Charming Swiss Ins (and Outs)

Swiss windows and doors: not always planned

I'm not good at staying home in bed when I'm unwell, so today Tara, who is on vacation, and I (unwell person) drifted around the Alps for a while, taking pictures of three villages and a small town. I have always loved windows and doors and the creativity people find to draw their own personal lines between the outside world and the inside one. When I was small I used to lie awake late at night designing houses with several stories and dozens of rooms, but most of my energy went into defining the doors and windows.

Architects have theories about why people do what they do with their houses - Swiss architect Mario Botta is one of my favorites - and they are undoubtedly right, having studied the subject. Psychologists and interior designers, and garden designers as well, have a lot to say about the way we use color and space and texture.

But I think sometimes it just comes down to the day: today I must do the shutters and today I happen to feel wildly independent and the shutters will therefore be blue. Or blue on one floor and red on another.

One hundred years later, if you live in an Alpine village, they could well still be blue.

Not peeping, I promise!

So Tara and I drifted and I snapped and I hope those who thought I was peeping will forgive me. I wanted merely to capture the charm and imagination and joy that are part of those ways in, ways out, that are part of my Swiss Alpine world.



The entire collection of 65 photos is now on Flickr, and it is easiest to flick through them by viewing it as a slideshow, one of the options Flickr offers (top right of your screen).