Photo of the Month - October 2011

October was quite an active month.  I managed to get in four walks and a visit to Edinburgh.  We also had some lovely weather during most of the month.  Which meant there was still lots of colour in the garden.  Here is our arrangement of pots outside the front door, followed by a lovely gentian from the Barnhill Rock Garden.

The good weather led to a few walks.  One was to Kinpurney Hill near Newtyle, not far from Dundee.  I did this with Elena and the boys.  It was a lovely, sunny, but windy day, and we had a great time.  The photos below show Elena and Liam going up the hillside, then all three at the summit beside the gothic looking tower.

Another outing took us to a jaunt up to the Hopetown monument just outside Cupar.  We did this with John and Diana on another lovely day.  The monument is a very large tower built in the 1820s which looks like this.

I also managed to get in a couple of hill walks with Frank.  One was to the hills at the Spittal of Glenshee.  Another fine day, though the upper slopes were by then already covered in snow.  Here is a view looking across the glen to the higher peaks.

The visit to Edinburgh was with Elena and the boys where we spent all the time in the re-opened National Museum of Scotland.  This has all kind of exhibits and is very child friendly.  Just about everything is included - from dinosaurs to racing cars.  One part of the museum is dedicated to the history of Scotland and this is particularly interesting.  Below is a specially made saltire which was taken into space by an astronaut with Scottish ancestors, followed by a wonderful example of the feathers from a peacock and then three bicycles from different eras.  The final bike is the one built and used by Graham Obree when he broke the world speed record.

I conclude with an unusual momento from our visit to Zermatt.  There I bought a bottle of white wine from the highest vineyard in Europe.  This is found in Heidadorf Visperterminen and is 1150 metres high.  I bought a bottle of Heida Visperterminen from the St. Jodern Kellerei.  I took it all the way back to Scotland and very pleasant drinking it was too.  Cheers everyone!

Photo of the Month - September 2011

September has become our favourite month for visiting Switzerland.  This has something to do with the fact that Alessio's birthday is on 3rd September and this year he was five as you can just make out as he tries to blow out all the candles on his yummy cake.

One of our great pleasures when in Switzerland is to just wander around Zürich and other towns looking at some of the wonderful sights.  Zürich doesn't have any real skycrapers, but recently they did build Prime Tower, which is by far the biggest and highest building in the city.  Below are a couple of views of the place.

On a completely different scale is this rather unusual and somewhat "in your face" family home which I came across in Kilchberg.

Zürich is a pretty bright and lively city and below is my attempt to capture the city at night.

Switzerland is also a great place for window shopping.  With the exchange rate so poor, it is just about the only shopping we can afford.  However the window displays are so beautifully arranged that it is a pleasure to linger by some of them.  Here are a couple.

Everywhere in Switzerland you come across public drinking fountains.  Usually they are very simple affairs, and in autumn they begin to fill up with falling leaves.  This often makes for some beautiful displays as in the one below, taken in Rüschlikon.

The holiday is of course also a time to relax and luckily we always manage to sneak in some R&R, usually accompanied by a glass of fine wine.

Though we are based in Zürich, we always manage to visit other parts of Switzerland.  One of our trips was to Schaffhausen where we visited the Rheinfall, the largest waterfall in Europe.  Nothing compared to the giants elsewhere in the world, but still, pretty impressive.

Our main trip this time was to Zermatt, a ski resort in the south of the country near the Italian border.  We had glorious sunny weather and had a wonderful time going up the mountain railways and admiring the views.  Below is Alessio in reflective mode just below the summit of the Gornergrat at 3,100m and then the Matterhorn itself the iconic mountain of the area.

Back in Scotland things returned to a slightly slower pace.  But we still managed to fit in one more outing, this time to an Apple Day at the Botanical Gardens in St Andrews.  We went with Elena and her boys and there was plenty for them to do, including crushing apples to make apple juice.  They also got to try out a special tool for coring and peeling apples as demonstrated by Jamie below.

I end September with this photo of a rather colourful butterfly which we found attached to a wall on one of the houses in our street.

Photo of the Month - August 2011

August was quite a good month photo wise.  Early August sees the annual Pittenweem Arts Festival.  Below are some photos from the town.  The first is a view of the harbour, followed by an unusual use for lobster creels.

Next are some of the sculptures which dotted the main pier.  They were all made from discarded bits of motor bikes.

The following two photos come from the Tay estuary.  The first is a rather strange collection of objects which I found lying on the beach and then comes a little tug on the waters.

August is one of the school holiday months and we had the pleasure of Liam and Jamie's company for some of the time.  Here they are enjoying themselves.

During August we had some rather spectacular sunsets and here is my attempt to capture one of them.  It is the view looking across to the houses on the other side of our street.

Below is one of Kathleen's lovely flower arrangements which brighten our rooms.

For a few days in August Dundee hosted a Youth Festival with guests from all four of the city's Twin partners.  This included a delegation from Nablus in Palestine.  Below, one of the Nabulsi guests show off her new kilt.

August is also the birthday month for Liam, who is now eight years old.  Below are a couple of photos of Liam and his birthday cake, with first up the two Grannies in riotous form.

One of the highlights of August is to enjoy the full flowering of Hydrangeas.  The lace cap variety is Kathleen's favourite and below is a lovely specimen.

I end with one of my bargello pieces.  This one is entitled Petals and was stitched in shades of violet and lavender.  I think it goes well with the hydrangea above.

In Switzerland (3) - Just Windows

Yesterday I made a short trip into Zürich to get some fresh vegetables at the weekly market.  With some time to spare I wandered around the old town for a bit.  I ended up at the Lindenhof which is usually a fairly quiet spot with great views up and down the river Limmat.  There are also some lovely views of windows on the flats surrounding the square.  So what follows is simply a selection of these windows – nothing fancy, just pleasant and satisfying windows.  

 For something completely different to end with I have added a couple of shots from the market.  The first two are some of the stunning flower displays and the last two show some speciality pasta and cheeses.