Butterflies

We woke up to the sound of the mower on the golf course and then I remembered where we were! There was a misty low cloud and it was thankfully cooler than what we have been experiencing in the heatwave, but as the day wore on and the clouds lifted it did get very hot.

Before breakfast we took Xena for a little walk behind the chalet apartment - we saw four herons fly over us, so many swift darting about and on the pond behind the house saw a coot family with seven large fledglings. A good way to start the day! Then we received an email saying there had been a terrible fire in Brancaster Staithe shortly after we departed on Tuesday, people had to be evacuated and a few houses burnt down, but thankfully no one was injured. It was near to where our house is so a bit frightening.

After breakfast we went to the supermarket to get groceries. Gavin and I eat very little meat or chicken these days but we do like fish, so we bought some salmon from the fish counter.  I misread the price per kilo so just about fainted when it came to over SFr30 for two small salmon fillets. (It was SFR 79 per kilo!) In the U.K. I can get salmon for about £25 per kilo - the SFR is almost at parity with the £ so you can see how expensive Switzerland is!

After we unloaded the groceries we went for a walk. It’s a regular walk we do here and I call it the butterfly walk as I can be guaranteed of getting photos of butterflies. At home the butterflies are so skittish and they never settle for a second, but here the butterflies seem to settle on a flower for a couple of seconds at a time so I get a chance to photograph them. Not sure why that is, maybe something to do with the altitude? It is something I have noticed every time we come here, that the butterflies are much slower than back home.  Here is a selection from some that I saw today, I think they are from top left going clockwise, a fritillary, a ringlet, a small white and a blue of sorts - I don't know which one.
 
The caretaker of the building contacted us to say that there is a water leak from one of our bathrooms into the apartment below us :(  They are coming tomorrow to investigate but I hope it does not mean tiles off the walls and a major job. 


An extra of Xena in the stream - always plenty of water around on walks for her