Yesterday was foggy all day, and this morning the cloud was just below the village. It was every bit as cold as it looks.
The cloud produced some very fine snow – we had about a centimetre on the ground this morning. This gives rise to a strange phenomenon, where we have a sprinkling of snow in the village but absolutely none higher up the mountains. We got a glimpse of this when the sun broke through this afternoon.
For the first time this season it really feels like winter has started.
Colin’s mate in the U.K. started hosting a quiz in the first phase of lockdown, so last night we thought we’d give it a try. The quiz is run online using a video conferencing app called Houseparty. It worked pretty well.
There were 7 teams, including a couple who live in Spain. The quiz was quite tricky, and we were happy to come third.
While we were competing, the valley was filling up with thick fog.
Val’s new phone can take these astonishing nighttime photos.
Eventually the fog reached us and so far it’s persisted all day, with the temperature hovering around zero. We’ll stay at home in the warmth and watch the Formula 1 on telly.
We’re running out of all sorts of stuff, so this morning we were off to the Co-op. The amount we can buy is limited by our ability to carry it home, so this afternoon we went again.
Christmas trees have arrived in the village.
Each business along the main street will be given one of these and they are expected to dress them.
Meanwhile, James is teaching Emily a new skill.
She’s chopping up logs for winter.
Once we’d finished all that shopping we cleaned the house from top to bottom. It’s quiz night tonight so we’re expecting visitors.
It’s Black Friday, the day to go shopping for bargains. There are a few things we want so we head for Interlaken. An indulgent lunch at the Cafe de Paris seemed like a good start.
Next we head the the electrical store called Interdiscount. There are lots of discounts and special offers, but unfortunately the Apple TV box that we’ve come for is still the normal price. Ah well, perhaps we’ll have better luck at Dosenbach the shoe shop. No, nothing doing here either, and we pay full price for our waterproof snow boots. It was the same story for the extending poles (for snow-shoeing) that we bought.
So that’s bargain hunting in Switzerland for you – an exercise in futility.
Super dinner of thai-style salmon at Ali’s last night, and she made a huge apple crumble for desert. Yum.
This afternoon we had a nice walk up to Stutzweidli. Conveniently there’s a bench at the top of the hill.
Artificial snow on the run back to the village. Hopefully it’ll soon be cold enough to make some more, but for now the mild, sunny weather continues.
Today we’re off to Wilderswil down in the valley. They have a good home ware store and I need a few things for the kitchen. The store is about 15 minutes walk from the railway station. We pass a vineyard on the way.
An old hotel and a castle overlook the village. There’s a lot of history here.
We got to the store and I found the things I needed, and we strolled back towards the station. A family of llamas live in this stable.
They’re very curious and friendly.
The llamas are useful. If you go on a long hike and you want to take lots of stuff with you, maybe for a barbecue in the forest, you can take a llama and it will carry everything for you.
The village is hard at work, with maintenance jobs being done everywhere. This afternoon a guy came and cleaned the guttering on our roof, and at Central Sport Colin is renewing the benches in the ski depot downstairs. Our cable car is also getting some attention, the balcony on the roof has been removed for winter.
The weather’s nice enough for things to begin growing again. These daisies don’t seem to realise that it’s late November.
Everyone who isn’t working seems to be out walking, and that’s exactly what we spent the afternoon doing.
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