Egelsee by Bike

On Wednesday evening, after a day at the office, we decided to make the best from the warm and sunny weather and we took out the bikes. We drove up to Egelsee, a small lake on the Heitersberg mountain range. I’ve posted pictures from Egelsee before, when it was frozen and we had snow.

We were not the only ones with the same idea, many runners, bikers and walkers were around. And in this first picture, that silver line in the middle of the picture are two swimmer. The water is still very cool, but these two womand looked like the ran up to the lake and took now a refreshing swim in the lake.

On the way back, it was quite cold. But the downhill ride never takes as long as the climb up!

ZFD at Hin&Weg

Last month, I managed to go to ZFD (züriflickrdrinks) again. It’s the monthly meeting of flickrites in Zürich, and the focus is on drinks and playing around with your camera. Not seriously taking pictures. We met at Hin&Weg, a new café-bar in the new buildings at Europaallee in Zürich. They serve baguettes and salads, and as I was really hungry that evening (anybody who saw me eating all the nuts before we could order dinner can confirm this), I had a baguette.

Hiking on Fujichrome Neopan Acros 100

During the summer two years ago, I did a small hike up to a stone men from where one has a great view over the valley. The pictures were all taken on Fujichrome Neopan Acros 100, with my Pentax Super A camera.

Greifensee on Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100

I had pictures from a scanned Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 for a long time on my HD. Today, I want to show you two pictures from Greifensee. They were taken about 2 years ago, also in spring. I remember, we ate the first ice cream on that day. We bought it right where I took the pictures, at a small kiosk next to the Greifensee castle. It was a warm spring day, end of March or beginning of April (yes, we had better weather that spring than this year).

I already posted some pictures from this roll of film. I like how the pictures turned out. And I should really, really start taking pictures on film again. I just looked at my Velvia pictures, and I’m swooning over the colours.

About that almost flood…

…I talked about in the last blog post. We went for a small walk and took some pictures of the Limmat. According to the BAFU (Federal Office of the Environment), along the Limmat is danger level 3 (of 5 possible). Other rivers, like the Rhein in Basel or the Reuss are at level 4.
They closed some of the paths along the river, especially under bridges (where the paths where already flooded), or where the distance to the water was no longer big enough.
The water flowing in the Limmat is coming fom lake Zürich and from the river Sihl.

One year ago (or I’m not happy with the weather)

I just received the email from Photojojo with some pictures I took one year ago.
Pictures of the sea, pictures of sun.

We have 1st of June… and it’s raining. It’s snowing in the Alpes. Where we usually go to in the mountains, they have gotten 25cm of new snow. Here, in the lowlands, the rivers are close to crossing the bank (how do you say that correctly in English?). It’s depressing. We all want summer, and we want it now. I’m even close to booking a spontaneous holiday somewhere where it’s warm and dry!

But now, enjoy the pictures of the sea.

Rain…

It might not look like that way, but I’m still around. I’m posting slightly more frequently on the chocolate blog than I do here.
Spring has been rainy. Spring is still rainy. There have been maybe two days where I felt I could sit outside and eat al fresco. But, I’m still optimistic about summer!

But we have finally put some plants on the balcony…. they also look good in rain!

Rigi

As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I nurtured a cold all February and March long (except for 1.5 weeks in between when I felt fine, and of course did some stupid things to ensure that the cold comes back). It made me tired, so we didn’t do too many fun things in this time. But after a week of grey days, and a Saturday of foggy greyness (where the weather forecast talked about sunshine and blue sky… in the mountains), we had enough. Even though I was too weak to do something big, we had to go and see the sun.

So we went up Rigi, a mountain in central Switzerland. And we were not the only ones having this idea, the train up was packed. But it was totally worth it. We boarded the train below the fog, and on the way up we left the fog behind us and there was sun!

We took a small walk up there at the sun, soaking up as much as possible. Other people were skiing, sleding and sun bathing.

And below, one could always see the fog.

Only when we took the train back down, the fog started to lift there as well. But the sky never got as clear as it had been up there.

It was a nice trip up there. And the good thing is, Rigi is that close that we could decide spontaneously during breakfast on the same day what we want to do!

My Absence

I have neglected this blog. It has been a harsh winter, I have suffered from a cold all February long, and I’m still coughing and with little energy. There has not been much sun here in the lowlands. All of that has lead to me being lazy, to not doing much besides working and resting.

But now, luckily the days are getting longer, we are getting more sun and it’s warmer.
So I hope I will return to posting more frequently again.

The picture was taken on a small snowshoeing tour today. We saw an eagle and some deer and chamois. It was warm, and the snow was very heavy and old.

A Hike with Ice and Snow

In fall 2011, we didn’t get snow for a long time. This means, we had some great hiking weather in November. On one November weekend, I decided to walk up to some lakes on 2450 msl. The ground was frozen, the streams coming from the springs where frozen. This made for a different experience then when I previously did this hike in summer, where one had to walk over marsh and be cautious not to get wet feet.

Thanks to the late time in the year, I was completely alone. No other hikers could be seen, and the cows have left long before.

When I reached the small lakes, there was some snow. And it was quite cold up there, I had to put my gloves and my cap on. What I knew from summer was that there is always a wind up there, and it was also like that in November.

The lakes started to freeze over.

This hike stayed very positively in my memories, I still remember it fondly. And I hoped that I could do another hike like that last fall, but the weather unfortunaely never matched my free time, and at the end of November the skiing season started.