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melev

Switzerland - a land alive with color

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I was out of town for the past week, enjoying some time with my family in Switzerland. We had nearly perfect weather for which I was delighted as I wandered about, Nikon in hand. For this blog entry, I'm going to share all the floral pictures I took. I don't know how many of these flowers exist in the states, but I don't see them here in Texas... so hopefully you'll enjoy them as well. I don't have names for most, but if you happen to know a few I'd be happy to update this entry with any submitted.

Not all of these are flowers, I should add. But still plant life.


This little pot was actually a display piece set upon a suspended shelf in a small display window of a shop. The pot is maybe 4" in diameter.



Each day in Marktplatz (similar to the Farmer's Market, although translated directly it means Market Place), you can purchase flowers from a few vendors. By evening, their booths are gone.



At my grandparents' grave, wild strawberries. She loved these, so it seems justified to have them crop up in this spot.



There was a little rainfall, at times.



I saw lots of honey bees and bumble bees.






This plant caught my eye. It was a nice gentle mixture of colors.



And this looked like one of the most hostile Christmas tree-like plant I've ever seen. It screamed leave me alone.





I was told this flower is used to make Opium.Another use for them is color, of course. The Swiss have them everywhere.



Various unknown flowers, both intentionally planted as well as some wild ones.















This was a beautiful Orchid in a family member's home. Having tons of daylight coming in helps.



The ivy makes a little courtyard more pleasant.



A few more random flowers.














This type of effort is visible throughout Switzerland. Everyone seems to enjoy decorating their homes and businesses with flowers of every type.




My mother happened to notice the blue pine cones in this tree only because of the way the sunlight hit it.





I thought this was a type of flower until I got closer. It seems to be more likened to the pine cone family though.




This plant was sprouting a flower of sorts. You can see it just to the left of the concrete structure.




This pine-like bush or tree was two-toned.




One of my favorite treats are roasted chestnuts served hot, sold here from street vendors during the wintery months. This time of year, the trees are already displaying some, although they won't be harvested until the fall. We rarely get them in Texas, even when I request them at the supermarket. It is so seasonal an item that we may have them during a single week here. In Switzerland, you can enjoy them for weeks on end.






This is my favorite type of pine tree. It's a little droopy, and reminds me a bit of Charlie Brown's sad little tree. These grow to be quite immense though.




Here are the last of the flower photos.







I took over 500 pictures during my trip, so there will be more blog entries about my trip over the next week. The weather ranged from 60° F to 80° F, a welcome reprieve from the 105° F Fort Worth suffers from presently.

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Comments

  1. Jnarowe's Avatar
    Poppies...
  2. Workaholic's Avatar
    I recognized a few of the flowers in begining as we have them here in WA. The Xmas tree you mentioned is called a monkey puzzle tree, very very slow growing and actually quite saught after when they get large as they make beautiful table slabs.
  3. Jnarowe's Avatar
    I was thinking the same thing. Most of what Marc took shots of grows well here. There's a wiced nice Monkey Puzzle tree on Fjord Drive in Poulsbo, as well as one down on Central Valley Road between Poulsbo and Silverdale. They are beautiful. ANother favorite of ours is the Weeping Alaska Cedar.
  4. Hat39406's Avatar
    Nice photography Marc, beautiful pictures! Hope you had a great time but glad you're back.
  5. larry.beck's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jnarowe
    There's a wiced nice Monkey Puzzle tree on Fjord Drive in Poulsbo
    I'll have to look for that next time I drive by. Hard to believe 2 people from Poulsbo are on this community.
  6. gerbilbox's Avatar
    The plant with "nice gentle mixture of colors" is a member of the euphorb family, which has very characteristic little flowers which I like. The family is widely distributed worldwide and I'll be surprised if it's not in Texas.

    Gorgeous photographs. I was wondering what the weather was like in Switzerland this time of year since a friend is there now. What part of the country were you in?
  7. melev's Avatar
    The very last couple of lines discussed the weather. It was really nice, maybe 18° C at the most, and 13° C at night. I went from Basel to Grabs. Basel is in the upper left corner where France, Switzerland and Germany touch (Drei Lander Ecke), and then Grabs was a stone's throw away from Lichtenstein. (Google Maps Link)

    Because we were driving, I had the opportunity to go into the country side and see the smaller towns instead of taking a train from major city to major city. We had a little bit of rain on the first day and the last day, but the rest of the time, it was partly cloudy with sunshine.
  8. DJ in WV's Avatar
    The plant in front of the stone pillar is a hosta
  9. canyousee's Avatar
    Cool trip love the pictures thanks a lot for sharing. Would you mind talking a little about the food there. What do they eat,how was it, do they have anything close to smoked/bar-b-qued brisket like TX?
  10. melev's Avatar
    I'll be talking about foods in a future blog entry. I didn't see anything remotely like Texas-food there, nor would I have hoped to find any. I'm far more apt to try out something that is local cuisine when traveling, to find out what it is like.

    One very common staple is veal in Switzerland. Their veal is our hamburger. And it is delicious.
  11. canyousee's Avatar
    I agree even when I travel in the USA I try not to eat chain food, rather local restaurants to try and get a feel of their home cooking.I was trying to ask do they Bar-b-que in general like we do in the west? Looking forward to hearing and seeing more about your trip.
  12. melev's Avatar
    I posted up a new blog last night.