Month: October 2015

October 28-31: Mum and Judy visit Bern, and the RWC

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After months of talking about it, my mum and sister’s visit came and went in the blink of an eye.

They arrived about 9.30pm on the 26th, and left at 5pm on the 30th. Why would you come all this way for only a few days, I hear you ask? Well they’re now on a 36-day cruise from Athens to Singapore, and hopefully having a whale of a time. It was great they could fit in a few days with us beforehand – or as I like to say, do the obligatory family catch-up before the real fun began! 😉

They were here in summer 2012, and I was worried the cooler weather this time might be a downer, but the sun came out every day, and Friday was positively balmy!

Here’s a small collection of photos from their trip. I worked on the Wednesday, so Mum and Judy wandered around Wohlen bei Bern, then we went out for dinner Wednesday night; Thursday we drove to Thun and toured the castle, walked to the lake and then went to dinner and saw the light show in Bern; and Friday we walked the Lüggliweg path (the one I “discovered” in March) to Restaurant Kreuz in Wohlen bei Bern for lunch, and had a very cruisy afternoon before they jumped on the train to Zurich for their flight to Athens.

The autumnal colours were out in full force and it was nice they could visit the Stöckli again before we have to move. And they both fell in love with a very popular Swiss salad, called Nüsslisalat. Here’s a link about it in English. Do you know of this salad leaf too? It’s very yummy with chopped egg and bacon.

Saturday night we went to Evi and Paul’s for a lovely dinner, and to watch the Rugby World Cup final, where the better team, New Zealand, beat the underdogs, Australia. (Leo got quite into the RWC, and we watched many games each weekend.) I’m very happy for all Kiwis, and we will miss seeing Dan Carter on the field in the future. What a face!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

October 10-27: Mishmash of photos

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Well, who’s been a slacker on the blog then, huh?! Me!

To make amends, I’m going to keep the waffle to a minimum and load up a photo gallery of all the lovely things that have happened in the past few weeks.

My job’s going well, I’m enjoying the brisk walk in the fog to work, but since we’ve lost daylight savings, I’m not enjoying the walk home in the dark. There are no street lights and I was nearly hit by an idiot driver who couldn’t see my torch shining in the night. So now I’m wearing a yellow safety vest on the walk home. Stop laughing! It’s pitch black! 🙂

More posts to come!

October 2-9: Like it’s the last time

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* Updated with a wonderful Virginia Woolf passage

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Our view

Now that we know we have to move (see the second half of my previous post if you need an explanation), I’ve been looking at everything as if it’s for the last time. Sounds dramatic, but it feels very real … I won’t see the corn being harvested again in these fields, won’t walk the path by the stream to the bus anymore, the moon won’t shine into the bedroom, the white house won’t be in my photos of the Alps …

While it’s definitely a sad feeling, it’s also opened my eyes to what I consider “normal”. My normal won’t be my normal by the end of April next year – it will be the new owner’s normal. So, in order to soak it all in, I’ve been trying to appreciate more.

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Beautiful autumn colours

Of course, I’ve always appreciated what we have here, but sometimes you just don’t SEE it. There’s nothing quite like a change to make you realise what you have and are about to lose (hopefully when we find a new place, it will be lovely too – I couldn’t live in something dark or horrible).

This week, walking to and from the bus to work, I’ve stopped to appreciate the neighbourhood – to soak it in, rather than rushing by.

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Just beautiful …

Serendipity may have played a part in all this too. For the month of October, there’s a free mindfulness course on the internet. Here is the link. Each day, the moderator speaks with experts from around the world on a mindful topic, from mindful eating to making the most of meditation and so on. I’ve found it really interesting.

While I find the moderator’s constant agreeing and mmhmm’ing quite annoying (and I just fast forward through the parts where she speaks, as I find her quite a vague interviewer, oops, sorry!) she does get some great, insightful answers from her guests. And the guided meditations from some of them are very relaxing. If you want to listen to the previous week’s worth, you have to make a donation, but if you log in every day from now on to hear that day’s speaker, it’s free. As always, I have no affiliation with this website whatsoever, just putting it out there for you to enjoy too.

Here are some more photos, taken mindfully, mind you, from the past week. 🙂

Maybe you can look at everything in your neighbourhood with fresh eyes this week too?

I’ve just remembered a lovely passage from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, read while on a train somewhere in England in my early 20s, and written in a keepsake book which I brought to Switzerland. These are Lily’s thoughts:

“Here sitting on the world, she thought, for she could not shake herself free from the sense that everything this morning was happening for the first time, perhaps for the last time, as a traveller, even though he is half asleep, knows, looking out the train window, that he must look now, for he will never see that town, or that mule-cart, or that woman at work in the fields, again.”

Wishing you a wonderful day.

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Sunflower’s being harvested

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A late-blooming flower from one of my pot plants

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A moody sunrise walking to the bus

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Sugar beets piled high

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Heavy morning fog at the neighbour’s house

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And on the road to the bus

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Can you see my new friend?

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Fog over the Wohlensee (lake) down the hill

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The decorative pumpkins aren’t proving so popular at the honesty box/flower field stall

Corn, harvested and wrapped up for the cows to eat in winter

Corn, harvested and wrapped up for the cows to eat in winter

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The corn bales the next morning at sunrise

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Happy cows

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Our place … all sold. Onwards to new adventures, but not for a little while yet …

October 1: Taking the bad with the good

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Well, well, well, it’s been a long time coming! Today, I donned my glad rags and went to my job. Even though it was the first official day, it didn’t really feel like it, because I’ve been going to the office, on and off, for the past three weeks to do the handover. But today, it was official.

Luckily, I can catch the bus from the closer bus stop at the right time in the morning. After walking on the road, past the flower field, I walk down the little path to the right of the cows, along a stream and then through some houses. Takes about 12 minutes. Then it’s about 20 minutes on the bus and a 30-second walk to the office.

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Got my work face on as I walk to the bus … our little house in the background

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A grey day …

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The path past the cows

My direct colleagues total four. The group is small, but good fun, and it’s a very relaxed environment. We work in an old house, and share the first floor with another climate change organisation. On the ground floor there’s another. I think I’m going to be very happy there, once I get my head around all the scientific words!

I haven’t ridden the Töffli much since I had the chest infection and I don’t think I’ll end up riding it to work much. Maybe a few times while the weather’s still ok, but definitely not in winter. So there’ll be at least 25 minutes of exercise each day walking to and from the bus. I know I said I wouldn’t count walking to the bus as part of fitfor15in15!! Fingers crossed, I get into a good routine again which includes some morning exercise. Still getting used to getting out of bed so early! Ahahaha 🙂

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At the flower field, taken on the walk home. Recently, I bought a butternut pumpkin from here and made a great soup. Love the little weird ones, but they’re not for eating, just decoration

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A good-looking weed

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My Buddy … the Holly (groan!), next to our house, with the garage in the background

So, that was the good news …

And now for the bad news …

The property is pretty much sold. Liliane told us a few days ago. Our time in the Stöckli ends about April next year, if not earlier. Rene and Liliane have sold to a group of tradespeople, who are all friends, and they’ll do the renovations and upgrades themselves – there’s a builder, a roofer, a tiler, someone who does the floors and so on. It’s a dream community and they’ve scored themselves a great deal. I just wish we’d had the money to buy it all, so we could continue on in our blissful little house, surrounded by our blissful forest and grass and fields and cows and and and …

We’ll try to find another place in this area, but I think we’ll have trouble trying to compete with what we’ve had! I’ve been here nearly four years, and Leo for about 13. He’s not a happy camper. I’m happy for Rene and Liliane, but it’s hard not to be a bit sad too!

Wishing you a wonderful day.