No bugs on the windshield
Because we drive faster!
Because we are modern
And life is better
Europe’s advancing
A world leader!
Oh, bugger.
In response to this week’s news on a dramatic drop in insect numbers
Photo: Claire Doble
Month: October 2017
atmosphere
between the top of clouds and
the lid of the sky
sunlight breathes shallow and sits
in thin air
her warm fingers edged with
cold wind
the weight of majestic rays
higher than mountains, above fields
alone, over hidden cities of busy lives,
the mess and rush of love and hate, real life
up here
not really anywhere,
significant
temporary
ripped only by metal wings or feathered flight
mostly, a lonely nowhere
except
hovering in that secret blue place
I ache and stretch tendrils of tenderness,
could I reach?
everywhere
my yearning
feels like atmosphere
The inspiration for this came in part from a poem by Frank Hubeny which conjured the idea of the sun above the clouds having its own little game up there.
I sat on this for a month because I was planning to submit it to a journal callout for ‘immigrant poems’ — it speaks to my experience as an expat/person out of place/away from home. But then I got busy and missed the deadline, oops.
Photo: Idella Maeland on Unsplash
cars & guitars
try to pin thoughts
like pressing guitar strings into
my heart – tender meat – but
I never learnt that instrument
apart from listening
my fingers, so clumsy
I can’t. No. I can’t
understand anymore
where do I start
already halfway gone, and
there’s no place to
pull in
open up my bonnet
tweak the engine, maybe
put a new one in
#26Cantons52Weeks: Schwyz
View from Sattel-Hochstuckli and the cute cable cars
Destination: Sattel-Hochstuckli
Interesting thing: As well as nicking the name, Switzerland also took its flag from the Schwyz coat of arms. As my mate Mad Dog always says: I like Switzerland; the flag is a big plus.
Special guests: my parents – they’re doing me proud on the cantonal visits – that’s three so far!
Perhaps the canton with the least vowels in its name: Schwyz! The canton is not to be confused with Schweiz – the German word for Switzerland – although it was one of the founding cantons of the country back in 1291 and is actually where the name comes from. From my quick scan of Wikipedia, it seems like Schwyz was calling the shots for a good long while there and hence the name kinda stuck.
Today we visited Sattel-Hochstuckli which, in keeping with the theme, is the beginning of the Alps. Plus it boasts Switzerland’s first revolving cable car that took us up from Sattel at 800m to Mostelberg at 1,191m in about eight minutes. (There are other revolving cable cars in CH now – I think I’ve been on two others – but this was the first one to be constructed and is a cute little thing).
At the top, there was zero sign of snow or the approaching winter, even though the “summer” season officially ends this Sunday. It’s basically a paradise for hikers and families. We didn’t do much walking – only over the 374-metre long suspension bridge and back – however, we did enjoy the kids’ stuff. My six-year-old loved the alpine toboggan (rodelbahn), downhill tube run and the giant jumping castle. OK, so dad and I also had fun on the rides as well!
Lunch was tasty at the Berggasthaus Mostelberg and then it was back for a few more rides before the drive home. Sattel is about an hour by car from Zurich.
We’ve been having absolutely glorious autumn weather during my parents’ visit and today was no exception. It was sun-drenched and 20 degrees up on the mountain. With the green of the grass and fir trees, the gold and russet of the turning leaves, and the shining silver of the rodelbahn, such a lovely day out. 10 points to Schwyz AND Der Schweiz!
Cantons visited / to go so far.
Basel-Landschaft
Basel-Stadt
Bern *
Geneva
Luzern
Neuchâtel
Schwyz
Uri
Vaud
Zug
Zürich
*I haven’t written this up yet!
dreamwindow
dreamt I fell in love
it was so simple
like a small clear window
didn’t have to search for it
didn’t have to try
your clean, sudden lines
eyes smiling in delight
you said
it’s us now, forever
for however long that lasts
I laughed, and said
you know
I used to find you annoying
with your past life, past wives…
our movie showed a map
we travelled across Tanzania
on the coca-cola croc train
stopping here and there
to refill our canteen
dreamt I fell in love
it was so simple
looked down and it was there
like a small clear window
certainty at last
a strip of perfect light
dreamt I fell in love
oh, come back night
I played around with trying to turn this into a sonnet but it didn’t work so well. Maybe it’s a ‘deconstructed sonnet’.
Photo: https://unsplash.com/@joelmwakasege
Added to dVerse open link night
#26Cantons52Weeks: Obwalden
Cogwheel railway
Canton: Obwalden
Destination: Mount Pilatus, Goldene Rundfahrt
Interesting thing: Canton Obwalden is the location for the geographical centre of Switzerland. The cogwheel railway up Pilatus is the steepest in the world and dates from 1889!
Special guests: my parents
Pilatus is the ‘dragon mountain’ and its dragon symbol is rather a triumph of branding, with everything from the boat quay to the bus stop labelled with that same red swirly beast. To my mind, I can kind of see how the spine of the mountain looks a bit like a sleeping dragon and, where Rigi – “the queen of the mountains” is gently sloping and green, Pilatus seems to loom menacing and dark above Lake Lucerne. Except, as we made our way across the waters of the Vierwaldstättersee (as the lake’s called in German), I realised the mountain I’d been identifying as Pilatus actually wasn’t. So much for my theory anyway! Er… the real Pilatus looks like a dragon too, a bit! (Wikipedia tells me the dragon comes from a medieval legend about winged beasts with healing powers living on the mountain.)
Pilatus’ cogwheel railway is really something. It was constructed in 1889 and electrified in the 1930s. From lake level of 464m at Alpnachstad, the railway rises almost vertical in parts up the side of the mountain to just over 2,000 metres. The elevation gain is 1,635m in total and it has an incline of 48% at its steepest (this is the sharpest incline you can have – otherwise I think you’re actually vertical?). It’s steeper than the triangle of a Toblerone. It’s a longish journey too – about half an hour. Which is great if you’re excited about it, maybe not so great if you’re closing your eyes, blocking your ears and holding on for grim death due to a fear of heights, as my sister-in-law was the last time we went (sorry Laura!).
My parents are thankfully not much affected by vertigo and we had a lovely, clear early-autumn day for our ascent. So nice, in fact, that we even ate our lunch al fresco, with a panoramic view of the mountains from the terrace. Lovely. Afterwards dad and I climbed the “Esel” (donkey) peak to 2,118 metres for a top-of-the-top view. From here we watched a huge cloud roll up one side of the mountain, completely whiting-out the view for about 20 minutes, until it passed. Amazing how fast the weather can change at these altitudes.
To descend, we swooped down in the gondola and cable cars, then caught a bus back to Luzern to complete our “Goldene Rundfahrt” (golden round trip).
Full disclosure: the several peaks of Pilatus are actually on the border between two cantons – Nidwalden and Obwalden. However the cogwheel railway and Pilatus Kulm both fall on the Ob side (and I’ve already written up Nidwalden).
Cantons visited / to go so far.
Basel-Landschaft
Basel-Stadt
Bern *
Geneva
Luzern
Neuchâtel
Obwalden
Schwyz
Uri
Vaud
Zug
Zürich
*I haven’t written this up yet!
clairevetica 