Today as I looked at the ground I saw broken stones. The one in the image below is especially beautiful. I don’t know why there were more broken stones than usual. It seems that the conditions were right to bring the stones to the surface and for the farmers’ machinery to break them all to pieces. It’s impressive to see the size of some of the broken stones.
Plenty of broken stones
When rain becomes a treat you get used to looking at rivers that are running drier and drier with every passing day. The river pictured below is so low that you see the river bed in many parts. It’s a meter or more below it’s usual level. Imagine being a weather forecaster during a drought. Today it will be dry and sunny, as it has been for a few seasons.
I often hiked with a Sigg one litre water bottle and it has served me well. It has been with me for rock climbing, via ferrata, hiking and more. I like it because it is light, easy to use and maintain. I liked the one litre version enough to get a smaller 600ml version for conferences and work.
Recently I noticed that the mouth of both bottles seems slightly discouloured. I don’t know whether they’re chipped or whether it’s oxydation from sitting around for so many months during the pandemic.
For a while I have wanted to learn Angular, Laravel and other frameworks but I felt overwhelmed so I decided to learn JavaScript but then I found that I had gaps in my knowledge too, so I went over to Node.js. Now I feel that I am starting to understand more. I understand the context better. I understand the underlying code better. I have spent enough time studying around the subject that I have gained the contextual understanding not to be completely lost.
Flowers, a bale of Hay, and a road less travelled.
I am using the Trevolution Ultralight Daypack at the moment. It weighs 120 grams and folds small enough to fit in a jeans or jacket pocket for when you’re not using it. It also has a volume of 21 litres but I would not use it to carry 20 litres or kilos. It has no zips or moving parts. It has two side pockets, one for a water container, and the second for the phone charger.
Today a tractor was ploughing a dry field. A cloud of dust was not that visible but you can see that rain would now be welcome. I walked by the usual river and looked down and the rocks in the riverbed are uncovered. There is no water running over them anymore. I notied that in another field pumpkins seem to be ready.
A dry Field In Switzerland
https://twitter.com/meteosuisse/status/1432303148119560193
Lack of rainfall in August
Today as I walked I could see clear evidence that Switzerland is now dry. As you walk by the side of the road you see that it is yellow, and that there is no growth. Crops are withering away and water gauges are now filling with dust, rather than rain.
We now go for weeks without rain. If I wanted to pick up the soil it would crumble in my hands and blow away as dust.
The daily walk, when people are back, is less pleasant because the roads and paths that were quiet when everyone was on holiday catching the virus were quiet. Now that everyone is back it is a challenge to avoid people again and it could be worth finding quieter routes.
View of the Léman and Alps
I still track my walks with an app or two, but as I walk the same route so frequently something like the Garmin VivoSmart 4 is fine.
The weather was cold and cloudy this lunchtime so going up to the mountains for lunch was feasible. If the restaurant had been filled with people, and if we had shared a table with others, then I would have skipped and driven home. Luckily the road was closed to go up to the mountains so that stopped some people from going up. There were also the benefits of clouds and cold air temperatures.
As I looked straight down from a bridge today I noticed that the river is so low that the river bed has become bone dry in places. In other places you see that the gress is turning yellow. When tractors tend to the fields you see that they are stirring up clouds of dust. It is so dry, so often, that it is only a matter of time before forest fires burn down local forests.