After Rain

Fog in The Valley

It has been dumping heavy rain here, almost nonstop for days and days. But every once in a while, it pauses, and beautiful atmospheric effects appear. 

Here is fog over St. Gallen at sundown. 

Dinner at the Mill

After Church

When one hasn’t yet eaten, and it is past noon, we pick the closest restaurant, because it’s a Sunday, and it is probably empty and they need the business. So we walk in that direction. The gents stride on ahead. Mama, Little Miss, and Oma are toddling behind, talking, helping with the umbrellas, and not moving fast. Then the we see the gents heading back to us. “The restaurant is too full.” Ooookaaaay. Let’s try the one up the other way. And off we walk. And find it closed for holiday. Ooooookaaaaay. Let’s go to the really nice restaurant in the town down the winding road. So the gents run (we don’t know why they felt obligated to run, but maybe hunger is compelling), back to the house to get the cars, and we go to The Mill Restaurant. Mühle means mill.  And when we arrive, it is full of cars in front. …… But we will not be deterred. We park and go in and find plenty of space for us. Third time is charm. 

This building has been here “ forever,” and it really was a mill with a water wheel for grinding grain. And inside the concept is kept alive today with a working water wheel in the Speisesaal (eating room).

Note the copper flume above, directing the water to the wheel.

When one is in a place “forever,” one can have one’s own custom-made silverware. 

And, yes, the food, the service, the atmosphere were all delightful. 

Some certain Somebody ALWAYS orders Caprese. This is the Mill’s version. 

The Sommer Salat, with melon, Feta, honey, and strawberries. 

Wiener Schnitzel anyone? It would take two hands (at least my size hands) to cover that. There were quite fine vegetables and a Preiselbeere compote (cranberry) under that. And Rösti on the side (grated fried potatoes).  And several other palate-pleasers. 

So, for a rainy day with several false starts, it turned out well. 

And that was after a church service for a Mission Festival with a very moving sermon, with this illustrative TRUE story on the power of prayer:

A church was having a Bible study, and the Pastor asked the group for prayer requests. Several came up and then one man suggested they pray for a missionary the church was supporting. So they did. And that was that - it seemed. 

But over in Africa, that missionary had been having difficulties getting any receptivity from the people to whom he was trying to minister. If fact they were hostile. In fact they made a plan to kill him. Some of them went to his house to do the deed. But, since the missionary told the story later, obviously they did not kill him. In fact they did become receptive to his message and many came to faith. The missionary asked the people there what changed. They said, “We were going to kill you, but the night we went to your house, you had guards around it.” The missionary said he never had guards. “Oh, yes, you did,” they said. “Twenty one of them.” Later the missionary was telling of the work of the Gospel at the church that supported him, and told that story. One member said he remembered that they prayed for him, and upon recollections among them, they recalled it was that day of murderous intent. The missionary asked how many had prayed, and one by one people raised their hands. 

Twenty-one people had prayed for him that day. 

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5: 16

PRAY.

Blessed Sunday.

Book Vernissage

Wine Country, Maienhalde

This evening we went to a friend’s presentation of his book. He is doing a series of these throughout Switzerland. And the Swiss don’t do things by halves. The meeting was in an old vineyard restaurant, with beautiful carvings on the support posts, and their own wines - very fine - and accordion players. Unfortunately I didn’t get interior pictures, but you might want to see the setting. 

This is looking toward the Austrian Alps. 

A sunny location for grapevines. 

The house next to the restaurant. Lovely flower boxes.

Direction to the entrance of the restaurant. 

And how long does a book presentation last, you ask? This one was five hours. And we actually enjoyed it. 

Feather

Found!

Better Half said he wrestled this off a hawk. Hmmm…

It graces my studio now. It’s quite beautiful. It will probably be in a still life painting, one of these days. 

Flowers

It’s Summer!

First murderous heat, then unseasonably chilly rains, disrupted the repose of the summer, but some gladioli braved the extremes and produced some blooms for us. 

And the dahlias are blooming now, and Malve volunteers. They are a wild flower here. So I add them to small posies. 

Not exactly a styled arrangement, but my table was happy with the added colors.

Oops. Not a flower. He was in the cellar, but got taken out. It’s a fire salamander. 

Views

When Lost

Recently, when we were trying to find our way on unfamiliar roads, we ended up in a rural hamlet, that ended in a forest track at a farm. The people looked at us oddly, but soon noticed we were lost, when we turned around. 

But we saw this beautiful view. 

The buildings were not falling over. I just had to be quick. 

Then the rains poured down.

Happy August 1st

Swiss Independence Day