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

Icicles

Ice formation on one of the many fountains in Villigen.

20100102

Devoid of color

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

20090222

Rabbit, framed

20090112

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

Purple cluster

Beautyberry (Callicarpa), perhaps?

20071230 Nikon Coolpix 950

Red remnants

Rose hips. The pomaceous fruit of the rose plant (Wiki).

20071213

Coming and going in Brugg

Most shops in Switzerland are closed on Sundays, but there's a special license granted to operate the last two Sundays before Christmas. Today there was a Markt in Brugg, complete with pony rides. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of it all: people enjoying time with their dear ones.

This park with an underground parking lot (called Eisi Parkhaus) is the same one with the lighted benches (1, 2) from last March.

20071223

The cherub and the wild man in Baden

20071221

Rathausgasse Baden

After the shoppers have gone home. In some cases, home might be one of the upstairs flats seen here.

20071217

'Tis the season VIII

A sweet depiction of the Nativity scene at an upscale home furnishings shop (Form+Wohnen) in Baden. For a few more photos, please visit my overflow site:
Weihnactskrippe

20071217

'Tis the season VI

Another jolly fellow, this one gloveless, unlike the other one with the green gloves...

20071213

'Tis the season V

Edelweiss, of course. One of my favorite photos is one I took of some real edelweiss. I've uploaded the photo to my overflow site:
Edelweiss

20071213

Two little birds

One of my neighbors has bird feeders in our shared backyard area and these little creatures have recently started to avail themselves of the offerings. I spent many happy moments photographing them. The runner-up to this photo is on my overflow blog:
Four little birds

Update: Thanks to reader Alice for identifying these as the blue tit (Parus or Cynanistes caeruleus - Wikipedia entry about them here).

20071214

'Tis the season III

Santa caught out by the rising sun.

20071209

Light and shadows

Sometimes the interaction between clouds and the sun produces such wonderful effects. Regretfully, this photo is but a poor imitation of what I actually saw.

20071208

'Tis the season II

Twenty four families in the Gemeinde (community) of Villigen have signed up for special window displays. Sort of like an Advent calendar. Here's a Wikipedia entry about these calendars, and their origins from the German Lutherans.

20071203 Dorfstrasse Stilli

'Tis the season

People all over the village have started to put up their Christmas decorations.

20071202 Kumetstrasse

Sunshine

Brilliant sunshine after more than a week of clouds. Everything looks beautiful to me!

20071127

The occasional early morning sunshine

Haven't actually seen so much sun in the past couple of days and the forecast is not so encouraging. Looks like I've done nothing but gripe about the weather all week, when there's really much I'm thankful for.

20071117