The state of the weather.

Rain was forecast for this week. We've found the forecasting abilities of Switzerland on a par with the UK- rubbish. It was more like a relentless deluge, that didn't stop for 36 hours. I took some movies and pics.
The three taken of the church at night were taken by me at ~4am yesterday. We were woken (along with the rest of the environs it turns out) by ceaseless (truely) thunder and lightning. Usually, you'll hear a few loud ones, then it'll pass over, but this went on and on. I got up to see if I could snap anything, and I was 'rewarded'. I went downstairs and openned the window to get a better view of the church and the direction of the lake. One of the movies is of the church being hit by lightning for the SECOND time this year. The first time, the clock completely stopped and had to have a new lighting conducter installed. It took them weeks to fix it. This time, I felt the hairs on my face standing on end and my hands tingled. You can see the camera shake. I sent it to the local TV station! Now the church doesn't bing-bong on the quarter hours, only on the hour.









All day yesterday, the rain kept up until the afternoon, then it completely let it rip. We were at our French teacher's for lunch, and she lives quite up the hill from us. On the way down, there was a brown river flowing along the road, and dotted along the side people where frantically trying to sweep away the water from their houses. When we got home, we saw that the stream had completely burst its banks and was in the process of drowning all the houses round the church (not ours, we're up the hill). The pompiers were trying to dig out all the detritus that was clogging it up, and laying sandbags. Naturally, we went for a walk to see the mayhem.

The pompier successfully moves some stuff, and the stream goes down.

Two excited wee boys!

This is the 'secret tunnel' under the railway to the park. The water was nearly touching the ceiling.

This is the big tunnel under the railway that we usually take to the park. We still haven't got to the lake yet to see what went on there.


This afternoon the sun came out and the town breathed a collective sigh of relief. The weekend is forecast to be lovely. Ha.

PeekNeekin'

We've been bizzzy finishing up the summer. The best way to do that is picnicing- Swiss stlyle.

Premier Aout (First of August)

Luckilly, it was a nice warm day. We went down to the beach in Saint Blaise, had a wee bit of swimmin', then a picnic dinner and some play time. We made sure the boys had a nap before this so that they could stay up for the fireworks (photos of which are never very good).

The boys swimming with goggles on, and the ferry behind.


Playtime on the cheese at the park.


Post swim peekneek.
The boys were so good. The fireworks didn't start until 10:15pm and they were troopers. Too bad the show only lasted 5 minutes! It certainly went with a bang, though. Guess what time they woke up at the next morning..... 6 am! Now that day was a bit other.

Round 2: Le Chasseral

Walter and the boys had such a lovely time when they went with the neighbours that they took me there. Herb, Vero and kids even managed to make it too. In Switzerland one can find a field, start a wee fire pit and grillgrillgrill. As long as the cows aren't there. The cows below were on the other side of a fence. What a perfect picnic :)

CooMontage.

Put all your wood here, little worker children.

Walter murders another stick for the fire. Stockwell Knives yay!

No fire is complete here without raclette.

Liquid gold!

...Or marshmallows from the good ole US

Kids 'n marshmallows

Everyone chips in for the fiyah!

Children try to consume as many chips as possible before parents find out.

Everyone waits patiently for meat.

Walter samples some of his work.

Thistles in Switzerland.

A little 'au revoir' committee saw us out of the Chasseral. It took a while to say goodbye to them all....and shoe them all out of the way.

Three Boys Alone

I travel frequently, so Emma has had plenty of time alone with the boys. Last weekend we did something different . . . Emma went away, and I had the boys to myself from Friday at 9am until Monday lunch. We had been warning the boys this would happen, and I had some ideas of what we would do together. It went pretty well!

Day 1. Take Emma to the train station, and watch her pull away on the TGV. Then it was off to a castle! We went to the chateau of Grandson. I won't bore anyone with tons of pictures of swords, guns, armor, spears... Instead here is a puzzle picture. Can you spot what's wrong with this picture?


One more picture. Boys and knights.


After walking the castle walls (a nervous experience with two boys by myself...) it was time to leave and look for lunch. Grandson didn't have a boulangerie near the castle . . . but there was a truck parked nearby selling roasted chickens and jambon croissants. So we went to buy a chicken. Turns out you have to make a reservation to get a roasted chicken in Grandson! So I got some of the croissants and we headed home. When I got home I discovered Allie and Toby had shredded the croissants and spread them all over the inside of the car. Hmmm.

Alasdair had requested his "favorite dinner" -- pizza, and for veggies, broccoli and cauliflower. So we made some pizza dough then went to park while the dough rose.

Allie on top of the big cheese. He found his way up by himself, and found his way down by himself.


This picture tries to express what it is like eating dinner with the two. Alasdair sits and eats slowly, but making a big mess . . . Toby can't sit still, wiggling, jumping up, sitting down, somehow swallowing.


Then bath and bed.

Day 2. I went back and forth about this day . . . finally decided to just do it. I had been wanting to go for a hike at one of the local gorges. You can take a train to the upstream side, and then walk down into the gorge. (We had done this from the downstream side awhile ago. Emma did a post about the gorge d'Areuse.) So, I packed a lunch, jackets, water. Got the boys dressed, shoes on, down to the train station. In 30 minutes we were getting off at Champ du Moulin.

There's a little hike down from the station into the village, next to the river. You then hike along the river to the pont vert where you start to enter the gorge. Our hike involved walking a bit. Then stopping for a snack. Then walking a bit, then eating more. Then deciding we better turn back. Going back involved walking, arguing over who got to be in front, falling and scraping knees, cajoling kids back up the hill. The train only comes once per hour, so you don't want to miss it! We made it with ten minutes to spare, just enough time for another snack.

Along the river.


Snack. Pizza, yum!


Tunnel past the pont vert.


Halfway up the hill...


The train station is up by the flag...

We left at 9:00 am, back at home about 2:30 pm.

And, once we were home...

Toby fell asleep watching a DVD.

Day 3. We had a real Swiss picnic! Our neighbors had invited us to a picnic, around noon on Sunday. So the morning was spent cleaning since Emma would be back the next day. First up, clean the car of all the croissant crumbs. Off to the car lavateria. Then some laundry. Around 10:30 I decide to start packing for the picnic. Ding-dong! The neighbors are here, ready to go. Also our friends Herb and Vero. Turns out I hadn't been listening to our voicemail... So throw everything into the car and go. This means I forgot the camera. The neighbors lead us in a caravan up the hill to a middle-of-nowhere field, pulled over, and set up a picnic spot. Including a fire ring for a true Swiss picnic. This involves grilling sausages over an open fire, then having an alfresco afternoon. We saw cows, played frisbee and footie, ate food, had a good run around.

Again a tiring day for the boys. A job well done.

Day 4. Mark time until we can get Emma off the train. Quiet morning. Boys were happy to have Emma back. Emma had a good trip. Successful all around!