A Stay in the Mountains

 

When I opened my kitchen door onto the balcony this morning,

I saw how the flowers of one of my cyclamen plants had formed a little nest of petals

for this pretty white feather which must have blown there on the wind.

It is said that white feathers bring special messages from loved ones.

Now I will show you some photos that I took during a few days in the mountains last week.

It was a last minute decision to go away as the weather forecast was excellent.

We went to a mountain resort called Villars-sur-Ollon.

This is just before sunset on the first evening we were there.

I took this from the hotel balcony at 18:35.

Almost an hour later, at 19:23, the sky was getting darker 

even though the setting sun still illuminated the mountain peaks.

These are the lovely colours developing at 19:34

The rich hues developed five minutes later.

All taken from my balcony!

The next morning, I watched all the different stages of the sunrise.

It was fascinating and so beautiful.

The sun was giving a warm glow to the mountain tops.

The range on the extreme right is called Les Dents-du-Midi.

This is the view in the afternoon after getting back from our hike.

We took a cog-wheel train up to a place called Bretaye.

This is the view from the start of our hike.

It's the Bretaye Lake.

The town of Villars is very well kept and there were lots of flowers still blooming.

On our second evening we went out to eat a Cheese Raclette.

Our beautiful, well varnished table is made out of a tree trunk.

The very good red wine we had was called Noire Agate (Black Agate).

It went very well with our raclette.

In the lower part of the restaurant a log fire was burning.

You can see half of a big round of cheese sitting in front of the flames.

Here is the restaurant owner, scraping the melted cheese onto a plate.

My first cheese raclette of the evening.

It's served with a small boiled potato and I like to add freshly ground pepper from the mill.

I do love to see the chalets in the mountains, especially those with weather-worn wood.

Notice the pretty carving and the heart decorations on the balconies and on the shutters.

A traditional timber used to make chalets is Larch (Mélèze in French)

it's an oily, resinous and dense wood which withstands the mountain sun

and is very low maintenance.

I liked walking past the silhouette of this big chalet against a backdrop of pure blue sky

and the mountains.

On our last morning, the different stages of the sunrise were stunning.

This was taken at 7:15

Three minutes later, at 7:18, the sky was taking on a different glow.

Four minutes later, at 7:22, a warmer colour was coming in.

At 7:45, just before breakfast, the sun hit the mountain tips

and promised us a sunny morning.

It really was a beautiful stay in the mountains.

I had come here with my son and his wife in the summer and was really impressed with

the beauty of the area.

A mountain scene in winter painted on wood in the restaurant where we had our last lunch.

My main crochet project in September was made from granny squares

made in early autumn colours.

Some of them were flowers in squares and others were the classical granny square.

These squares made me think of autumn berries with a hint of pumpkin

colours so lovely to see at this time of the year.

I decided to make a cushion cover with two different sides in similar colours.

Can you believe that tomorrow will be the first day of October?