Spring indeed visited us…
Posted on April 19, 2017 Leave a Comment
We spent 3 weeks in (rainy) Shanghai and 1 week throughout equally cold (but dry) Germany. So a whole February was put away. When we returned home in Salenstein, Switzerland in early March, surprisingly, we saw the digital thermometer show 30 degrees Celsius in the sunny Wintergarten (“winter garden” in English) in our house.
Therefore, we knew, the spring had arrived.
Inside and outside of our two gardens (indoor garden and outdoor garden) every plant had its green sprouts. It looked so promising that I needed to immediately engage myself in assisting this process. That means, gardening.
I never thought one day, someone like me––a big Shanghai city girl––should do gardening herself! I indeed thought, one day, I would live in a big house with a big garden, having one or two professional (and sexy) gardeners do it for me. LOL! Thus, I know, I’m not rich enough yet living in a labour-wise very expensive country. There are mainly two types of people living in Switzerland based on my very shallow observations––locals, who DIY everything; foreign billionaires, who can afford to have local labours do everything for them. My hubby and I don’t belong to either of them, and it’s apparently easier to learn from the first type.
So the spring came and lingered for a while––approximately one month––and left today, leaving us with furious snowstorm and minus zero degree in the evening.
We are not defeated, nor frightened. We live in Switzerland, thus must think and act like the Swiss locals. Our house is next to the old residence of Napoleon III and on a small street called Weinbergstrasse, which literally means wine hill street in English. If there wasn’t enough sunshine during the year, how could the locals plant so many vines and produce wines? And why would Napoleon III’s mama (Hortense de Beauharnais) choose this place to reside? So here we are, putting on ready-to-wear winter clothes, all relaxed, indulgently drinking our own homemade hot chocolate and watching the snowflakes painting our outdoor garden into white, humming “What A Wonderful World”.
into the COLD…
Posted on January 30, 2017 2 Comments
It’s said to be the coldest winter in Switzerland in the last 30 years. So here I am, being brave and exploring the freezing winter wonderland.
The picture was taken on January 7th, without being able to know that for the following 20 days there would be absolutely no sun, but heavy fog where you couldn’t see anything over a few hundred meters, sometimes even over 50 meters. In German language, they call it “Suppe”, meaning soup.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard that my hometown Shanghai was still undergoing the heavy haze. I imagined people living also in a pot of soup. A huge pot.
I am waiting for the spring, patiently. I’ve never been so patient in my life – I’ve finally accepted the pace in Europe, a different pace from a Shanghai one. When everyday looking out of the window, only seeing white snow and grey sky, I have to picture myself in a pair of colourful high heels. The heels gotta to be so thin and high, that are called stiletto. They should make a kinda sexy squeaky sound when they hit the ground with weight – my weight, to announce my arrival and the arrival of spring. Flowers should blossom along the way, in a fast motion. Yes, exactly like in an animation movie.
When it turns dark around 4pm, I turn on all the lights in the house, pretending the sun shines. And those orchids residing on the marble floor of our indoor winter garden are trying their best to show us the colour of the alternative of winter – it’s the colour of hope.
Thus, I am waiting, for the spring.
Jinglei Zhu 