The landscape around Villigen

This street leads to Hauptstrasse as it enters Villigen. The hill on the left half of the photo is the hill in the maize/corn post on the main site.

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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.


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Wisteria and palm at 48

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Tree gnomes

The apple tree that is home to the tree gnomes.


The big setting.


An alternate view from April. I think there have been some changes in the placement of the gnomes. Maybe they go and help people in the night, like the elves in the Grimm fairytale about the shoemaker.

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):




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Artwork on the Aare bridge at Stilli

A view of the metal sculpture on the bridge.

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The one that's ready and the one that's waiting

The crops that I've been showing are almost all along the main road that becomes Hauptstrasse when it enters Villigen. Lots of variety in a small space. The village visible in the background is a neighboring village called Rüfenach.

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Golden crop of another sort

Fewer awns than on the one on the main blog.

Some statistics from 2000 from the Swiss agricultural unit. Update: try this new page here.

Out of 88,419 hectares used for human consumption:
Winter wheat Winterweizen 85.3%
Summer wheat Sommerweizen 10.2%
Rye Roggen 2.2%
Spelt Dinkel 2.0%
Emmer, Einkorn 0.2%
Mischel 0.1%

Out of 78,139 hectares used for animal feed:
Winter barley Wintergerste 45.9%
Corn Körnermais 27%
Triticale 16.5%
Oats Hafer 5.7%
Winter barley Sommergerste 4.5%
Mischel 0.4%

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Parking the green car

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The garden II

This is what the garden looks like from our kitchen window. Maybe they should take inspiration from the painted fire hydrants in Stilli (1, 2, 3) and do something with that utility box.


I couldn't resist posting another street-level shot of the garden.

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