rains came in the evening and continued during the night until mid morning. Had an interesting cloud before they arrived, but the clouds soon disappeared. I am not sorry as it was really getting a little too hot for my taste, although I think for everyone’s taste in Europe. I still have a problem trying to understand the Brits, althogh I am basically one of them myself. Now they have the hot sun in their own country, but are causing turmoil at the airports wanting to get away to countries where it is eternal sun with temperatures hitting the top marks. The result is 6 hour waiting time and you are lucky if you find an aircraft that is actually flying.

In the meanwhile I visited Mr. Swiss in his golden oldie refuge and at last we could watch the fish swimming in the poind again. Although still sunny but no longer having to seek refusge from the hot sun burning down. The fish seemed to be quite happy in their environment.

The turtles also seem to be quite content just swimming around – what a boring life, although they never complain,

Whilst I was there one of the kitchen assistants arrived with the remainders of the vegetables. In that home nothing is left to waiste and the peelings are a delicacy for the rabbit population. As soon as they notice that fresh food is arriving they all have a run to the fence to get the pick of the day. The chickens were not so interested, just one or two had a look to see if there was anything poultry appetising, but the rabbits were all there, wallowing in the carrot peelings.

I think the chickens were a little disappointed with carrots,biut they will not starve I am sure.

They always seem to find something of interest somewhere.

One of the local cats, Joux-joux, was also here this morning. The other local cat Roschti had left some tit bits outside, but Joux-joux did not need an invite and finished it all off. She seemed to be saying with he expression, just leave me to deal with it human – none of your business.

I also found an interesting insect on a leaf in the garden. I think it is a so-called firebug. they are quite harmless and mostly like to eat seeds. We have quite a few, but I had neveer seen one with such a design on its shell like this one. It was sitting on a sage leaf.

And that was my adventure filled day. I am glad to say that the evening has now returned to a normal cool temperature and for a change I do not have to water the garden, so it looked like a nice relaxed evening, perhaps with a book. I hope your week-end is going smoothly with no unnecessary excitement. Our local Jura mountains were looking on but no sign of a storm anywhere.

I just had to enjoy the clouds today. I had not seen them for some time, due to the constant blue skies we are having in our European heat wave. It did cool down a little yesterday after the three storms we had, but that was not enough. Even the rain was just a drop on a hot stone. This morning we were back to the good old days of tropical temperatures. Thank goodness I have now parted with mg long hair, I feel like a new person.

This morning Mr. Swiss had to go to the hospital for a precautionary x-ray after his fall last week. He was worried he might have broken a rib, although his doctor had a look and said it was just heavily bruised and nothing broken. Luckily it was, although the hospital doc said it would take a time for the pain to recede. We decided it would be better to let him rest today after the examination where the doc prodded and pushed so that it hurt even more afterwards.

I decided to go into town this afternoon, although the sun was still burning down. I was getting low on wine for cooking and also decided I wanted to see something different.

I decided to go to the supermarket on the other side of the river.

They have this small restaurant there which is only open in the Summer months. It is very popular and it is direct on the side of the river.

In Summer it seems that our town is just one large restaurant, especially along the river. You just sit outside and enjoy the view and cool a little under the shades. I remember when Covid arrived, everything was closed down and there were no chairs or tables. This now seems to be a fading memory, although still lurking. However it is now transformed to a heavy cold and perhaps a day where you are not feeling so well – how things can change.

There is always room somewhere to sit and enjoy the weather, but this part is not so popular – perhaps because it is not direct on the river.

I made my way to the supermarket and picked up my wine. On the way I had the view of our restaurant mile along the river from the opposite bank.

And that was my afternoon. As I was leaving town I took this photo, but the police decided to steal the show with their car which was probably on a patrol or perhaps they were also taking some photos.

Eventually I arrived home and relaxed with an ice cream to cool down. I really have no stress at the moment. No. 1 son is on holiday, but he is no problem.

And I will now have a relaxed evening and enjoy the cloud watching. We are having a bit of a bother with insects at the moment, they are enjoying the hot weather, especially the wasps and mosquitos. The wasps you just have to avoid and for the mosquitos we have a special liquid that we put in a container attached to a plug. The liquid then distributes a scent that the mosquitos avoid. Yesterday I was a little too late in the living room and so a mosquito had a feast on my arm. Hope your days remain insect free.

It has been strange weather today with a background of rumbling noise. Three thunderstorms have passed through but did not stay very long, although we did get a sprinkling of water over the garden which will save me some bother this evening. It is still being noisy but what happens during the night does not bother me.

Otherwise I was busy with myself today.

The day began with this, my miserable self.

And in the late afternoon it was this. Yes I visited my friend, the hair thief, and in half an hour this was all that was left. I tried my experiment with long hair, but in this hot weather it was not ideal. I was having problems with washing it and I eventually decided that long grey hair is not exactly the best for a golden oldie like myself. I now feel like a new person and can breathe again. I sent a photo to Mr. Swiss in his golden oldie retreat and he also gave his approval.

I do not think I will bother with that experiment again.

I was also occupied with this strange object on my wrist. Perhaps some of you know what it is. It looks like a watch and I wear it day and night. It is a precaution for me if I have an accident, having MS. If anything happens I can press the blue field and it sends automatically a signal to a centre where they contact me to see what has happened.

I then have contact with the headquarters and over this loudspeaker can talk to them. I have used it twice so far. My problem is if I fall I cannot get up again and if I am alone at home, which is now often the case I can inform what has happened and within 10-15 minutes someone arrives at my home. I have a spare key in my letter box outside which is in a locked safety compartment and these people know how to release the key if necessary. The problem is where to have the box. I am sometimes in the kitchen or the living room and the apartment is too big to have it in the bedroom. Accidents happen always in the wrong places. Anyhow I contacted them today and asked if it would matter if I shifted the alarm to different rooms during the day. They said it would be OK, as long as I did not break the contact for more than an hour. I am glad as I now have it next to the kitchen door in the living room where I spend most of the time. This system is now quite common in Europe and I often see people, usually golden oldies like myself, with such an alarm watch on their wrist. I have to pay a monthly fee for it, but it is worth it.

And that is today’s excitement. Of course I visited Mr. Swiss also during the afternoon for an hour as well. And now for a relaxing evening with my new lighter head.

And yes we had clouds again in the sky today.

This is my front garden at the moment. One thing is good with the present weather situation, that the garden is really developing well. We get these high temperatures every year for a couple of weeks. It is usual here, but bearable, perhaps due to the higher altitudes. At this time of the year we always went on our Summer holidays, usually in the more mountainous areas, such as the Bernese Overland, so the heat never really bothered us so much.

I did visit Mr. Swiss this afternoon. My stepdaughter was also visiting so we spent the afternoon together with Mr. Swiss. It was a lovely afternoon and we had plenty to talk about. As she lives in Zürich she likes to leave mid afternoon to escape the traffic but she was already home after an hour’s drive.

The insects were busy in the garden and the hawk moths have now discovered my buddleia.

There were also a few butterflies but when I approach them for a photo they decide to fly away.

And so I have to do my best with a few bees that are pollen hungry,

From tomorrow No. 1 son begins his three week holiday, but he will be at home and no longer goes anywhere. He used to go to Italy for two weeks with a special groups for handicapped, but since Covid appeared they no longer have such holidays, so he is at home. Now and again he makes an excursion to Zürich or Bern and sometimes Geneva – it is all on the direct railway connection to our town.

I am now getting the evening meal ready and afterwards have a watering session in the garden, although it is really not so bad. Despite the high temperatures during the day, the garden is doing quite well. Hope you are all keeping your heads up despite the heat. Our local Jura mountains are still looking quite green. I took this photo from my garden.

One of the coolest places at the moment is the local cemetery: there are plenty of trees to spend some shade. I visited Mr. Swiss this afternoon and we spent the time in the courtyard where there is plenty of shade from a large tree in the middle.

One of the nurses even moved a table for us to make it more comfortable and asked if I would like something to eat, they had a raspberry ice cream parfait on the menu from lunch with sauce and whipped cream, so I did not say no. I have to pay (but very reasonable) as I am not a resident of the home: for Mr. Swiss it is all included.

It was delicious and all made in the home kitchen, nothing bought from a store: just what I needed. When I left Mr. Swiss I took the long way home.

I passed by a horse in the local farm, but he stayed in the shade in his stable. He even seemed to have had a haircut to keep cool.

There was very little action in the area and even the chickens at the local coop decided to stay in, although they have a free run outside. Perhaps the eggs they were laying were already hard boiled from the heat.

There seemed to be more action in my garden when I got home.

A snail had made him/her self at home on my grass plant.

Not to mention this spider who was really competing for the biggest web outside my garden shed. It was another quiet day, but being a golden oldie myself, it did not both me so much. I think my problem is that I am so well organised now that I rarely have to do any shopping and my freezer and fridge is full of food to cook. There is no adventure in my life now. This morning I had a little bit of excitement when I took a garbage bag to the container. I saw it had room, so I put some magazines in the bag that I had wanted to dispose of for some time. My apartment is now nicely organised and now I am beginning to empty the cellar. Why did I have at least 50 cookery magazines in the cellar when I have not looked at them for at least ten years. If I want to cook something completely different I have a computer with Internet. We do collect so much rubbish throughout our lives.

And now to give the garden some water and then my daily chores are finished. I think I will spend some time with my Kindle book this evening. I have not touched the television for at least two months. It is no longer is of interest to me. Enjoy the remainder of the week-end.

Today I was free wild, on my own, and no visits to the golden oldie home, although I did some Whatsap messaging with Mr. Swiss and we had a phone call. He decided that he should relax his injured rib, although the doc said it is just a bruised rib so he will survive and I did not want to sit in his room all afternoon in that heat which is really uncomfortable. The photo is of his home and he is up in the roof rooms so you can see the two projections of his windows on the left. I decided to spend an hour around the local castle grounds today and the cemetery with my camera. It had been so long since I really did something for myself.

As I approached the grounds surrounding the castle I realised that it was a perfect day for bringing in the crops. We have the promise of hot weather for the next week and no rain, so what could be better.

I really enjoyed my photo session with the harvesters and the farmers even gave me a wave from their driver’s cabin.

There were two harvesters in operation on two fields. This field was now in the process of bundling the crops together in blocksl.

Gone are the days of hay stacks, it is now neat bundles of crops all made by the harvesting machines.

This guy was collected the bundles. I really enjoyed by lesson on harvesting this afternoon, perhaps I should have been a farmer’s wife,

I noticed there seemed to be a wedding reception at the castle with everyone dressed in their best and as I was leaving the bride and groom arrived in their wedding car. What a wonderful afternoon it was.

I moved on from the castle grounds to the local cemetery which was my way home. Again I seemed to be the only person in the cemetery, just one or two people relaxing on a bench in the shade. It had been a long while since I could really enjoy an afternoon of photography. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss did send me a message to say he was feeling better and had ventured outside in the courtyard, which I expected. When you are 83 years old and have smoked almost all your life, you still have to indulge. Naturally smoking is forbidden inside his golden oldie home. He seems to be one of those people that smoking does not affect, probably immune. At least it got him out of his room.

I arrived home with time to spare, No, 1 son was in town and I have already uploaded my photos and put the chicken in the air fryer for the evening meal. Now I have time to water the front and back garden.

Have a good week-end everyone and be careful not to get too much sun, especially if your are a Brit. They now have a red warning with temperatures in some places approaching 40°C. At least they no longer have to worry about their holidays for the good weather, they will get a nice sun tan in their own country.

Not a lot to show today, but in this hot weather I am not exactly full of action. I made my way to Mr. Swiss golden oldie home in the burning sun on my scooter. After his accident last week he still had a few aches and pains and his doctor paid him a visit today. She confirmed that nothing is broken but a rib is probably bruised causing the pain and she will organise for him to have an x-ray. She checked his back and found that everything was in order. At least one problem less. My No. 1 son called in at the doc as I needed a fresh supply of my Diabetes tablets and she gave him greetings for me, which I found a very nice gesture. We are quite regular customers.

We sat outside in the courtyard which has the shade from a large tree. There were other golden oldies also there from the home and it was a pleasant afternoon. Me also being a golden oldie I felt quite comfortable there.

And that was my exciting day. On the way I took a photo of the entrance path to the local castle.

And on the way home the main road with a sneak photo of the Jura in the background. Otherwise that is that. Some might find it a boring day, but I do not need excitement all the time. After visiting Mr. Swiss so often in his golden oldie home I realise that growing old is something we all have to contend with. Some grow old and live in another world, others grow old and wish they were in another world and you might discover that the world where you are is no longer what you thought it was. Perhaps not words of wisdom, but my golden oldie brain gets a little confused now and again. And now i look forward to my evening phone call from Mr. Swiss if he doesn’t forget. 🙂