First Snow

The last weekend in October, just when we changed from daylight saving time to "winter time", the weather helped us realise it really is winter - so, of course, we had to go and play in the snow for a bit on Sunday. These pictures are taken on "Zugerberg", one of our local mountains.
It was strange to see trees covered in snow but stilll having colourful autumnal leaves - very beautiful !

Sherlock Holmes

Another weekend, another beautiful place to visit... this time Meiringen, the Swiss town of Sherlock Holmes fame. We did not make it to the Sherlock Holmes museum, however, leaving that for a rainy day.  Instead we went for a little walk to see the beautiful autumn colours and the nearby Aare Gorge, which is simply stunning.
Here are the pictures:

 

Orticolario, Como

Last weekend, I went to Como with Doris, a friend from work from my Ticino days - the same one who came to the Chelsea Flower Show with me earlier this year.
You will see a theme develop regarding our travels... this time, we went to the "Orticolario", an annual flower show in Como. 

Here are a few impressions - without detailed comments, otherwise it will take ages again until I get this published... 

Yumm. Well, it was in Italy, after all... 

Fun things to do with wood... 

... and fun things to do with fabric

Lake Como

Art ?  

y

Personally, I thought neither the dangling price tag nor the bamboo "lining" did this display any favours... shame, really, as the house, the cast iron window boxes, and planting were really beautiful. 

Fun things to do with rusty metal

Shop till you drop - as opposed to Chelsea, where the main theme was "look now, buy on the internet later", the Orticolario took a more traditional "buy now, pay cash, and have fun squeezing all the plants into you car" approach... thankfully, Doris had borrowed a van, so she and her 3 sisters could shop to their hearts' content 

Guests from America !!!

Just after we got home from our Iceland adventure, we had 3 lovely
visitors from America - and took them to do one of our favourite day tours here, starting by boat from Luzern and going up to Pilatus, where there is plenty of fun to be had, going up and down mountains by various modes of transport, including the world's steepest cog railway as well as  "Switzerland's longest summer toboggan run"...
Here are some pics we took on our day out:

"Are you SURE about this??"