Swiss Walks

I did not write today, because I was busy.

Fields These are not ducks in a row. Tidy crops

This fell out of a car window. I don’t understand why this would fall out of a car window.

Caution Bees I could have been closer to take a picture but I don’t want to run the risk of taunting Melissa, the bee, from Greek Mythology. I don’t like walking this close to hives. You see plenty of little flecks flying around and you know that’s you’re going to cross their flight path. None of them showed an interest in me luckily. I don’t remember seeing them there before.

Flowers, a bale of Hay, and a road less travelled. I am using the Trevolution Ultralight Daypack at the moment. It weighs 120 grams and folds small enough to fit in a jeans or jacket pocket for when you’re not using it. It also has a volume of 21 litres but I would not use it to carry 20 litres or kilos. It has no zips or moving parts. It has two side pockets, one for a water container, and the second for the phone charger.

I have nothing to say today.

Today as I walked I could see clear evidence that Switzerland is now dry. As you walk by the side of the road you see that it is yellow, and that there is no growth. Crops are withering away and water gauges are now filling with dust, rather than rain. We now go for weeks without rain. If I wanted to pick up the soil it would crumble in my hands and blow away as dust.

The daily walk, when people are back, is less pleasant because the roads and paths that were quiet when everyone was on holiday catching the virus were quiet. Now that everyone is back it is a challenge to avoid people again and it could be worth finding quieter routes. View of the Léman and Alps I still track my walks with an app or two, but as I walk the same route so frequently something like the Garmin VivoSmart 4 is fine.

The weather was cold and cloudy this lunchtime so going up to the mountains for lunch was feasible. If the restaurant had been filled with people, and if we had shared a table with others, then I would have skipped and driven home. Luckily the road was closed to go up to the mountains so that stopped some people from going up. There were also the benefits of clouds and cold air temperatures.

As I looked straight down from a bridge today I noticed that the river is so low that the river bed has become bone dry in places. In other places you see that the gress is turning yellow. When tractors tend to the fields you see that they are stirring up clouds of dust. It is so dry, so often, that it is only a matter of time before forest fires burn down local forests.