Blurb for the Fest'Off free outings Sat & Sun from 10-12 Verbier Tourist Office

Bring the whole family, all your friends, tell anyone & everyone about it!
Hope to see you this coming Sat & Sun.
Sunday will be a very very special outing!

St-Luc to Chandolin

From St-Luc we followed the old mule trail to Chandolin for a delicious rösti in the Cabane d'Illhorn. We managed to get there dry in the forest of arola pines & larches.

Here is what the arola (also known as the Cembro Pine)pinecone looks like.

It needs the help of a special bird, the spotted nutcracker to open it up and get to the grains.

It then buries the seeds in the ground to feed on in winter. Fortunately for the tree the bird sometimes forgets where it has buried its cache, (hopefully) allowing the seeds to germinate into a tree 40 years later!

Cabane Illhorn hiding in the trees - a surprisingly high treeline in Chandolin. This area has a special flora as it is so well protected. Which is why at 2000 meters Chandolin is the highest village in the Swiss Alps inhabited year-round. They have water & wood - the essentials for survival! The Illgraben cliffs also harbor interesting features that are well worth visiting.

Association Elements Verbier

Aujourd'hui on est allé visiter le géoparc dans le Haut Val de Bagnes en coordination avec l'Association Elements qui travaile dure pour promouvoir le dévelopement durable dans la vallée.
Une rando très tranquille et sympathique de Fionnay à Bonatschiesse. Pour le picnic j'ai invité le groupe à cueillir des plantes sauvages que nous avons dégusté en pesto sur du bon pain de sègle local.

Ensuite le gros sujet...la géologie de la région...gloups, par où commencer?!? C'est pas vraiment evident d'expliquer 4'500 millions d'années en un après-midi!

Merci encore à tous d'avoir participé. Et à vous autres je vous recommande vivement de faire partie des activités d'Elements!

At last some sunshine

This houseleek was particularly happy to have some sun to bake in today!

Fest off Verbier

I am guiding the Fest Off Culture Walks in Verbier during the festival.
They are free and open to anyone from ages 1-99. We start at 10am from the Tourist Office in Verbier and end at noon. Every Saturday & Sunday, and they are in Français & English (sorry not Swedish yet..)!
So far we have had a bit of all ages, even those who cannot walk yet!!
Thank you everyone who has participated.
They have been fun & different each week-end.

This Sunday we met two Tyrolian giant Trolls who had their pants half on and some stein mugs with who knows what in them join us. They followed my group into the forest above Carrefour to help us make a sculpture with natural objects (land art). They even had a sparkler in their bag that they lit up on our natural artwork!

We left Wurstel & Morille as they had a date with Biquettes

and continued our merry way into the lupin fields. Ahhh, the flora at the moment is awesome! Summer is beautiful in Verbier, even if I did walk in my down jacket and a wool hat!

Tour des Combins with the Rotary Club

The Verbier-St.Bernard Rotary Club organizes each year an outing for children who need to take a vacation!

We had a super fun time in the flowers & clouds on the way to the Cabane du Col de Mille - uhhh, before they got snowed on... This cabana is going to be renovated soon which will make rainy afternoons more pleasant to spend indoors. Although I am going to miss running 50 meters to the outhouse!

The second night the torrential downpour & snowfall did not join us, but we had an extra special visit from Pascal Tissères who is a geologist. He runs the Fondation Tissères in Martigny, which explains all the rock activity in the region and has a splendid collection of crystals. It is free and I recommend you visit it - certainly these days if you don't know what to do in our not so summery weather. Our 11 year olds astounded him by having remembered lots of things I had told them that day - I was highly impressed as well! Bravo!

Magnificent sunset on the Cabane Brunet with fresh snow around us!!

Verbier Music Fesitval outings with CherriesWalks

What a lucky bunch!

33 of us and a beautiful lab got to hang out in the sun above Verbier today in the company of Aurélien Donze who astounded us with his magic instrument from the ancient culture of 'Baborigènes'

Zinal

Epic 2 days up to the Arpitetta hut above Zinal at the end of the Val d'Anniviers. Definitely a 'wow' outing!

I was excited to do some high altitude hiking with chains & torrent crossings, wild ibex (bouquetins).

The hike back down the next day was wonderful, it looked as though it was raining in every other valley except for ours! The marmots were out in the sunshine and we were in the arrola pines checking out the big black cows (reines).

Absolutely stunning views of the Zinalrothorn, Weisshorn, Lo Besso and lots of rocks & tumbling hanging glaciers. The views were changing all the time.

Tour Mont Fort

Awesome to ride lifts with our bikes - although we had to add an extra 400 meters up hill ride at noon cuz the Nendaz lift was not open... The amount of terrain you can cover on a bike in one day is phenomenal. From the green fields to the rocky Gentianes col, it is all beautiful

Top of Pierre Avoi

After those freaky ladders to the top of our limestone bump in Verbier it was time for a rest in the sun under the watchful glaciers of the Massif des Combins. Really never could get bored of my back yard!

Walkin' & Talkin' in Verbier

Hiked up Creblet to check out Lac des Vaux. The sun was shinning, the water was glistening & the flowers were singing.

Nothing bad to say about a day like this - oh, and gummy bears for a picnic! Yahoooo!

Aphrodisiac plants

Out in the rain with a bunch of wild girls to learn about the looooove qualities of wild alpine plants. What a hoot! Have not had a quiet sleep since!!! Am a bit reticent to try the stinging nettle action...

Total eclipse of the moon

The clouds moved out of the way as the moon's face started to re-appear.

Really a special event to see. We sat on the balcony and finished off a bucket of icecream and watched the full moon come back out. Hope you all saw it as well.

Natural hot springs!

After a long hot hike along the bisse (water canal built in the 1400s to bring water to the south facing dry hillsides for survival) we ended up under ground.

The grotto had a running hot water stream going through it. Wow! At 1st the water seemed cold, but it was just that we were entering a cave of 10 degrees when the outside temperatures were around 25 degrees. We cleaned off and enjoyed some red wine before heading back to the car.

Jura flora

Limestone & insects buzzzing all over the happy spring flowers.

Had a wonderful day on top of the Jura above Nyon. Tried to fly a kite but there was for the 1st time ever, no wind!!

Istanbul with Cherries Walks

A hot & spicy place - Turkey!
An absolute joy to guide a group of Swiss school kids around the most populated city in the world. Fabulous weather to visit the bazaars, mosque , Bosphorus and many wonderful places in this magical city. The original home of the tulip & the cherry!

Hiking in Vaud!

Yep, not so far from the autoroute above Montreux is a spot with more flowers than you can imagine! Oh and the views of the lake, France & the Valais from up there is just breathtaking! You also get to check out the mountains of the Massif du Mont Blanc!

Here we have an unusual view of the Chardonnet, Aiguille Verte & Les Drus squeezed between the Dents de Morcles & Dents du Midi. Definitely worth seeing.
If you take the time to poke your nose a little closer to the gazzzillion-millllion super cute & cuddley flowers you get to notice the special beauty of each one individually. It doesn't take long and the rewards for the observations is fun.

These cuties are called Stellaria holostea - Stellaire - Stitchwort. Yeah...not so romantic to know the name...

This wooden shingle architecture is called 'tavillons' in Suisse Romande. It is really interesting to learn how they traditionaly built their chalets d'alpage. Today this is a protected artisanal cultural art. Just imagine, for 2 square meters of roofing in this fashion you need about 250 wooden shingles to ensure it was water proof!

Avalanche course

 

It is about 25 degrees out, so of course I was expecting to give an avalanche course!
Luckily I managed to find a last run out with a snowshoer, skier and a wild alpine beast! What a ride. Hate to tell you, but the snowshoer got taken out by the avalanche. And the poor skiier couldn't find him at the bottom of the ravine. It is essential to know how to use your safety tools & yer noggin! But the kids all found the hidden tranceivers in the alpine heather. Pretty funny morning!
Moral of the story : you can learn how to use your avalanche tranceiver even if there is no snow on the mountain!
Be safe, go with friends, think & do what you can do! Enjoy!

Herbal Honeys

 

Trying a new recipe this year!
I have so much sage & lavender in the garden that I am going to see if they will become a tasty yummy sirup when left in the sun with 'sucre candi' like it does with the buds of Norweigian Spruces.
Will let you know in the fall!

Hungry for nature?

 

Happy May

Muscari à toupet, very pretty type of flower that is going crazy in the dry hot sun just around the corner from my house. We have a really interesting micro climate that attracts different flora & fauna than the rest of the val de Bagnes.

Fabulous weather out for going for frolics in the flowery fields! We were lucky enough to see a green lizard. The head has some turquoise on it, so it is a male. They are quite big and fun to see if you are quick, or slow enough!

Hiking around Verbier

As the snow has disapeared up high it is ideal for long sunny walks with outrageous views of the Alps! What an awesome day out with someone who has done all the Munroes.

I have to admit I had no clue what that meant when first contacted. But now I know it means that there are some people who are daring enough to climb, walk, hike, scramble around in Scotland and make it up every peak over 3000 feet! Wow! Bravo!

Wild cooking!

Spring is here and with it all sorts of goodies are popping out of the ground to eat!

It just takes a little time to learn which plants are the right ones to eat and how to eat them, as well as which part to eat! All this is very important as you can make some pretty fatal mistakes...

So it is best you learn what is the right plant to start off with. I suggest taking it one plant at a time. After one day of picking and preparing one variety you will probably never forget its characteristics and make a mistake. But PLEASE, be very careful with this. Certainly if you are with pregnant women or children. Mistakes can be fatal.

I had to go to the flat lands to pick some wild bear garlic (ail des ours), I used it fresh to make some amazing pesto & put some in a bottle with apple cider vinegar (bio) and wow! Talk about having a 'zing' to it - without adding any garlic!

As I said above be sure you know what you are picking! This plant can be confused with muget - which is toxic!
If you ever have any questions about what plant you are picking you can ask me.

Fresh snow snowshoeing!

It is spring, and you've got to get up and get the fresh snow as it is falling! Basically the rule is 'you snooze...you looze!' It was just a magical winter wonderland day!

Got to see some fresh squirel tracks, they are so cute. Probably one of my favorite tracks to see!
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Had a beautiful snowshoe in the fresh flakes up to Ruinettes. By the time I got back down to Carrfour the snow was already melting!