Living Without

The June Gloom is definitely gone and it has been 90 degrees for the past three days. I'm sure that there is some reason, yet to be revealed, why I need to discover all the ways to stay somewhat cool on the 5th floor of an apartment building with no air conditioning. No air conditioning is really the normal way of things in Europe so I am not surprised, but I am challenged to deal with the feeling that at any moment I might become a melted puddle on the floor. I should have known we'd be in trouble with excess heat in the summer, when we hardly had to turn any heat on in the winter. The hottest part of the day (between 4-7 p.m.) is when the sun is directly on our front window. This makes it necessary to roll down the outside shade but when I do that, no air is able to come in. We do have fans--thankfully, and have found that if we don't turn on any lights at night then the bugs don't come in our screen-less windows. At least there is usually a pretty good breeze coming through either the front or the back windows. We've found that the newer buses have air conditioning, but the older ones do not. I told Steve on Sunday on our way home from church that I would rather walk all the way than get on a crowded, non-air conditioned bus again.

Lest I sound ungrateful for all of our wonderful experiences, let me clarify that I am merely challenged to learn new ways to handle living without some things which we sometimes take for granted. What is interesting to me is that so far I have been successful in adapting. An "Old Dog" can learn new tricks.

Our pictures from this weekend in Luzern are on Steve's lap top which is with him in Boston. It has crashed, so we hope that all the pictures were not lost.

Love to you all,
Mary

TIME FLIES!

We had a great view of the Lake and sunset as we enjoyed our Anniversary dinner.


This past Wednesday Steve and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. I remember clearly the day we were married and I don't think I could have looked forward and imagined the kind of life that we would have together. I don't think that I could have imagined actually turning 40 years old, let alone being married for 40 years! Though some days with five children seemed to last forever, forty years have sped by. As I look back I am amazed at what we have learned from our relationship with each other, from our children and their unique personalities, and now from our precious grandchildren. I won't lie and say that I've enjoyed every minute of our life together but all our experiences have worked together for our good, and now I will say that it was definitely worth it.

Chad complained last week that we never put any pictures of ourselves on the blog. At our age we really don't like to look at pictures of ourselves--"Who are those old people?" I don't think we should have to look any older than we feel. We still feel young. So we have given in to Chad's request and included some pictures we took at our Anniversary dinner.

Love to you all wherever you may be---

WE ARE STUCK ON GRAY

We have been experiencing a real "June Gloom". We haven't seen much in the way of sun, nor had a day or night without some amount of rain. People who have lived here for a while say it's the coldest, cloudiest end of May and first of June they've experienced. That really isn't much consolation for someone whose moods are rather dependent upon a good amount of sunshine. But as Steve always says, "It is what it is." We have experienced our first real introduction to the craziness of Soccer fanaticism. Geneva is one of the host cities of the Euro Cup--the national qualifying teams from Europe play for the championship. The good side of being in a "host" city is that the grayness has been brightened by a profusion of bright flags representative of the competing teams displayed everywhere. There is not an apartment building nor business in town that does not have flags hanging from windows, doorways or sides of the structure. On Saturday everywhere in town we could hear the soccer "singing", horns and chants to accompany the flag and scarf waving. There will be another match here on Wednesday and another on the Wednesday following. At least now we know what to expect. Whenever a goal is scored fans open their windows and yell and cheer and some run out into the street and jump around and blow horns. I must admit, I can't really relate to the avid fan. On the negative side, we have found that having drivers from other countries on the streets of Geneva can be dangerous to pedestrians. In Geneva if a pedestrian is in a crosswalk a driver will stop and wait. Even if the pedestrian waves them on, they will wait and let you cross. Now, however, if you are the pedestrian, you better check the color of the license plate before venturing into the crosswalk. Residents of other nations don't have the same driving habits. I see Switzerland as a country of laws and rules and one does not want to find oneself on the wrong side of the law. Traffic fines can be horrendously expensive.

Have you ever seen a Pelican pedaling a unicycle on a carousel? I have to give it to the artist for originality.
This is one of the most unique carousels I have ever seen. On our Saturday trip to the botanical gardens we were able to see it in action for the first time.
For my little grandchildren. This is the "middle-sized" Billy Goat Gruff. The great Big Billy Goat Gruff would come close enough for us to take a picture of him. Many of the plants and animals in the garden are species native to Switzerland which the country wants to preserve. We have in the store purple carrots and potatoes. They grow here in Switzerland.
There is a species of duck in this pond that has bright red eyes, although we were unable to get a photo of this strange duck. Most of the fowl were in the resting mode.

I had walked to the botanical garden often and told Steve that ducks there had unbelievable color and looked like they had been painted. When he saw them for himself, he said he would be bringing his camera back when the sun was shining.
Talk about color! This peacock was just asking to be photographed.
It is apparent in this photo how they blend flowers with grasses and trees for a great scene.
This water spot makes for a peaceful scene.
We don't know what this bush is. The "berries" almost look like grape clusters but the leaves are quite different. Any ideas?
After experiencing gray and rainy skies for over ten days Steve and I decided to go to a place where we could see some color. Geneva has a wonderful Jardin Botanique. Although it wasn't raining, the gray skies made for rather muted pictures, but we did our best. The gardens here are unlike ones I have seen in the U.K. or the United States or Japan. Here, they leave things in the most natural state possible. They don't necessarily pluck up all the weeds and they leave the native grasses uncut where they can. The garden is not overly manicured, but is filled with a large variety of beautiful specimens of trees, flowering shrubs and seasonal flowers. It was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits. The other thing that is lifting my spirits is the thought that I will be coming to visit family and friends in a month. We miss you all---

We Love Company

We spent this weekend with Paul Dirkmaat--our second guest to visit us in Geneva. Paul is in Rome for the summer doing a legal internship. He was able to hop on Easy Jet and be here in just over an hour. Easy Jet may be "no frills" but many flights are only $30 each way. That is cheaper than train, car or anything else. It certainly makes Europe accessible once you have made the "big trip" from the U.S. Either our guests are becoming less discriminating or we are raising our "value", but Paul gave us a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

After a mostly rainy day, the sky became beautiful over the lake.
We walked to dinner in part of the "old town" Friday night. For the first time in days we had a somewhat clear sky.
Paul on Tourbillon. The evidence that Steve made the hike despite a very sore foot is the picture itself. The day was cloudy, but fortunately it didn't pour on us.
The walk to the top of Tourbillon is steep and a little difficult. But as with most things that test us in life, the climb is worth it. Paul and Steve climbed it this time--I am waiting to make the climb with my grandchildren. I hold fond memories of hiking with some of them in the hills of Tennessee last summer and I'm hoping to make this hike with them. Though I love many things about living here I am really looking forward to seeing family and friends again. It's close enough now to start thinking about it.

Love to all of you