Flower eating in Verbier

We started off with a BANG today! The skies opened up and rained and thundered lightening on us for an hour. But that was okay as we had some yummy local cheese with us to snack on. Once the show was over we resumed picking some healthy plants for lunch.

Thyme

Clover

Yarrow

Alpine Calamint

Picnic!

After a steeeep hike up to the Château de Verbier we strolled back to the Chalet d'Adrien with some fresh herbs & flowers for our afternoon tea!

Yum!!

Cabane Moiry - Grimentz

What a beautiful day! Finally felt like summer for an entire day!

The great thing about hiking up to this cabane is the access road brings you up past the Barrage de Moiry so you don't have to trudge around the dammed lake for an hour. The lake is about 30 meters lower than usual - which is the case with all the lakes this summer. Even though we have had record rain for July, the lack of precipitation this winter is visible.

The glacier de Moiry is melting fast...sad to see.
The Cabane Moiry was newly renovated last year and is modern and beautiful. Their food is all prepared with organic ingredients! Had a very yummy salad!

Compagnie Macadam!

Wow! What an epic last rando culturelle for the Verbier Festival.
On our outing we met a black tent...

Once you see what is inside you will never be the same again!

It was great fun to do these outings, I hope the Fest'Off can keep offering them to you all.
A l'année prochaine!

Verbier Fest'Off Communicating with Nature

Today I took the unsuspecting clients on the first ever CherriesWalks edition of 'Communicate with Nature' Workshop. It was a success! Bravo & thank you all for participating!

We went for a stroll into the forest, to get in the mood everyone chose a special place.

When we got back together again I blindfolded the group to continue the walk.
Once their sense of balance, smell, hearing and all got to develop I asked them to remove their shoes and walk barefoot for a while.

It was amazing and fun to see how everyone enjoyed new sensations and the forgotten 'art' of sitting quietly in a forest.

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?