bee swarm

This was actually taken from our Apartment balcony when I noticed a swarm of bees on a tree in the courtyard.  We live on the 4th floor, so they were VERY high up.  I later was informed by my mother in law (she is a hobby bee keeper) that I should have called the fire department, as bee hives that swarm usually are looking for a safe place to live and rarely find one and die.  The fire department apparently can catch them and has a list of bee keepers that will take them.  Hope these guys made it somewhere safe!  I spotted them in the morning and they were still there went i went to bed at night.  They were gone the next morning, so were there for 15-25 hours.

Pentecost

Monday was a national holiday because of Pentecost, so we took advantage of the fantastic weather to do a bike tour from Zurich to Zug and back.  The first half of the tour was riding upstream along the Sihl river from Zurich to Sihlbrugg and then after a short stretch on a main road, we went uphill to catch a great view of the Zugersee.  Heading toward Zug we stopped at a lovely Kloster with a fabulous kitchen garden.  It was enourmous, and they had over 30 tomato varieties growing (under glass roofed tomato houses, of course, to prevent blight).  Along with using glass covered cold frames for seedlings, they had plastic foil high tunnels where they had finished harvesting the first round on florence fennel!  Amazing how early they were able to get a harvest.  It looked like they were selling transplants as well, and I probably would have bought one had we not been on bike with still a ways to go.  Then we passed through the town of Baar before arriving in Zug.  I promptly demanded a Zugerkirschtorte.  The first one we got was from cafe Meier, which was eaten on the steps next to the Train station and the second one we tried was from Confiserie Speck, which was eaten next to the lake.  I think I prefered the first one, as it was a bit less boozy and had a bit more icing to take away from the bite of the alcohol. (can you tell I am not a big drinker?)  Then we headed back to Zurich, which was considerably easier as the last half was downstream.  Definitely a moderate bike tour to do in the area!

planting grapes

One of the things I wanted in our garden was grapes.  They are hard to find organically AND locally, it is typically one or the other and the varieties sold these days tend to be selected for size and seedlessness not flavor.  Both me and my partner love the flavor (and the heavenly smell!) of muscat grapes and we researched a bit to find the best variety to grow organically.  We decided on Muscat Bleu (a red/blue variety) and Birntaler Muskat (a white/green variety).   Both were bare root plants that were mail ordered.  We ended up adding a terraced area along a retaining wall for them.  Hopefully this bed will continue to the walkway when we have time to prep it.  I would love to under plant the grapes with tulips or some other early flowering bulb.  Will this be a good pairing?

soon to be filled with grapes at which point supporting wires will be added and the 'wilderness' on the retaining wall will be scaled back.

why I love Zurich.  A lovely view of the alps from our Garden at dusk.