Week 6: Graupel on my window sill

We got some of this form of precipitation a few days ago. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, graupel is defined as small particles of snow with a fragile crust of ice.

Sounds like something out of modernist cuisine.

Have you met graupel?

Week 4: Six hours to Zürich

Back in 2007 I wrote about this Wegweiser in Baden. It lists hiking distances. Six hours to Zürich. One of these days I will test it out. Not on such a wintry day though.

I wish you all a good week.

Trivia of the week: 

Some of you will notice that I'm listing this under week 4 for the year. Those of you in the US will disagree, as your week numbering system puts it at week 5. Another manifestation of the non-metric stance. Causes confusion all around, especially when one uses localization on computers to be able to use American-English spelling without the spell checker going bananas. Luckily there are manual workarounds.

Birds on a tree on a snowy day

Did I say I would try to post weekly? Gah, where does the time go?!

A few days ago we had some snow and I took some pictures. This is one them. Perhaps you can make out the huddled birds.

Trees in snow

Another one from ETH.

20100308

Snow on the dining tables

At ETH Zürich Science City (Wiki entry here) on Hönggerberg, snow on the dining patio of one of the cafeterias.

20100308

House with lake and mountain view

One of my favorite houses ever, in one of my favorite locations ever. More at ArchDaily.

20070108

A view on the lake

*Sigh*

20070108

Around Rigi Scheidegg

The mountain Rigi is perhaps the best known feature of Schwyz and around that area there are others to explore. This is somewhere around Scheidegg as in yesterday's photo. I have a few more for the next couple of days.

20070108

More snow, on more trees

Work has kept me from many a photo-op, but I managed to get this night shot.

20100201

Cows in snow

A photo from the other end of Villigen. This is the same road as in yesterday's photo, but now I'm sort of facing in the direction of Villigen.

20100108

Snow on chalet

20060318

Snow on evergreens and roofs

It gets warm, it rains, it snows, it feels like spring is trying to get a hold.

20090307

Snowdrops of a different kind

Two steps forward, one step back.

20090306

Devoid of color

This is a color image. The white balance could use a little fixing.

20090222

The walks must go on

We had more snow this morning. Heavy, wet stuff. These canines were enjoying it, from the look of things.

20090222

Slope with trees and snow

A rare spot of early morning sunlight illuminated the trees on the slope behind our building.

20090212

Blackbird, camouflaged

After a long stretch of overcast skies, we finally got a break a couple of days ago. Of course I had to sieze the opportunity to get some photographs.

This blackbird was looking for sustenance in the compost heap near Volg (20080601 frisch und freundlich), the village shop. Note the orange and banana peels. Such tropical fruits were once so uncommon and dear in northern climes, now no one gives them a second thought. One day later this year, I'll tell you about the new tropical-greenhouse project in a place called Frutigen. There the warm ground water (100 liters a second, at 20°C) that flows out of an immense tunnel through the Alps is used as the primary heat source.

20090112

Dismantled Kartoffel

Anyone remember the kartoffel.ch sign on the hill? (Links to old posts below). I found it resting against the side of this building.
20070420 The post office and the bus stop
20070417 The yellow house on Hauptstrasse

20090109

Snow on a red Deux Chevaux

One of the pair of the Citroën 2CV that appeared here in July last year. Wiki article about the cars is here.
20080720 Two deux chevaux vapeur

20090109

The tree and the power line

20090109