Not only is there pollen dust in the air that covers everything and gets into every crack, in addition there’s apparently Sahara dust in the air and the bone-dry north-easterly wind blows up billowing dust clouds. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself sand-blasted to the bones after a long jog.
I have a zen doodle book at home that I copy designs out of. Sometimes I create my own designs but I have to admit that the process of creating art as a copyist comes much more easily to me and has a heightened effect of relaxation for me.
I guess I still carry that child’s reflex of learning by copying in me. That’s how I learned back then and still do nowadays. So my credo is: Don’t give up what’s working well and brings you fun!
About a week ago COVID-19 helped me make a healthier choice. I was tempted to pass by McDrive to celebrate the start of the weekend. But as luck had it, the Mac down the road was actually closed, including their drive-in (drive-through for all Americans among you) and take-away.
So I was forced to eat at home and stick to my good habits: I ended up having salad and chicken nuggets.
My neighbor must be somehow related to Francis of Assissi, at least all animals seem to love him. My panther cat took to him as soon as he laid eyes on him. I can confirm that he is the absolut best, he kept me stocked with the most important essentials – comfort food like Maltesers and cookies – during my self-quarantine.
Today he obviously made a new friend… I got pictures from my neighbors partner showing him with the pigeon first on his shoulder and then on his hand. Magic!
Sometimes if you go on a long run int the morning after a huge cup of coffee there’s a danger of that coffee washing water out of the body that wants out. And the most obvious way – before you start sweating enough – is out of your bladder. So yes, I had to pee on my run lately and there wasn’t a very suitable spot along the way. But since it was still relatively early and no one was to be seen I decided to risk just hiding between some trees as I would certainly see approaching hikers and joggers on time. I didn’t consider the bikers though and their increased speed in comparison to people afoot. Well, and that’s how I met a lovely couple who was all charming about it and gave me a wave that I happily returned.
Good thing I don’t embarrass easily…
Monday saw some torrential rain around where I live but – being my own hero and all – that didn’t keep me from going out for an hour long run… while my cats, the frog and the ball in the drawing, decided to stay put on the cozy warm DRY bed…
Now isn’t that some real kickass determination I showed on a public holiday??!? 😀
Last night I thought I still had a Bitter Lemon in my fridge so why not have a gin with Bitter Lemon? So I poured in the gin and went to the fridge, opened it and – discovered that the Bitter Lemon was gone. I wrecked my head over when I’d drank it but couldn’t remember for the life of me.
So I started studying the other choices of liquids in my fridge which comprised of salad dressing, sparkling wine and milk. My mind wandered to the various scenes in the movie “The Big Lebowski” where Jeff Bridges is drinking a White Russian. I decide to look up what options I have as I’m pretty certain that pouring the gin back into the bottle is none… or doomed to fail. So I might just as well drink it some way.
On the internet I swiftly found the page “Drinking like an old man” that offered me a mixture of gin and mild with a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. Unfortunately, I was out of nutmeg so I simply poured the milk onto the gin. Not sure whether it’s the lack of nutmeg but that drink certainly needs some getting used to… After drinking about half of it and still not being convinced I decided the drink definitely lacked a certain tartness so I added a good spritz of lemon juice. This actually improved the taste greatly but it was not long before the lemon and milk decided they were never becoming best friends and thus separated… there went my experiment, only semi-successful. But once again I had to admit to myself that I’m pretty brave and seldom shy of a culinary experiment 😉
MONTAGSWANDERUNG
Whenever I got an extra day off – which is basically every week as I’m a part-time worker – and the weather is fine I love to visit the great outdoors and treat myself to a hike. And that’s exactly what I did a week ago.
Wann immer ich einen zusätzlichen Frei-Tag habe – was praktisch jede Woche der Fall ist, weil ich Teilzeit arbeite – und das Wetter gut ist, liebe ich es, in die freie Natur heraus zu stürmen und mich mit einer Wanderung zu verwöhnen. Und genau das habe ich vor einer Woche getan.
I started out at Schönalp-Hüttli which is located a bit above Unterägeri, a town located a 30 min. drive from where I live. My route took me via In den Gräben to Geissfaren and up to Halsegg and then the rest up to Wildspitz.
Gestartet bin ich vom Schönalp-Hüttli, das ein wenig oberhalb von Unterägeri liegt, eine Ortschaft ca. 30 Minuten per Auto von mir zuhause entfernt. Meine Route führte mich via In den Gräben zum Geissfaren und hoch über die Halsegg zum Wildspitz.
Only a few minutes into the hike I started to wonder what all the buzz was about and that’s what presented itself to me:
Nur ein paar Minuten nachdem ich gestartet war, wunderte ich mich über das aufgeregte Gesurre und im nächsten Moment stand ich vor diesen Gebilden:
These little boxes are all beehives! / Bei sämtlichen dieser kleinen Boxen handelt es sich um Bienenstöcke!
Just a little further up I was rewarded with a perfect look over all the greenery:
Nur ein klein wenig weiter den Berg rauf wurde ich mit diesem perfekten Blick über das Grün der Wälder belohnt:
A couple of steps further up I decided to snap a picture which didn’t look like much…
Einige Schritte weiter entschied ich mich, folgendes Foto zu schiessen, das zunächst nicht nach viel aussah…
…but just then I realized that I’d caught a deer in the picture:
…doch bei näherem Hingucken bemerkte ich, dass ich ein Reh mitfotografiert hatte:
Onwards I went under the sceptic yet cheering eyes of my very personal fan crew:
Weiter gings unter den skeptischen, aber anfeuernden Blicken meiner persönlichen Fangemeinde:
They’re just too cute!! / Die sind einfach zu süss!!
Shortly after that motivational spur I reached my goal – Wildspitz:
Kurz nach dieser Motivationsspritze erreichte ich mein Ziel – den Wildspitz:
Only a few more steps, you can do it! You can do it! / Nur noch ein paar Schritte, du schaffst das! Du schaffst das!
And when I arrived up top I knew why I’d come in the first place – this breathtaking view was my reward:
Und als ich ob auf der Spitze ankam, wusste ich, warum ich eigentlich gekommen war – diese atemberaubende Aussicht war meine Belohnung:
My way back down took me over to the Gnipen which is the spot where in 1806 a massive rockslide broke loose and in its wake devastated four villages and causing a 20m high tsunami in the nearby lake Lauerz. This is the spot where the rock broke:
Mein Weg zurück ins Tal führte mich über den Gnipen, wo 1806 der massive Bergsturz von Goldau losgebrochen war und in dessen Folge vier Dörfer zerstört wurden und der eine 20m hohe Flutwelle im nahegelegenen Lauerzersee auslöste. Dies ist die Abbruchstelle:
The magnitude of the event boggled my mind and I took a moment to sit down under a giant cross and watch the scenery.
Das Ausmass dieses Ereignisses übersteigt ein ums andere Mal mein Vorstellungsvermögen und so setzte ich mich für einen Moment unter das riesige Kreuz, um die Szenerie aufzunehmen.
These are the moments when I’m in awe of nature’s power, when I find back to my core and it’s the reason I go hiking – the sheer might and staggering beauty of nature manage to set me straight again, put a new perspective on my thoughts and feelings and help me see everything clearer. Mother nature is my personal therapist.
Dies sind die Momente, in denen ich sprachlos über die Macht der Natur bin, wo ich zurück zu meinem Innersten finde und das ist der Grund, warum ich überhaupt wandern gehe – die pure Gewalt und atemberaubende Schönheit der Natur bringen es fertig, mir den Kopf wieder zurecht zu rücken, meine Gedanken und Gefühle in Perspektive zu bringen und alles klarer zu sehen. Mutter Natur ist meine persönliche Therapeutin.
From Gnipen I hiked on by Alpli, Urzlen and back towards my starting point. The last treat before I plunged myself back into the valley was this fairy-tale like glimpse:
Vom Gnipen bin ich dann via Alpli und Urzlen zurück zu meinem Ausgangspunkt gewandert. Der letzte Leckerbissen, bevor ich mich zurück ins Tal stürzte, war diese märchenhafte Aussicht:
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Ressourcen & Quellen
My mom and aunt established a Sunday morning bicycling routine a long time ago. I have no idea when they started it but I remember that at some point – when I had passed the teenage years and my twenties, the age known for “having to sleep in because I partied too hard on Saturday night” – I was grown up enough to get my chunk out of bed in time to enjoy the early hours of many a peaceful Sunday mornings. And I can tell you: It’s been worth it every single time.
So on today’s Sunday I rose and shone (maybe not so brightly to begin with ;-)) early as we agreed to meet at my – other – aunt’s house to have breakfast. She invited us over and we happily agreed to show up on time at 8:30am. This aunt, Marie, came to visit me in Austin with my mom and her friend in May 2015. Then last year she went through a rough spot and it was our pleasure to accept her invitation, seeing how she was in a much better place by now.
I thoroughly enjoyed today’s ride from Hausen am Albis, my place of residence high over the city of Zug down to the lake, along its shore to Arth and finally all the way around the lake and – yes – back up the hill again. At its altitude of 611 meters (2’005 ft) some might consider it a mountain J (in Switzerland a mountain only starts at the elevation of 1’000 meters = 3’281 ft).
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SONNTÄGLICHE VELO ROUTINE
Meine Ma und Tante haben vor langer Zeit eine Sonntag-morgendliche Fahrrad-Tour-Tradition eingeführt. Ich habe keine Ahnung, wann sie diese starteten, aber ich erinnere mich, dass ich irgendwann – als ich meine Teenager-Jahre und meine Zwanziger, das Alter bekannt dafür „ausschlafen zu müssen, weil ich Samstagnacht zu stark gefeiert hatte“ – erwachsen genug war, um meinen Hintern rechtzeitig aus dem Bett zu hieven und mit ihnen die frühen Morgenstunden so manch eines friedlichen Sonntagmorgens zu geniessen. Und ich kann euch sagen: Es hat sich jedes einzelne Mal gelohnt.
So bin ich am heutigen Sonntag schon früh raus aus den Federn, da wir zu meiner – anderen – Tante zeitig zum Frühstück auftauchen sollten. Sie hatte uns eingeladen und wir stimmten gerne zu, pünktlich um 8:30 Uhr bei ihr auf der Matte zu stehen. Diese Tante, Maria, besuchte mich zusammen mit meiner Ma und ihrer Freundin im Mai 2015. Letztes Jahr dann machte sie eine sehr schwierige Zeit durch und so war es uns ein Vergnügen, ihre Einladung anzunehmen und zu sehen, dass es ihr heute schon viel besser geht.
Meine heute Radtour von Hausen am Albis, meinem Wohnort hoch über der Stadt Zug, runter an den See, entlang seines Ufers nach Arth und schliesslich ganz um den See herum und – genau – dann wieder den Hügel rauf. Mit seiner Höhenlage von 611 m.ü.M. würden manche schon sagen, ich lebe auf einem Berg J Die wissen aber wahrscheinlich nicht, dass bei uns in der Schweiz Berge erst ab einer Erhebung von 1‘000 m.ü.M. als solche gelten.
Ressourcen & Quellen
Despite the incessant rain today I went for a brief hike and got to enjoy landscape as green as any Irish cloverleaf. It was amazing.
The many cabins scattered throughout the woods always catch my attention. They remind me of bygone parties, animated talks and the odd spirit too many drunk in the past.
Today I crossed this beauty’s path:
It comes without saying that at least a couple of antlers have to adorn a real forest cabin.
The water fountain is covered under the awning of the porch while there’s also an “open air” fireplace and sitting area (and yep, that’s a patch of snow there… last Friday I woke up to a solid 20-30cm of heavy snow…).
The whole scene seen from the other side.
What especially charmed me was the outhouse right behind a patch of wild garlic 🙂 and next to a neatly stacked pile of fire wood.
Are you up of partying or simply enjoying an evening among friends in such a location? Do you have places like these nearby?
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