Midsummer on Madrisa

To celebrate Midsummer and also to show off their new 10 million Franc building, Madrisa ski resort held a midsummer festival with a BBQ in the evening and events during the day. The weather was gorgeous and just after lunch we set off up the mountain in the gondolas. Here is our party looking up at the waterfall.

This red flower is called alpine rose and it is protected, you aren't supposed to pick it. Although because it is so plentiful, and perhaps because people don't realize, we saw several people picking it.

From Madrisa gondola at the top you could walk to this place with a wonderful look out over the valley. There they had a BBQ set up and some musicians were performing.

Up at Madrisa is the alp and the cows are there for the summer. There were 180 cows at the barn, from several farmers from in the valley. The herders collected the cows and brought them to the barn for milking.

None of the milk collected here is used for milk, instead they collect the cream and make butter, cheese and yogurt. We got a tour of the cheese making part. Here they heat up the milk in the kettle and then form the cheese in those round forms at the front.

After the cheeses have been pressed they are moved to the salt bath.

And then into the storage room to age.

I spent the afternoon entirely in German. Apparently with some wine I talk a lot more...

Cows to the alps

Tis the season for the cows to go up to the alps. One morning at 5am Michael and I heard lots of bells and they just kept getting closer and closer. It turns out it was a herd of cows walking along the road in the early morning on their way up to the alps.

Again this morning we heard some bells as once again just a few cows were being moved around (down the road) to new pastures.

I have since learned a lot about cows in the region. The farmer is with the cows down in the valley, and he milks and cares for them all winter. In the spring when the snow is gone the farmer with a herder brings the cows up into the alps (the alps are the meadows in the mountains above the tree line).

The herder is usually some young guy who likes nature and wants to live alone in the mountains for weeks on end during the summer. Apparently in my region the herders come from Austria and may spend their winters hanging out in Australia. They don't make much money, but all summer long they don't really spend it either. In distant alps the herder may go up with a pig and some chickens as well as flour etc for his food for the summer. The herder watches the cows in the alps for several farmers and will milk the cows and make the cheese. If there is closer access the milk may be brought down by truck to the valley to be sold as milk, cream, or yogurt. Both beef and milk cows go up into the alps but they are held in different pastures.

Then in the fall there is a festival and the farmer goes up into the alps and with the herders and brings the cows back down into the valley for the winter. This year hopefully we will be able to go to the festival when the cows come down from the alps, but this is very dependent on weather and this fall we will be super busy.

Weekend with the girls

Ex-housemates from Vancouver got together in Switzerland for a long weekend of hiking, eating and crafting!

One thing we attempted (and those it has been now two weeks, we haven't tasted) was to make stinging nettle soup. For some reason I always managed to avoid these plants back in Canada but here I've been stung on several occasions. This time it was revenge, we harvested a bunch and attempted to make nettle soup. When I've had it in restaurants it was very tasty, but for our batch we still haven't tried it yet. Hmm, I don't even know where it went! Life is just so super busy these days!

We had beautiful weather and went for a really nice (but short) hike above Klosters.

In the evenings we watched Buffy and Firefly (just like old times, and Malcolm is still dashing!) while making stuff for the wedding.

The next day we all hiked (walked) up to Schatzalp and for the first time ever tried the summer toboggan run. Was that ever a lot of fun! You go down this aluminium run, banking in all the turns and it goes quite fast! You control your own speed with a brake, but I suspect it would be possible to fly off the run if you had the right combo of weight and speed.

Family visit near Strasbourg

Wow it was the first really hot weekend of the summer (last year this time it was still snowing in Klosters) and we spent it driving 4 hours away to a small town (Rohr) in France near Strasbourg for a family weekend get together. The heat got intense, up to 37C on the day we left!

Of course we started off in true French style with a glass of (Alsace the region) wine around the tent and tables that had been set up for the weekend.

I wandered around in the garden, eating cherries off the tree and photographing the verge.

And in the evening it was still lovely and warm and we ate so well!

There was a giant lilac bush right by the tent and there were lots of creatures constantly feeding. This bug here looks like a bee at first glance, but it is actually a fly. When I watched it long enough it had all the fly behaviours of rubbing its legs together and over the wings that I've never seen a bee do.

 The other cool bug was the hummingbird moth. This one came to feed and when it flies it looks and moves just like a hummingbird, until you take a closer look and see the difference. I've never seen a moth flap its wings like that with such precision.

Then, despite the heat we went for a walk in the nearby forest, which was crowded with all the day trippers from Strasbourg.

In the evening we went to the town of Strasbourg and had a tour around. They had a big cathedral and ice cream that went perfectly with the too hot weather.

There was a really lovely part of the town called La Petite France.

Then in the evening our hosts made everyone an Alsace traditional pizza (not a pizza) with dough, then creme fraiche mixed with white cheese as the sauce and on top lardons (big bacon bits) and fried onion. It was a nice thin crust pizza dough baked in a wood stove that they had set up outside, very lovely!

Then we drove back to Klosters just in time for a monster thunderstorm that developed because of the heat wave.