Happy July

A Week in

Where does the time go? We will get back to the French coastal tour, but first: happy new month, Happy Independence Day for the Americans, and happy summer. We are enjoying summer fruits, from trees, bushes, and ground plants. It is still extremely rainy, so the garden still isn’t happy with the lack of sunshine, but the many tomatoes in the greenhouse don’t mind. And the lettuce and radishes and spring crops are not getting too hot. 

The strawberries are “wild.” Very tasty. These are the first blueberries from our new plants, planted in laboriously dug and transported mountain bog dirt last fall. 

These are waffles with imported Swedish blueberry soup. A native specialty. Quite delicious. 

And from Sister Ruth presently in the other side of the world, these:

Wallaby

‘ROOS

And back in Switzerland, last weekend the Böögg was finally burnt. All of Switzerland has been wishing it would hurry up, so we would finally get some summer. The Sechseläuten festivities had gone on as normal in April, to celebrate the end of winter, and get summer on the way, with the burning of the Böögg, but a big wind came up at the end. So for the first time in history, there was no burning. It has been chilly and rainy ever since. The new plan was to take the snowman to the guest Canton, which happened to be Appenzell, and have the burning later. That was eventually set for the last weekend in June. Ha! HA! said the Böögg. The day started out beautiful for all the Appenzellerisch festivities, in a town quite close to us (though we were stuck in Warsaw - a different story), 

but then the rain started. 

It poured, giving the Böögg and wood several hours to get throughly soaked. So, when six o‘clock rang on the church bells, the fire had a struggle. The goal is to time how long it takes for the Böögg’s head to blow off ( yes, those violent Swiss, but one has to do something to end winter, you know), and the shorter the better, so summer can come soon. The normal time is about ten minutes. 

So, amid a sea of umbrellas, the fire started. 

Guess how long this took. 

Will we have a nice summer soon?

Actually, not only did the burning fire struggle, but as the fire climbed higher,

The Böögg‘s head fell off! 

Very inauspicious. 

But it finally did explode. On the ground. 

How long, you ask? 

It took 31 1/2 minutes! THIRTY-ONE!

No summer for us. 

To emphasize that, we had three downpours today. 

But yesterday had a pretty sundown, and we give thanks for that.

Next, back to the French coast.