Switzerland July 2007

[Diane Clement]

I'll join the band of travellers newly returned from holidays and share some pictures.  We have just returned from 10 days in Switzerland, half the time based in Zermatt in the Valais (south) and the rest based in Wengen in the  Bernese Oberland.  The weather has been strange there, as it has with us in the UK.  Unseasonably dry and warm in April, then in May came snow (as Tony Goode reported a month or so ago).  The result for us was an excellent floral display with a few special high altitude plants still in flower which normally would be finishing by the end of July.  You will see from the pix that we had excellent weather nearly every day.
To start, the view of the Matterhorn from our hotel in Zermatt

[Diane Clement]

First some flowers from the meadows and woodland edge.  I'm not completely sure about some of the names, so I'd welcome any corrections
Aster alpinus
Sempervivum arachnoideum
Nigritella nigra
Dryas octopetalla
Pyrola rotundifolia

[ranunculus]

About time we saw some images from your new camera Mrs Clement....and what an excellent start.
Could you possibly stay up all night and post a few hundred more please?
Glad you had such a splendid time in two of our 'special' places.

[Diane Clement]

Oh, but you'll also have to stay up all night waiting for that pink buttercup on top of the Schilthorn .....

   

[Diane Clement]

Back to the pix
Doronicum austriacum
Campanula barbata
Cirsium spinossisimum

[ranunculus]

...Or you could be an angel and post it first?  It would be out of sequence I know, but it would be a charitable act for an elderly person.

[Diane Clement]

I haven't resized them yet, but just one to make an old man happy. 
Enough of them here for you???

[ranunculus]

How does the song go?

"Heaven..I'm in heaven"

Many thanks...I can go to my sleeping bag in the shed now, content and totally buttercupped!

[Diane Clement]

Sorry for the diversion, have to humour the elderly at times
Back to the Matterhorn area.  Up to 3000 m (with the help of a cable car, of course) to the top of the Unterrothorn  
Gentiana verna and Silene acaulis
Gentian again
Linaria alpina

[Diane Clement]

Still up the Unterrothorn, the view of the Matterhorn from this altitude
and if you look closely at the scree ....

[Diane Clement]

... you will find Eritrichium nanum

[Diane Clement]

someone must have put the stone round this one to stop it being trodden on

[mark smyth]

was this an organised trip or your own one?

[Diane Clement]

was this an organised trip or your own one?

I think organised trips tend to go earlier for more reliable flowers but we have to stick to school holidays so we are always a bit late for the best display.  So we just do a package holiday from a commercial brochure. 

[mark smyth]

I suppose you have to hire a car?