The last couple of month we have tried to reduce our belongings. The reason is Mr. K is moving to a circus wagon and I live in Norway. We have tried to sell and give away most of it, but finally we had to throw away things, that are damaged or have no value. It’s astonishing how much things we collect.
Now the flat is empty and we my skateboard carrier can start!
The circus wagon has been moved to a new place and we have a beautiful view, pastures and cows! Everything inside has been removed and Mr. K has started to put isolation on the wall. We picked up wood and a plastic foil to prevent the wagon to get moist.
And these days we have started moving out of the flat. We will be houseless in a couple of days. But we have a lot of people who have offered us a bed and there is also Sophia, the VW bus.
In December I went to the Kronberg. It was a sunny and very warm day. We could see the lowland under the sea of fog and behind the Säntis.
This – an old circus carage – will be my new home in Switzerland! A tiny house is Mr. K.’s new project and he is moving out of our loft in a couple of weeks. Besides building a house (even if it is a tiny one) on his own, the idea is to experiance how much do we need? How many things do we own and never use? How much space do we really need? And does a simple life work for me?
The space is limited and we are reducing our belongings. And this is fun and a relief! I have so many things I never use and don’t really want to have and it is a good feeling to give them away. We are not throwing away everything, but trying to give them to people who like them or need them.
All of this is a bit scary but also fun and I am excited how it will turn out. You can follow the project here (only in German).
Today, tea from Al Canton arrived. We have bought tea there for years. And since last time they have changed the packing from plastic to paper. And the new design is lovely. Nice colours and drawings from the plants in the tea.
„Al canton“ means in the corner. It is the name of the farm and that is also were it is located: in the furtest corner of the Swiss Alps. They have horses and grow tea herbs. What a life!
I’m back from the holidays and I have had my first working day this year! Traveling from summer to winter can be quiet depressing if you find rain and wet and cold. But this time we were lucky and found Switzerland covered in a white pouder. And the sun has followed us as well. Not too bad!
I use this blog as an open diary to remember all the things that happened and it is fun to go through the whole year again. Going backwards from December – January, 2015 was the year I…
… lived in Bergen, Norway, where it rained 279 days
… traveled to China and leanrt a bit Chinese
… stared in 3 movies
… started to teach yoga at work
… bought fat skis and learnt to ski in powder
… traveled to Turkey
… learned Baysian Statistics
… got a kayak
… published a paper about local adaptation at range edges in Journal of Evolutionary Biology
… spent 50 days in the field
… learnt to identify grasses
… traveled to Oslo and Göteborg
… went on a camping trip with Mr. K, Sandhy and Sophia (a VW bus)
… went skiing on a galcier with Mari
… got an owl cup from a lovely person and bought a crocodile cup
… did a lot of field work in the snow
… visited my aunt at easter in the best place on earth and made a cutting bord and found a coke can in the forest from 1988
… moved my office twice and got a can see Ulriken from my new offcie
… started climbing again
… moved in with Mari
… got a new job doing the old thing
… wrote a farmers report to give back a thank you to all the land owners where we have our field sites
… digged out an old analog camera, which is really fun
… sold more than 20 stamps
… fell in love with El Hierro
and started the new year with some sun in Teneriffe
I will soon be on my way back to Switzerland. 6 weeks with family and friends. Hopefully a little skiing. I need to find out if my ski’s can manage the Alps or is it the other way round (?), probably. Then we go and catch the sun on an sandy, dusty island in the Atlantic. More of this later…
For now, god bye Bergen. Why do you always have to make it so difficult to leave you! Sunshine and snowy mountains!
Pepperkakehus is a Norwegian tradition unknown in Switzerland. In the advent time, Norwegians creat their „pepperkakehuset“ – the gingerbread house. The house is carefully designed on paper before it’s transferd to the dough. The different pieces of the house are then baked and glued together with caramel. Finally, the house is decorated with a white mass consisting of pouder sugar, lemon juice and egg white and usually „Non-stop“ as tiles on the roof.
If you are ambigous, you also make a sledge with reindeer, fir trees, stars and hearts. We felt extremely creative last night and went one step further. Because we are biologists and wanted to set an example for ongoing climate change we added a palm tree, a polar bear, a polar fox, a whale and pinguin.
I have lived for almost one and a half year in Norway now. It’s time to talk about the difference between Norway and Switzerland. There are a lot of books and blogs about these stereotypes. For example the brown little book called „Brown cheese please“ by Jenny K. Blake, which is a very cute description of the Norwegian way. Here, I would just like to talk about my experiences between the two countries.
In general, the two countries are very similar, except for the ocean that is missing in Switzerland. But if you dig a bit deeper, the people are a bit different. There is the phenomena about the sun that can be observed all over in Norway. It is probably the result of very long and dark winters. As soon as the sun comes out, people stop working and go out to enjoy the sun. I have never observed something similar in Switzerland. People do go out when the sun is shining, but there is never such a demand to enjoy every minute of sun.
So, today after a long period of rain, nothing could stop me to go for a walk both in the sun and rain to Ulriken.
