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!

Can you find this in America?

In our little country, it's hard to find so many things that one takes for granted in the States. And ofcourse, everything's bigger there..... or is it? I bet you can't get one of these:

Probably a good thing too.

Summer Funnin

There's always plenty to do when the sun's out.... or at least when it's hot and muggy.

A Visit from the Zurich Frick/Gobets

Kim, Christian and Loic tootled over on Sunday past for some BBQ and beach fun.
We ate.

See the cake? Kim made it...mmmmm.... we ate it after our beach jaunt...mmmm... it came complete with flags of some of the Romande Cantons. Which one is Neuchatel?

Christian, Loic and Tobe during an escape attempt by Loic. He is a faaast mover, and doesn't let his parents rest much.


Kim enjoys a quiet moment at the beach.



I've taken the boys to LaTene quite a lot, and have never noticed the giant sword at the exit! Guess who did...

A Bike Ride to the Beach

One evening recently we packed a picnic dinner and cycled to one of my favourite beaches.

Getting ready with hunger close behind...


Building up a nice appetite.


The 3 handsomest diners.

There's just a wee 'problem' with the lake. It has what the locals call 'duck fleas', which give one itchy bites. We thought this was a myth till this weekend. On Monday, Toby was covered in what looked like pimply, little mosquito bites. Naturally, we did a little internet research, and naturally we were grossed out by what we found: The 'fleas' are actually larvae of a flea type animal that live in waterfowl. After part of their lifecycle spent in snails, they come out looking for the birds. When they find a human, they burrow in and die, since they can't live in us! Bleurk. Poor Kim had a bunch too, that got very itchy. Tobe seems mostly olivious. These larvae are easily removed by vigorous towelling right after coming out, or showering. Ofcourse, we'll be religious about that now. It's not putting me off. It's just too hot to be put off.

Hothothot

Finally, after a few weeks of rain and cold (there was even snow in the Berner Oberland) we are having some heat. We can now do a bit of this:



And definitely more of this:

Fete de la Jeunesse

It's feterific here! All the lower schools celebrate the end of term with 'spectacles' and fetes. The Saint Blaise fete is always an entertaining evening, and this year was no exception. The theme was "Music of the World" and Allie's class were Canada. Allie got to be one of the 'grizzlies'! He started off down at the church. After their performance there, they had to walk up to 'Pre Brenier' (the park at the top) to perform there, then down to the primary school for a final performance. All the classes rotated around these 3 locations, so that everyone could get a look. The culmination was at the secondary school.

I took Allie down to the church to get ready.


Toby had the best view.


Are grizzlies meant to be cute?


One of the other classes were 'native Americans'. They had just come up form the primary school to perfom at the church.


The 'Indiens' leave the church and head up the hill, with Tobe and Walter to wave them on.


This is our French teacher's daughter. She's a year older than Allie, and sometimes comes over to play. Her class was "Trinidad".


This is the view of the secondary school, where the festivities continued after the performances. It was incredibly busy, so we went home after some chatting, and collapsed in a tired heap. Apparently, there was a 'disco' for the children that went on into the night! We were all too exhausted. On a side note, this is another example of us being out of step with the Swiss. We've discovered that we'll go somewhere and everyone else will be somewhere else. Back in the states, we saw this as a good thing, but here it means we're probably missing the best thing going on. The bloke on the right of the pic. is our French teacher's husband.


The grizzly waves after his last performance.


This is most of the performance down at the primary school. Keep an eye out for Allie!

Creux-du-Van for Fathers' Day

Either the Swiss haven't been sucked into Fathers' Day yet, or they're very low key about it. There was nothing in the shops beforehand. Did you know the Kiwis celebrate in September? We celebrated with a pancake breakfast, followed by a hike around the top of "Creux-du-Van". There are many sites devoted to this place. It's beautiful. Walter had already hiked up to it alone, while the boys and I were in Scotland last. We decided it would be better to drive up to the top and hike around the top with boys.
The car park is just back form the farm house there. That group of cows were standing around the entry. Allie and Toby were a little perturbed.


There is a path that runs RIGHT beside the bazillion foot vertical drop, and on the other side of a wall are fields. We crossed over to the fields to walk.



This is my contribution to the many pics of Creux-du-Van. Somewhere in there is Lac Bienne.


We tried to make it up to the highest point, and were rewarded with a view of Mnt Blanc (take my word for it) and Lac Leman (Lake Geneva).



After wandering for an appropriate amount of time to build an appetite, we repaired to the farm house for a 'country lunch'. This consisted of tasty homemade bread, soft cheese and the BEST ever smoked sausage. I'm not the biggest preserved meats fan (all those lymph nodes and bum fat!) but this was delish. Makes my mouth water thinking about it. The boys behave like zoo animals around it.


Finally, I've gotten a pic of cow with bell attached. I wish I'd gotten more. They all wear very different bells (depending on much money the farmer has made?). This one was in a herd meandering around the road as we came down from the top.


Walter comes back from working in Spain today. He'll be getting his Father's Day cake, made by 2 boys who missed him :)