Aude getting ready to enjoy a spring BBQ

Neil complained the other day that there were more pictures of the cats on my blog than Aude (I notice he didn’t mention anything about there not being enough pictures of me on the blog, but I’ve chalked this up as an oversight on his part and have included one of myself as well).  It’s only fitting, then, that I dedicate this post to him.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that was definitely the case today.  I bought a few racks of ribs to throw on the BBQ, neglecting to check in advance whether I had any barbecue sauce in the fridge.  Sure enough, the cupboard was bare, and this being Sunday, all of the shops were closed.  Two trips to the local petrol stations yielded plenty of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, but no barbecue sauce.  So I had no choice but to make my own.

Fifteen minutes of Googling later, I had a recipe that I could assemble with the ingredients in the house and a little creativity.  Ketchup, tomato paste, garlic, onions, paprika, chilli, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cider vinegar, brown sugar and bourbon, plus a splash of Worchester sauce, a dollop of mustard and a little soy sauce all came together to make an improvised BBQ sauce that turned out to be great.

All in all, a pretty good Sunday.  We had a nice walk through the forest behind our house this afternoon, discovering a new castle (how often does that happen?) and finding a great vantage point to survey our whole village.  Five loads of laundry.  Lunch and dinner on the balcony. 

What more do you need on a weekend but that?

After one of the coldest, snowiest Decembers anyone can remember in Basel, followed by a spectacular white Christmas, it comes as something of a surprise to find the weather over the past few days positively spring-like.

It’s nearly 60 degrees today, and I’m out on the balcony grilling chicken before we head out for a walk in the forest behind the house.

It seems my master plan has worked.  All of my global air travel has caused enough global warming to bring Floridian weather to Switzerland.  Screw ice skating, I’m gonna teach my kids how to swim. 

Just hope there’s enough snow in Chamonix that our skiing trip next week isn’t ruined!

I wonder if I’ll ever grow out of being excited about snow?  I think it has something to do with how often I get to see it.  My father grew up in Wisconsin, and after seeing snow nearly every day from November until March, I guess the novelty wears off a little.  But not for me.

Growing up, I lived in an area where we got snow every winter, but just enough that it was always exciting.  When I moved to the UK, we might get a few inches each year, but never very much and it would never stick around very long.  So living in a place with regular snowfall is new to me.

Depending on which weather report you listen to, we’re expecting anywhere between 15-50cm of snow this weekend.  Less in Basel, I guess, more where we are due to the slightly higher elevation. Bring it on, I say.

The snow tyres are on the car, and this morning was the first time I’ve ventured out on the roads before they were plowed.  The snow tyres make a big difference to the handling (it’s also the first time I’ve had snow tyres), and I was happy as could be, heater turned up and the heated seats doing they’re job at keeping my backside warm.

For a country that gets so much snow, the Swiss architects don’t seem to have made many design concessions.  I woke up this morning to find that shutters were frozen shut, and when I finally managed to get them open, I discovered that our angled windows are not steep enough that the snow slides off them – instead, it accumulates and blocks out all the light in the room!

After being stuck in the house for a week, a combination of the stores being closed for the holidays and then miserable, rainy weather after they reopened, we finally emerged today to go downtown to walk around the city centre, do a little shopping, and see the decorations before they take them down later this week.

Basel Rathaus at Christmas

Matthew at Marktplatz

Aude at Marktplatz

The entrance to Marktplatz

Christmas lights

Street scene

Fountain with Christmas lights

Christmas lights at the Hotel Basel

Christmas tree at the Hotel Basel

A creative use of bottles to decorate the tree outside a bar

Our first fondue in Switzerland! (Well, the first one we did at home. We’ve had a few in restaurants…)