One week after the storm “Petra”, the new one named “Sabine” is approaching Switzerland. This winter is really special so far: nearly no snow, record high temperatures and it feels more like spring than winter…
It should be winter now?
Back in October 2018, the storm ‘Adrian’ has hit South Tyrol badly. With a wind speed up to 140 km/h and up to 400 mm rain it had a deep impact on the area. Killing an estimated number of 14 million trees.
Sole Tree
A cold front reached the Alps on the weekend, covering the high peaks with snow.
First Snow in the Dolomites
Most snow is now gone with the sky clearing up, but still making a good contrast to the green down below. Things will definitely change in a few weeks…
Happy Covering 🙂
It can be the small things which can make me wonder. While hiking up a trail up to a mountain, a snail in the middle of a tree trunk had my attention. A beautiful coiled shell!
Snail on a trunk
Now I can tell the truth: the hidden goal of this color posts is to check if I’m color blind or not (and you can check the same :-). After the lilac collection, here is the last one: this time the color is yellow, and includes a small trap.
After the ‘blue‘ series, here is yet another hicking flower color collection: Lilac!
After the ‘green‘ one, here is another impression from my recent hiking tours in the Alps: this time a combination of brown, green and blue.
The one below is the Gentiana Verna (or Spring Gentian). It is rather small and widespread, found on sunny alpine meadows.
Gentiana Verna Group
Impression from one of my recent mountain hiking tours: Mountain spring water flowing slowly through grass meadows, building a symbiosis with green algae. Maybe a camera cannot reflect the number of green colors the human eye is able to see?
Green Algae Composition
Happy Greening 🙂
I like the Crataegus or ‘Hawthorn’. The small white flowers of the white variant are not really spectacular alone, but together they build a beautiful ensemble:
Weissdorn (click to enlarge)
The Hawthorn provides food and shelter for many birds. And according to legends, they are associated with fairies.
Happy Flowering 🙂
The long Easter Weekend has its benefits, beside of preparing lecture material and writing up geeky technology articles :-). I love that view with meadows sprinkled with all the Dandelion, and the snow-covered mountains in the back. Back on the left the peaks of the Mythen.
Talkessel Schwyz (click to enlarge)
Spring time definitely arrived in the lower areas of Switzerland, with the snow melting away in the higher areas.
Blooming Pear Tree
Mountain Tree Sunset
Sunset in the Alps, the mountain trees forming new branches with the clouds …
Happy Treeing 🙂
We did not receive much snow this winter in the lower areas. I really love this linden tree (Tilia, or ‘lime tree’ in some areas) up above a hill, and it always looks different.
The Klöntalersee is a lake in the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. The lake has a size of about 3.3 km² and has been created by a prehistoric rock slide after the last ice age. From 1908 on it is used as a reservoir for electricity production. The picture below is from the Schwammhöhe looking down to the lake.
Klöntalsee from Schwammhöhe
Happy Klöntaling 🙂
Summer definitely arrived in Europe. And it is the time of the year with beautiful butterflies. Featuring the Argynnis:
Argynnis (click to enlarge)
Happy Butterflying 🙂
Summer finally arrived, and the alpine meadows are blooming. Enjoy a collection of flowers (click to enlarge)….
Knabenkraut
With the hiking trails covered with as much as 50-60 cm snow, the natural way to hike the trails is using snowshoes. Two days ago an extra 10-15 cm snow arrived, and the trails are just amazing. Here are a few impressions from the snowshoe hike today:
Starting the New Year in the mountains, with cold snow covering everything. Beautiful view to the peaks, illuminated by last sun rays of New Year’s Day.
Sunset in the mountains (Click to enlarge)
Happy New Year!
The ‘All Saints Day’ (Nov 1st) is a public holiday for some parts of Switzerland. And because I’m lucky to live in that part and because it could have been one of the last days with excellent hiking conditions, I wanted to hike a trail which has been on my bucket list for a very long time: the ‘Gratwanderweg’ (ridge hike) on the Stoos.
Ridge Walk
It is the time of the year where trees lose their leaves and mushrooms grow on the ground.
Mushrooms
