Four little birds

20071214

Aida

20070919

Papageno

20070911

Going to the dogs

27 May 2007 at Restaurant Die Waid in Zürich. Don't even ask!


04 July 2007 on Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich.


21 July 2007 on the bus from Brugg to Villigen.

White eggs and blue carton

The eggs that I usually buy. The Naturafarm symbol, owned by the supermarket chain Coop, is supposed to be an assurance that the hens were fed an organic (Bio in German) diet and were treated "well".

20070730 Nikon Coolpix 950

Saint Bernard Museum in Martigny

The sign for the train at the Lausanne station, the third train in my itinerary after the Brugg-to-Bern, and Bern-to-Lausanne stretches. Vevey (where Charlie Chaplin lived until his death) and Montreux (home of the Montreux Jazz Festival) are on Lake Geneva. Bex is home to the oldest salt mine in Switzerland.


The museum is located in a former military warehouse. It was a rainy day when I visited, so the usually grand views of the mountains are missing.


One of the windows at the museum.


Inside one of the pens in the kennel area. They're mostly glass sided, and set up in a way that the visitors can't come into contact with the dogs.


Resting.


The Great St. Bernard Hospice, an article in an early edition of Scientific American.


A section is devoted to the representation of the dogs in cartoons.

Addendum: Claude, one of my readers, mentioned Barry (1800-1814) and I realized that I should have said something about him. He's possibly the most famous of the rescuers, with at least 40 rescues to his credit. Below is an image of a poster for Fondation Barry, an organization that owns the kennel of the hospice of the Grand Saint Bernard.


20070703

Cow fighting in Valais

The spectators ringside. Note the families with little kids.

The cows walking around.

One seemed to be eager to get on with the business of going up to the mountain meadows.

There was only this one water trough for the 30+ cows, which I thought was insufficient. The cow herders kept having to guard some of the ones taking a drink, to prevent a few other feisty ones from disturbing them while they were drinking.

The toilet for the biped masses.

The movie clip (just under two minutes long at 320 x 240 resolution):




20070623

Going through the receiving line II

Notice the man with the baby at the far left edge. Just the booties are visible in the photo.

20070519

Pink flower with bee

Surely someone will tell me what this flower is called, and what type of bee this is ...

20070512

Cat and cat ladder, with herbs

Just because. So far I've photographed four different cats around this house. The first appearance of this ladder, with a different kitty, can be found here:
Cat and cat ladder, with lavender (20070309)

20070510

The obligatory cow post, take III

Richard in Zürich suggested that the original photo I had posted on the main blog be cropped some more, to highlight the expression on the cow's face. So, here it is. I do like this better.

20070429

The obligatory cow post, take II

The cows I've encountered have been inquisitive creatures. As I was photographing this group, these three stopped eating and started to walk over to me. I fled the scene!

20070420