Slice of life: Raggedy Ann's famiy

Slice of life: Raggedy Ann's famiy
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

Tara has three loves in life, besides her family: the Raggedy Ann family (some are far more raggedy and not in the photo - they were being loved at the time), a sorry-looking Cookie Monster and six plastic stackable ducks.

Every year another member of the Raggedy A clan arrives from America, home of these beloved dolls.

A touch of green for the Irish in Switzerland

I couldn't find a shamrock so I shot a whole field of green to warm the hearts of any Irish in Switzerland today. Most of them are probably at the Versoix Chocolate Festival or on the slopes, so they are not likely to be walking the back lanes of canton Vaud!

Small fisherman, long shadow

Small fisherman, long shadow
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

For my sister Tara on her birthday

My older sister Tara used to tow me around to pick violets this time of year. I remember how she showed me that you had to shimmy your finger down far enough to get part of the stem and not just nip off the bright bit at the top. We always had them in early May in Iowa, so I'm puzzled that I'm seeing so many of them in mid-March in Switzerland!

I have been taking early morning walks because the weather is magnificent - you can see some photos of the St. Prex dock on my Tribune de Geneve blog. But the best part is seeing the violets open up. They suddenly create a carpet of rich purple as the sun stretches over Lake Geneva. The flowers are on a slope next to the waterfront. The green bench with the village's fleur-de-lys crest is a wonderful spot to sit and watch the water, violets quietly nodding their heads behind you.

Happy birthday, Tara!

Why I don't write in German even though Google wants me to

I've had a lot of problems posting blogs since Blogger, owned by Google, decided I have to use a new password. It works out that I'm in Switzerland, automatically decides I'm German-speaking and everything except my own text suddenly appears in German. Since I don't speak German this is a real nuisance. Switzerland has three official languages, French, German and Italian, but Google, which has development offices in Zurich, doesn't seem to be able to get to grips with this.

Right now, abve where I'm posting, are little tabs that say html bearbeiten and verfassen and vorschau. Higher up we have dashboard (a German word, it seems), hilfe and abmelden. I thought I would try one of them a while ago and found I'd logged myself out. Now I know which one that is, but I'm not telling, ha!

The result of this headache is that I will probably very soon move this blog to another address, where logging in is easier and I can create pages that I think work better with my content. I'll put the new address here when I'm ready to move. Meanwhile, enjoy some spring photos, which I'm about to post - fingers crossed.

sailboat, Evian France and Lake Geneva

sailboat, Evian France and Lake Geneva
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

I should have added that there was barely any wind, poor sailor! Note: for the photos from flickr that I blog here you can see the larger view just by clicking on the photo. And if you really want to zoom in you can go to "al sizes" on the flickr page and see what kind of shoes he is wearing (well, nearly).

ducks smell spring, Lake Geneva

ducks smell spring, Lake Geneva
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

I'm itching to get out from behind the computer and into the sun and shoot more ducks! Just using the camera, of course. The sun is shining, spring really does seem to be in the air. And that blue sky is like a magnet.

Saillon Switzerland

Saillon Switzerland
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

Yesterday my daughter, who was not feeling well, and I drifted up and down the mountains on small roads like the ones you see here. I was not pleased that the price of gas has gone up again, after a month or so of gently sliding down. But if you drive slowly enough the tank empties at a snail's pace. Tara finds car travel very soothing and we nibbled on some excellent crisp apples, usually hard to find this far past autumn.

In the Valais most of the vines belong to families - tiny patches of vineyard that provide a bit of extra income, historically. The vineyards were busy, with people using their weekend free time to prune back the vines. Bundles of branches lay between the vines, waiting to be collected.

lettuce from Fully

lettuce from Fully
Originally uploaded by ellengwallace.

I had to buy a new camera, with damaged pixels on my old one. I was so excited when it arrived but the weather was not exactly ideal - gray and wet and all the landscape photos had no contrast. Nevertheless, I managed to spend a good deal of Friday and Saturday shooting Alpine villages and mountain slopes - and then came across this garden center. It is huge, with dozens of covered strips like this one, with little plants happily growing.

Shooting these, and especially the parsley photos, cheered me up enormously. It's too early to plant in the Alps, where we are only safe from frosts in early June. I can't keep things alive that long indoors for they grow leggy and stringy and weak. I have come to the conclusion that I must buy small plants, already sturdy. Here they are! I can come back in a few weeks and they will be ready to make the alpine trek to a higher altitude, just like the young cows.

Old photographers, new photographers

My favourite Swiss mountain bakery is featuring a lovely winter bread it calls "pain walking," for hikers, people who like to snowshoe - anyone who needs to put a light but nourishing loaf in a backday before going off for the day. Delicious, even by good Swiss bread standards!