Storks - Not Just for Delivering Babies

A few days ago, to much fanfare and ado, Punxatawney Phil "predicted" that there would be six more weeks of winter, at least in the USA.  While this news was received with no small disbelief in the USA, which is having one of its warmest and mildest winters on record, it is no news at all to those of us freezing off various extremities in Central Europe right now.  Still, we here in Central Europe are much better off than our neighbors to the east.

But it seems that Phil's forecast has now been given additional credence, just in case we needed it, by Max the Stork, the inadvertent, if beloved, weather guru for the Swiss.  Max is a female stork ostensibly named for the Swiss conservationist Max Bloesch, although her name incidentally also reflects the first name of the founder of the German-based Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (MPIO).  The MPIO has been watching the movements of white storks for more than 100 years and tracking their flights since 1991.  Whichever namesake applies, Max the Stork has abruptly stopped her flight northward and is biding her time in Catalonia, northern Spain.  She shows no signs of moving on anytime soon.  Max is no dummy.

White storks are long-distance migrants that are found in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.  The MPIO's satellite-tracking and bird-banding programs have allowed ornithologists to follow the movements of individual birds with greater accuracy so as better to understand how population movements change in response to environmental conditions.  For more information on migration movements generally, see Movebank.

Max has been a regular seasonal feature in the English-language website Geneva Lunch, such as here where she is pictured and described while raising her three chicks from 2011.  Max, going on for 13 years old, has been banded and tracked longer than any bird in the world.  She migrates each fall to either southern Spain or northern Morocco and returns to the Swiss-German border area, Tuefingen, on the north coast of Lake Constance, to mate and raise her young.  Counting her 2011 family, she has produced 26 offspring within nine years.

Max herself is a Swiss national, having been born in Avenches in 1999.  The Museum of Natural History in Fribourg also tracks her movements (Max la Cigogne) on behalf of her ever-increasing fan club.   She has also been immortalized in a book, A Stork Named Max - Life Is No Frog Buffet, which I have so far been unable to find on Amazon for my grandchildren, who are all voracious readers, thank heavens.  But I will continue to look for it.

In the meantime, here is the link to a YouTube depiction of Max's flights over the first three years.  Here is another showing how the batteries on her transmitter, once exhausted, get replaced.  Happy flying, Max, we hope that you will be able to come home soon and bring some warmer weather with you!

December Travels

Unfortunately, the bise returned last night and has been blowing all day, howling around the corners and causing drafts through any open air vent.  The temperatures are shockingly low and, according to the forecast, will remain -0 C all week.  Snow is expected again on Thursday.  Winter was late in arriving here, but when it finally did get here, it's been loathe to leave.  So, it's an opportunity for me to talk about my visit to Basel in early in December, when Friend J and I traveled to visit the annual Christmas market there - and there was NO snow at all.

I had never really visited the city of Basel before, having only passed through the train station on train trips to Strasbourg in France.  Friend J was combining business with pleasure, having meetings during the morning, so we left Geneva on the early train.  I had purchased my ticket from the commune, which has a wonderful deal for purchasing a round-trip train ticket anywhere in Switzerland and that includes all local transportation as well for a total price of CHF 40, so long as one is a resident.  We are limited to two such tickets during the year covered and they must be purchased in advance.  This was the first real opportunity that I had been able to enjoy this deal.   So, after my first glimpse of the front of the Basel train station,

and after Friend J had departed for her meetings via tram,

I set off to explore this beautiful city, deciding that while I might briefly scout out the Christmas market, I would wait for a longer visit until Friend J could join me.

It was so warm in early December that restaurants still had tables set up outdoors.

I headed into the Old City, up towards the Cathedral

only to discover that the otherwise magnificent Cathedral was undergoing some structural work.

Past the Cathedral, I came upon the Rhine, one of the great rivers of the world and

was able to view the Cathedral from the rear.

By this time, I decided that I wanted to spend some time indoors and decided to visit one of Basel's feature museums, the Puppenhausmuseum, full of dolls, teddy bears and other toys.

I think that Princess Butterfly, Prince Tyger and Prince Lightning would all love to visit here someday

and I hope that the "someday" will be very soon!

Memories of Last Fall

We've had snow on the ground - the first snowfall of 2012 - for nearly a week now, with a strong bise (north wind) blowing most of last week.   Although the bise has since left us, it has left grim, if beautiful, reminders that winter is still here and the temperatures are firmly established in ranges -0 C.

Brrr!  Apparently Punxatawney Phil, the ground hog in Punxatawney, PA who is generally considered the weather guru on Ground Hog's Day (2 Feb), got it right.  According to his handlers, he saw his shadow and we can thus expect six more weeks of winter.  Of course, not all ground hogs were in agreement and even when Phil doesn't see his shadow, we are usually in for six more weeks of winter.  But it's a fun tradition after all.

To deflect my thoughts from the cold and because I managed to take some photos of our glorious late fall foliage but never managed to post them here, I'll share a couple now so that they will help me to remember my biking routes from last fall.  Even though the bise has died down, the temperatures are still not conducive to biking outdoors.

Nor are these peaceful paths bike-user friendly right now,

and the vineyards have since been pruned back in readiness for the new growing season.

There were still a few late grapes deliberately left on the vines, not to be harvested until after the first frost, from which the sweet dessert wines, collectively known as ice wine, are made.

For the end-of year holidays, many prefer these dessert wines as an alternative to champagne to accompany the delicious - if politically incorrect - foie gras that is a staple of holiday gatherings.

Tyger's Peak

Prince Tyger's parents were quite surprised when one of his requests to Santa Claus was for a volcano.  Of course, one of his other requests was for an alligator.  When asked why about the alligator, the Tyger responded, "To eat Baby [Prince Lightning]!" which did not sit at all well with his parents for some reason.  But since the rationale for the volcano did not seem to involve an underlying danger to Prince Lightning's life or limb, Santa managed to fill the request somewhat creatively with a volcano kit.

Prince Tyger seems to appreciate science projects of all sorts, from the biological, where he watched caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies, and observed an ant farm,

to the more recent Volcano Project.  When first HWMBO and I saw it, the papier-mâché form of the volcano had been constructed and properly dried.  So Prince Tyger was raring to get started with the painting, under the tutelage of Proud Papa Big T.

Just as he had been wholly concentrated on constructing the Playmobil police station, the Tyger was very excited about painting "his" volcano,

and wholly engrossed in the process.

Both the "Big" and the "Little" Boys were having some Quality Time.

With impeccable timing, Prince Lightning awoke from his nap ... and the yearning to be part of the action was reflected in his little face.

Oh, how wonderful it is when one's most serious problems involve wishing that one were just a little bigger and a little bit older.

If only Prince Lightning could realize that not only will His Own Days In the Limelight come, they will come all too soon!

Prince Tyger the Builder!

Soon after I arrived back in the US to spend the Christmas holidays, HWMBO and I journeyed to see grandsons Princes Tyger and Lightning  - and their parents, of course!  While we "grown-ups" were spending time around the table chatting, Prince Tyger took the opportunity to slip upstairs where the recently erected Christmas tree stood, surrounded by a steadily growing pile of gifts.

It was only when we realized that things had gotten very quiet that we bestirred ourselves to see what was happening upstairs.  Having seen us arrive with gifts, Prince Tyger had taken that as a signal for him to unwrap as many of the gifts as he could.  We were fortunate that there were still a few left - and Christmas itself was still a few days off.

Among the gifts that were prematurely unwrapped was a Playmobil police station that I had brought, not realizing  that there were literally thousands of tiny pieces to put together.  But Prince Tyger is always fascinated by putting things together,

so nothing would do but to erect the police station then and there.

Prince Tyger's concentration

and dedication to the task were palpable.  And Proud Papa Big T was there to help out.

Uh oh, Prince Lightning has arrived on the scene, fresh from his bath!

Prince Lightning also loves small pieces, even though his forte is destruction rather than construction.

But he loves boxes even more - especially when he can jump on them.

Fortunately, it was his bedtime and Sweet Momma H was able to distract him with a bottle so that the "Big" Boys could continue their work!

It is still winter, after all!

I was beginning to wonder whether I would see snow "up close and personal" at all this winter.  Unlike the winter of 2010-11, when there were heavy snowfalls on both sides of the Atlantic in December and January, this year, snow has been sparse in areas where I have been.  In mid-December, I was able to see snow on the slopes of the nearby Jura Mountains just before I left for the US,

while the plain areas near the lake looked as if Spring would be right around the corner.

The closest we got to snow over the holidays was during a performance of "White Christmas" at Toby's Dinner Theater when artificial "snowflakes" began falling during the last ensemble scene.  The whole time that I was in Maryland, there was never more than the merest whisper of snow.  Even then, nothing stayed on the ground for long.   Both in Maryland and here, there has been plenty of moisture, but the temperatures have stayed resolutely above freezing except in the mountains where all the ski areas are ecstatically welcoming ski tourists.  But that all changed last night, when snow began falling around midnight.  This morning, I woke up to this

and this.

I decided that the snow was much better viewed from inside,

especially because it was also much warmer inside.

While I am very glad that I didn't miss snow entirely this winter,

I am still happiest of all that I did not have to go anywhere today!  

Princess Jelly Bean's Second Christmas

Christmas is always such great fun when there are little ones to celebrate with.  We adults sometimes get more carried away than the kids do because we remember what a special time of year it was back in the Dark Ages when we ourselves were much, much younger.  Of course, when we were growing up, presents were rare generally.  Christmas was one of the few occasions when we actually had more than one gift to open.

The year 2010 marked the first Christmas for my little grand-niece, Princess Jelly Bean.  But being just over a month old, she slept through most of the celebrations, even though she was, by far, the Stellar Attraction for all family members and visitors.  In 2011, however, even though she was still the Main Attraction, she was able to notice more about what was happening around her - and she apparently enjoyed events thoroughly, beginning with Christmas sugar cookies that she "helped" to bake.

Then she "helped" again, this time with Christmas lights, delightedly imagining herself as "The Littlest Angel."

When it actually came to gifts, after she had unwrapped them, she seemed at a bit of a loss.  Where did all that fascinating paper go?

Aha, Santa left a kitchen corner, where she can explore, bake

and play with satisfactorily noisy pans!  Wow!

A girl's just gotta have fun!

But the problem with all this extra activity is that it takes its toll -

both on Princess Jelly Bean and on Sweet Momma T.