A Tractor Ploughing A Dry Field in Switzerland

A Tractor Ploughing A Dry Field in Switzerland

Byrichard

Today a tractor was ploughing a dry field. A cloud of dust was not that visible but you can see that rain would now be welcome. I walked by the usual river and looked down and the rocks in the riverbed are uncovered. There is no water running over them anymore. I notied that in another field pumpkins seem to be ready.


A dry Field In Switzerland
A dry Field In Switzerland


https://twitter.com/meteosuisse/status/1432303148119560193
Lack of rainfall in August


MétéoSuisse note encore qu’après les deux mois d’été très humides de juin et juillet, des précipitations inférieures à la moyenne ont été enregistrées dans la plupart des régions de Suisse en août

Météo – Un mois d’août plus frais mais avec moins de pluie – 20 minutes


Years ago I used to use weather apps to see when it would rain and I would even do things extra early to avoid being caught by the rain. Now I use weather apps for the opposite. Now I even consider driving to somewhere where I could be caught by the rain. I am bored of never seeing rain. I like rain. I like the sound. I like the smell, I like that it cleans everything. I also like that being indoors when it’s raining feels cosy.


Rain would also break the monotony of being able to go for a walk every single day without questioning whether the weather the weather is good enough. The weather is always good enough. The weather is so good that rivers are running dry. The climate has changed.


For several weeks I did not touch YouTube and as I have time to spend time there again I found that I am repulsed and don’t want to use the service anymore. Between the sensationalist content that is pushed on us, the non stop adverts and a general feeling of malaise the site is one I think I should now avoid. Its golden age is over, and now it’s time for it to become Yahoo or flickr.

Signs of Drought

Signs of Drought

Byrichard

Today as I walked I could see clear evidence that Switzerland is now dry. As you walk by the side of the road you see that it is yellow, and that there is no growth. Crops are withering away and water gauges are now filling with dust, rather than rain.


We now go for weeks without rain. If I wanted to pick up the soil it would crumble in my hands and blow away as dust. I see that one of the local rivers is drying up again.


  • A dry water meter
    A dry water meter – There is very little rain
  • View of Grass and the Alps
    View of Grass and the Alps
  • Dry grass by the river side
    Dry grass by the river side
  • Dry grass by the river side
    Dry grass by the river side


La Suisse bientot à court d’eau


Malgré la pluie, la forêt valaisanne est déjà en danger d’incendie

The Daily Walk When People are Back

The Daily Walk When People are Back

Byrichard

The daily walk, when people are back, is less pleasant because the roads and paths that were quiet when everyone was on holiday catching the virus were quiet. Now that everyone is back it is a challenge to avoid people again and it could be worth finding quieter routes.


View of the Léman and Alps
View of the Léman and Alps


I still track my walks with an app or two, but as I walk the same route so frequently something like the Garmin VivoSmart 4 is fine. It counts steps, measures heart rate, and measures oxygen levels, but not very well. It also tracks how tired or full of energy you might be.


The Suunto Spartan Wrist HR Baro still works fine but I think I’ve been using it for four years and I believe that the battery may be getting tired. It’s a shame that it’s while owning this watch that I have had the least interesting sporting habits. I have walked and cycled in circles for four year. I have hardly been to the mountains, or lakes. Same circles, different days.


I am tired of the pandemic. I am tired of the fatalism that the government shows towards controling this virus. We could have eradicated it from Switzerland twice already. We’re in wave four. Instead of being worried and doing everything possible to stop the virus from spreading the government says “oh but you just need to vaccinate and you’ll be fine.” The issue arises from children below the age of twelve having no chance to vaccinate.


The government has a cavalier attitude towards the health and safety of children, when it should do everything in its power to make sure that they are safe. They prefer to pretend they are unaware of the risks, and just to carry on regardless.


What I’m studying


I started the Becoming a Node JS Developer pathway. I don’t know whether I will concentrate fully on this pathway or if I will look at something afterwards. The knowledge I have gained so far from this course is useful. When I experiment with frameworks I will find the process simpler to understand. I am on day 718 of studying German and I practice speaking more.


Fondue for Lunch

Fondue for Lunch

Byrichard

The weather was cold and cloudy this lunchtime so going up to the mountains for lunch was feasible. If the restaurant had been filled with people, and if we had shared a table with others, then I would have skipped and driven home. Luckily the road was closed to go up to the mountains so that stopped some people from going up. There were also the benefits of clouds and cold air temperatures. Combined these things meant that the restaurant was less tempting for large crowds. We ate a fondue.


View of La Dole from the other side
View of La Dole from the other side


I did not plan to go up. It was spontaneous, and I had my own car, so that if I saw that it was too busy I could turn back or walk to the summit. We’re still in a pandemic, so if I feel a risk is too great I bail.


Today is interesting because it seems quieter than it should be. The restaurant was quieter, but the villages and other places are quieter too. It’s as if people are hibernating or hiding. I saw that all the cars are goine from the garage for example.


In other news a Valaisanne, dressed as Lucy Walker climbed the Matterhorn in period costume. In Uri, due to the glaciers melting people are asked to be attentive to archeological remains. If we leap to the space age then we see that SpaceX might be struggling to find enough liquid oxygen due to the pandemic. With hospitals needing more of it SpaceX might be in second place to get it.


https://twitter.com/UkTravelling/status/1431612722467250183

Yet Another Sunny Day

Yet Another Sunny Day

Byrichard

As I looked straight down from a bridge today I noticed that the river is so low that the river bed has become bone dry in places. In other places you see that the gress is turning yellow. When tractors tend to the fields you see that they are stirring up clouds of dust. It is so dry, so often, that it is only a matter of time before forest fires burn down local forests.


A boat from La Belle époque on the Lac Léman
A boat from La Belle époque on the Lac Léman


Plenty of people are miserable for the rain, but when these consistent droughts lead to forest fires that remove the landscape and vegetation that we are used to they will not be so happy. They do not understand that these droughts are not normal. The fact that I didn’t use weather apps for years tells you how stable the weather system we’re in is.


I often walk by a door in a wall that frames this view. It’s a nice view. A nice garden with nice trees, the lake, a boat from the Belle époque and behind it the French side of the Lake, Haute Savoie and the Alps. A churchyard has a similar view, but with the train line as a bonus. If I was patient I could get the boat, a train and the rest of the landscape.


I am currently studying node.js, to see what I may eventually understand. So far most of the ideas and concepts are self-explanatory. The challenge will be in finding a project idea and getting it to work. Slowly I am getting to understand this topic. Node.JS looks intuitive to use.


Part of my motivation came from listening to the Javascript Jabber podcasts while I walk. It’s easy to hear about React, Angular, Laravel and other frameworks but it’s more interesting to hear about all the other smaller projets, like history.js, apline.js and many others. I like the idea of having specialist frameworks for specific tasks.


I felt overwhelmed by Angular, and then by Javascript. By changing context I am trying to get a different perspective, in an attempt to get a broader understanding of what various parts do. I am already better equipped for when I return to Laravel or Angular. I am also better equipped to understand typescript and Coffeescript etc.

European Walks and Bike Rides
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European Walks and Bike Rides

Byrichard

Today during my walk I noticed a sticker on a sign for EuroVélo.com. I don’t know how new the project is but I had not paid attention to the URL before. I like the idea of a European Network of Cycling Routes. I don’t need to capitalise these words. I just did, for some reason.



During my walk I was listening to two podcast episodes of a single podcast about hiking the AT and other hikes in the US. It’s interesting and it makes us want to travel to the US to try these walks. The drawback is that A) It requires travelling to the US and getting a visa for long enough to complete the challenge and B) We have plenty of walking and cycling trips in Europe to enjoy, and best of all they should be quieter because fewer people think about using these routes, for now.


The Route EV 17 starts at the source of the Rhone and then heads through Switzerland through France and onto Nimes or Montpellier, whichever destination you prefer. It bifurcates around the Lac Léman so you can go either on the French or the Swiss side. The French side might be shorter and differently busy.


The beauty of cycling rather than walking is that you can cover bigger distances in less time. The drawback is that you may be on dangerous roads. I hope that the roads are chosen because they are safe. I want to try some of these projects.


For a size comparison. Switzerland has 65,000 kilometres of hiking paths, and EuroVélo, so far, has 90,000 kilometres. The cycling is growing every year, and with time it may become a normal way for people to spend their holidays. People will go on cycling road trips, rather than driven.

Farming In Switzerland

Farming In Switzerland

Byrichard

The Pandemic is alive and well and I am still walking around in circles. I would go for bigger, more interesting adventures but no one is publicising those events until after the fact. During a pandemic it helps to be misinformed, an alcoholic and a festival goer.


If you like real sports, like climbing, cycling, group hikes etc then you have to wait for months, or at this point, probably years, for the pandemic to end. Last year when the government made the mistake of opening too early you could believe they were silly. By making the same “mistake” again it starts to look like government policy. That leads to the obvious conclusion that at the current level of incompetence the pandemic will never end.


A tractor tending to a field with the alps in the background.


The way that countries around the world are making the same mistakes, in the same way, at the same time, is leading people to discuss whether eugenics is being experimented with. I prefer to think of it as incompetence, rather than deliberate.


Israel, England and the United States are clear indicators of what Switzerland can expect from the pandemic and yet they fail to take the lessons and warnings on board. Instead they let the situation degrade and get worse. We are now at 20+ percent of ICU beds taken up by COVID patients, out of 79 percent occupancy, according to the RTS.


The Swiss have a strange threshhold limit. They prefer for it to reach a certain critical limit. I’m impatient for the next soft lockdown, as that is when the numbers will decrease again.

A Penguin Feeding a Chick in Switzerland

A Penguin Feeding a Chick in Switzerland

Byrichard

A penguin feeding a chick.


I would never expect to see a penguin feeding a chick in the middle of Switzerland in the middle of summer in Switzerland but I did. It’s just a wooden statue but that doesn’t make it any less unexpected. At first I thought it was just a block of wood to block people from taking a parking spot.


Two new books from the lending library.


I found two new books of interest. now that I am sitting I can look through them.