Snow! (in Bern, in early November)

Yes, I'm back! Hello, and welcome!
Tadaaaaa! Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007, the Swiss Federal Parliament building was being unveiled after a considerable period of renovation. My tutor and friend Roselle was in town from Devon (UK) on a tour of workshops and lectures -- more of that in a separate post -- and we happened to be there. That's Roselle walking across the road and towards the beautiful gneiss slabs covering the "Bundesplatz", the town square of Bern, so to speak.


Snow is falling as I type these lines... I'm still at the office, actually (yes, I know, I'm probably well on the way to becoming a workaholic). We had the very first snowflakes last Friday, the earliest serious snowfall in some sixty years. In some parts of the Eastern Alps, two to three feet of snow fell overnight. Horribly avalanchy; I was glad we were spared. But today snow fell here and actually stuck to the ground for a bit. It'll be interesting to see how things are when I cycle home -- not to worry: I have a brilliant new bike with excellent tyres and brakes and lights. Love to ride it -- on a flat, straight stretch, it's like being a giant ... :) (ever the megalomaniac, me)

Tonight's the only evening this week that I have no commitments, so I gave myself an open-ended workday and am rewarding my diligence by producing this post in my much-lauded blog.
Which reminds me: thank you, everyone, for your praises. Keep those comments coming! :)

No snow pix, though -- night-time photography is not my forte, as some of you will know. But a few visual memories of what some parts of Bern looked like about a week or ten days ago:
What a sight this little tree was first thing in the morning! It welcomed me for a few days, until last Saturday or so. On Sunday a veritable blizzard powered through. In the afternoon, not a leaf was on that little tree, and its propeller-shaped seeds were swirling through the air.
Finally, the last of my pink campion. They were particularly splendid this summer, starting early, blooming en masse -- perhaps it was a good idea to prune them back every now and then and to snip off the seedpods...
Until next year, I hope.
Since I took that picture I've been to Scotland, had Roselle staying for a few days, and tidied up my balcony, putting in a new bubble-wrap windshield (the old plastic was torn to tatters by the high winds of a few weeks ago and no longer did the job), and generally having a good old go at the motley plant community that is largely the result of birds dropping their little loads, seeds blowing in on the wind or the most wonderful of fall-out from garden-flower/wildflower bouquets that I usually put on the balcony when they're getting a bit tired. The bees and wasps and bumblebees love it!
Very little of what's in those pots has actually been planted deliberately.