Week in the life ~ Friday

Friday, 5/08/2011. Accordin to the weather forecast, it's going to be a very wet day, with heavy rains and thunder and lightning. I'm glad that when I get off the train in the morning, it's not raining. But the grass is all wet, and sparkling in the early morning sun like a thousand diamonds.

My bicycle is at the library, so I have to walk. I decide to take a different route today. First I pass some beautiful gardens with a lot of colourful flowers in full bloom. Well, no surprise, after all it's been raining almost every day since the beginning of July.

The path leads me to down and along the river...

 ... which looks wonderfully peaceful in the morning light.

After some rain during the morning, it's dry again at lunch time, so I decide to go for a walk. I see some wild blackberries near the path and when I get closer to take a picture, I notice this wonderful insect, all bright blue and red. I've never seen one like these, and I have no idea what it is. But it's beautiful.

There's a big cabbage field along the way. I simply adore the wonderful colours of the red cabbage!

I spend quite some time there, at the cabbage field. I find the different colours and textures of the red and green cabbages really fascinating.

In the strip of grass next to the cabbage field, I can hear loads of grasshoppers or cicadas, or whatever they are, but I can't see any at first.

At last, I see them, but they're too fast, quickly jumping away and hiding behind the leaves. But a bit of patience pays off, and I finally spot a beautiful bright green one. He eventually stays on a blade of grass, deciding that I'm not too dangerous, but keeping an eye on me and scratching his head, wondering what this big black thing might possibly be that I keep pointing into his face.

 I'ts Friday, so I need a fence shot as well. Here's one with a bokeh lama or alpaca which will do. Those animals always make me smile :)

I'm doing some research for a small exhibition at the library. The book on top is a copy of Olaus Magnus' Historia delle genti et della natura delle cose settentrionali, an Italian translation of his description of the Scandinavian countries, printed in 1565. The book's bound in vellum, and you can see the title "Gotho. Historia. S." written at the bottom of the pages, which tells you how the book was once stored - lying flat in the shelf. The storing of books standing up, spine outwards on the shelves, as we know it today, isn't how books were originally stored. Always nice to see such clues. It's a lovely book, but I can't read any Italian, let alone some 16th century Tuscan Italian, unfortunately. I have a modern German translation, but the book has some lovely woodcuts I want to use. These old books just look so much better for display in an exhibition than modern reprints.

As this week's project seems to have somehow developed into a kind of musical survey of Swiss music, here's another sample. One of the most popular bands in Switzerland, Züri West. The song, I schänke Dir mis Härz (I give you my heart), is from 1994. I was in school back then, in Gymnasium, and I have very fond memories of this song and that time. But I just can't believe that it was such a long time ago! Where have all those years gone??? Still a wonderful and popular song. Love it.

Time to leave work, taking the bicycle to the station. It's the weekend, yay!

I've decided that I need to look after myself a bit better, after my health and shape. I've already started cutting back on sugar, but I need to do something for my fitness as well. I've decided to go swimming after work, and have taken my stuff with me. I'm so tired that I fall asleep on the train and it's very tempting to just go home and lie on the sofa instead, but I actually manage to drag myself to the swimming pool.

I swim for a whole hour (and three minutes), and I'm sooo proud of myself! It has done me really good, and I'm feeling fabulous. It's a 15 minutes walk from the pool  to my home, and when I step out of the building, it starts raining and I can hear some thunder nearby. But I don't care. I'm feeling too good to be bothered by a bit of rain. There's a saying in German, "rain makes you beautiful". So I'm not only getting fitter, but pretty as well on top of it. What a day! ;). And it's Friday, weekend! And I'm back home just in time for Terry & June :)

Week in the life ~ Thursday

Thursday, 4/08/2011. Thursday is market day in my little town. Well, by the time I get there, they're still only just starting to put up the stalls, but the bakery's always already up and selling fresh bread, buns and croissants. I always try to leave home a couple of minutes earlier than usual, to have time to buy an "Igeli" (a "little hedge hog") for my breakfast on the train.

My local train should be here by now, but it isn't. It's late, and I hate trains being late. Admittedly, it's only late 3-4 minutes, but I'm so spoilt by our famous-for-it's-punctuality public transport system (at least it used to punctual...), that I consider everything that isn't spot on time annoyingly late, even if it's just half a minute. But I have enough time at the central station to get to my train in the mornings, so there'll be no risk of missing it.

At last I'm in the other train, and it's time for my breakfast, the little "Igeli". They're sooo delicious. And aren't they looking sweet? I have to poke out it's eyes first thing though, I'm afraid. I just really don't like raisins. Poor little thing. I've taken my book out as well but I don't get to read it, as I meet a colleague from work. We start chatting and discover that we've both spent a year studying in Stockholm as exchange students some years ago, and almost at the same time. Now isn't life funny sometimes?

I'm trying to cut back my sugar intake and use honey instead to sweeten my tea. I still often forget and just reach for the sugar automatically, but today I always remember in time to take honey instead.

When I woke up this morning, I heard on the radio that it's Mani Matter's birthday. He would have been 75 today. Mani Matter is a name everyone knows here, and every child in Switzerland, at least in the German speaking part, has grown up with his song, learning them in school (and I really hope they're still doing this today!). Mani Matter was a Swiss chansonier, his songs have quite simple melodies but the lyrics are always witty, clever, ironic, funny.

Mani Matter was killed in a car accident outside Zürich in 1972, when he was only 36. But he lives on in our hearts with his songs, and he keeps on inspiring musicians in Switzerland. There have been numerous cover version of his songs as well, the most famous is from one of my favourite Swiss singers, Stephan Eicher, covering Mani Matters well known song "Hemmige" (inhibitions). Stephan Eicher is one of the few Swiss artists who's successful outside of the country as well, in France. He lives in France now, and many of his songs are in French, although he also sings in Swiss German and even occasionally English. "Hemmige" is a permanent feature at his concerts, even in France, where no one understands the lyrics, but where everyone knows it. A concert hall/stadion with thousands of French people happily singing along to "Hemmige" at the top of their voices - now that's quite an achievement! But I really think his version of the song is abolutely excellent.

I must say I find the video a bit strange, but at least for the presence of the chimpanzee, there's a simple explanation. In the song, there's a verse about the differences between man and chimp, "it's not just the smooth skin or the missing tail". Someone then pointed out to Mani Matter that chimps actually don't have tails. He apologised for his mistake and wrote an alternative line. But it never caught on, and people happily stick to the version with the chimps with tails up to this day - even in school :).

Oh and if you like to hear the original version of the song, here's the link.

I've been busy cataloguing books at the library, which are now waiting to have their shelf marks stuck on and to be shelved.

Before taking the train back to Zürich, I pop into the town of Schaffhausen to do some shopping. I don't find what I want, but at least I've got time to take a few shots. the stall in the middle of the market place is an ice cream stall. Very lovely ice cream. Very tempting. But I remember my resolution to cut back on sugar, so I resist the temptation. *sigh*

Schaffhausen is famous for it's oriels/oriel windows (is that the right word??). It has I don't know many of them, and many are beautifully decorated and painted.

Time to catch my train back. It's crowded with day trippers who spent the day in Schaffhausen visiting the Rhinefall, and I'm glad when we arrive in Zürich and I'm able to get off the noisy train. I'm tired, too tired to meet up with anyone or go anywhere, so I just head back home. Maybe there's something on the telly? Hmmmm, maybe some Terry & June, perhaps?? ;)

Week in the life ~ Wednesday

Wednesday, 3/08/2011. Wednesday morning and I'm back at the train station again. My train departs from the very last track in Zurich, and as my other train arrives on the very first platform, it means that I have to cross the entire station. In the morning, at least, I have enough time.

Today, I have my bicycle at the station, so I don't have to walk and I'm at the library much earlier to get my tea. The bicycle stand here at the station is usually full with bicycles of the local kids taking the train to school, but because it's the summer holiday, it's all empty.

Downloading and processing the pictures for the week in the life has kept me up until (too) late yesterday and the day before, and so I'm rather tired today. Hopefully, a cup of coffee will help...

The post has arrived, and with it a couple of books, I guess.

Lunch. I love pasta. Couldn't live without it.

Yesterday's song made me think about other songs from my childhood. The first music I really was aware of was ABBA. I loved their music. Another song I well remember is Kiosk by the Swiss group Rumpelstilz, with their singer Polo Hofer, who's still a big name in the Swiss music scene. My dad had bought the single, a 45 record. I'm sure my parents regretted that purchase more than once, as I wanted to listen to it all the time, again and again and again :). The original is from the 1970s, the video is from a recent tv show but with the original band.

The train arrives on time in Zürich, so on my way home, I have a couple of minutes to buy a delicious bread for dinner at my favourite bakery at the central station.

I'm too tired to do much, really. But I manage sit down at my desk to finish a little owl painting I've been working on last week. Just adding some words, really. It's painted on two book covers. I've painted on some covers already, and I want to do a couple more and then bind them together to make a little book. It's a kind of inspiration book, helping me to find my creative voice, or something like that. Anyway, I enjoy doing it. And really, that's what's most important, isn't it :).

And of course, there's been another episode of Terry & June :). It's on every evening during the week at the moment, on one of the ITV channels.

Week in the life ~ Tuesday

Tuesday, 2/08/2011. I'm all confused about the days of the week because yesterday, Monday, was a holiday. Today, it's back to work, and I'm at the train station again, though 2 hours earlier than yesterday. We have an excellent public transport system in Switzerland and we are a nation of commuters - over 25 % of the working population uses public transport to go to work, and many people, including me, prefer to commute from one town to another rather than move. Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich Main or Central Station) is the biggest and one of the oldest train stations in Switzerland and with almost 3.000 trains running departing and arriving every day, it is one of the most frequented train stations in the world.

It's the holiday season and the trains are half empty, and so I find myself a quiet corner to read my book. Though I'll probably be sleeping most of the time, as so often. Up till now, I've always woken up in time - which is a good thing because if I don't, I'll find myself in another country, in Germany, as my stop is the last station in Switzerland.

My bicycle is at the library so I have to walk ...

... which gives me the opportunity to notice the little things on the way, such as the spider webs on top of the hedges, which sparke in the morning sun.

At work I need my cup of Earl Grey tea first thing. I have to leave home at 6.25 in the morning, so breakfast is not an option...

I was just thinking of a friend of mine who's expecting a baby. I resolve to write a long overdue e-mail to her today when I see a message from her on my mobile - she had her baby, a little girl, last Friday!

I'm alone at the library this morning, so I'm having lunch on my own, reading the newspaper. There's a short article about Nella Martinetti who died last Friday.

Nella Martinetti was a singer, songwriter, composer and actress from the Ticino. In the last years, she was often in the tabloids, mostly not because of her work but because of her scandals etc. What I didn't know was that she had written the lyrics of one of my favourite songs from my childhood (it's a long time since she was in the news because of her music), Io senza te, which was performed by the Swiss trio Peter, Sue & Marc at the Concours Eurovision de la Chanson, as it was called back then (now Eurovision Song Contest), in 1981. It's a bit soppy, and the pan pipes... well, it was the 1980s... But apart from that, I just love the song. It always touches me, and makes me go all sentimental. Ah, those were the times...

We are not a lending library, but we have a small lending service for the staff of the company to which the library is attached. One of the books has been returned, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and I take a few minutes to look through it. I'm often asked if I have read all the books in our library (yes, sure, all of the 40.000...) and there still seem to be a lot of people who believe that a librarian's job is to read all day. It isn't. All we read are reviews, blurbs, table of contents and maybe a few pages of the introductions - just enough information we need for buying the right books for the library and to catalogue and index them correctly. But once in a while, we steal a few minutes... :)

Sitting at the train station waiting for my train. I've been working late today, and I won't be home until almost 8.30, just in time for another episode of Terry & June - and too tired to take any more pictures for the day.

Week in the life ~ Monday

Monday, 1/08/2011. I know I'm a week late with the Week in the life project. But I only learnt about it last week on Monday, and I thought it would be a pity to start with already missing the first day. And besides, last week was very boring. Just work, and lots of rain on top of it. So I decided to do my own little week in the life this week. And it's the perfect week to start, as today is our national holiday, and so I start the new week with Monday off :).

I went to Appenzell with my mum and an aquaintance of her to visit a friend of theirs and to harvest some red currants. We took the train from Zurich mainstation at 9, together with masses of people all heading for the mountain areas to spend a lovely day in the alps. (I know, it doesn't look very crowed in the picture, but believe me, the train was packed).

There's no direct train to Appenzell from Zurich, so we have to take the train bound for St. Gallen and change in Gossau.

The heavy rains in the last few weeks have caused some landslides along the route of the Appenzeller Bahn and so there's a bus service between Herisau and Urnäsch until the repair works on the damaged tracks are completed.

Back to the train in Urnäsch for the last few stops until Appenzell. The weather outside the train window is still looking misty and rather like autumn (quite to my liking though :) ).

We have finally arrived in Appenzell and are on the way up to where our friend lives. I manage to get a quick snapshot out of the car window before the woods block the view. This is the edge of the town of Appenzell, the capital of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. With a little under 6,000 inhabitants, this must be one of the smallest capitals in the world. But it's a beautiful place.

After some cake and tea we head into the garden to tackle those red currant bushes. I'm a bit lazy though, I only fill two small dishes. I'm longing to go for a walk.

So off I go, following the path down to the bottom of a little valley with a river in the woods to get to the other side. I just love those mountain woods!

Where to now? I'm heading to the right left (always get those two wrong...), up the mountain. Nothing's better to clear one's head than being up a mountain and looking down on the world below.

It's hard work walking up those mountains, especially if one's in such a bad shape as I am. But the views from up there is worth it every time. Admittedly, I didn't get even near a mountain top, just some way up. I'd need much more time than just an afternoon walk for a real mountain tour. But really, I ought to do something for my fitness...

Of course there have to be cows up here. The Swiss alps without cows wouldn't be the Swiss alps :). It's just such a pity that there are those power lines everywhere going right trough the pictures.

And more cows...

But not all of them are allowed to play outside. Poor little thing...

Back from my 2 1/2 hours walk and lunch is ready :). Salad and and the most delicious homebaked bread for starter (even the flower is edible! Though none of us actually did eat it...).

Followed by a lovely and tasty salmon dish...

Not much time to rest after our late lunch, as it's already time to head back. So back to the train station we go to take the train back to Zurich.

Somehow, after getting off the replacement bus, we actually manage to miss our connecting train in Herisau. So we have to wait half an hour for the next one.

Finally back home after seven, half an hour later than planned. For dinner there's a bowl of fruits - melon, peaches, blueberries, and red currants picked just a few hours ago. Yummy!

And some telly - one of my favourite shows is on at the moment: Terry and June. They're so funny. Just love it.

And then it's soon time for bed. It's been a long but wonderful day. And I'm sure I won't even hear the fireworks and firecrackers tonight. Back to work tomorrow, and I'm sure I won't have half as many pictures tomorrow. Which is probably not too bad. It's quite a lot today. But then it has been a packed day.

Fences & Fridays

I'm taking a little break from Flickr at the moment, and it's doing me good. Flickr, blogging, painting and all the photography project I was trying to do (and failing rather miserably at it) all together just take a lot of time and more and more often I felt like I wasn't able to do everything properly anymore, giving everything the time and attention it needd and deserved. So I had cut back on something. And as I was beginning to feel a little bit frustrated about Flickr for various reasons (and probably all the wrong ones), I thought it was a good idea, to take some time off.

However, there are a few things I really enjoyed and rather miss. Among these is Fence Friday. I never thought how much fun it would be to take pictures from fences. But it is, and I'm always amazed at where I find them and all the wonderful fences there are out there. They come in all kinds of shapes, materials, sizes and states, and trying to catch them at their best angle is a great challenge. So even though I'm giving Flickr and the Fence Friday Groups a break, I kept looking for those fences and taking pictures. And so I'm just going to do my own little Fence Friday series here on my blog.

So here's this week's fence, a shot taken three weeks ago during my London holiday, in the park of Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath:

And a little mosaic of some of past fences which I took for and posted at Flickr:

I'm not sure if I'll manage to post one every Friday, but I will try. And as to Flickr, I still enjoy having a look from time to time at the streams of some of my friends and contacts, and occasionally leave a comment, and even post an image for one of the projects I'm trying to do. But I quite enjoy not 'having' to be there all the time, feeling bad if I don't manage to keep up with comments and all. Don't know when, and if, I'm returning to Flickr. At the moment, focusing on my blogs, getting out my paints and stuff and taking my camera on a walk through the woods keeps me busy enough. Ah, and there's work stuff as well. I've registered for chartership with CILIP ages ago, and it's high time I finally put my portfolio together and get it over and done with. So that'll certainly keep me busy as well.