The start of summer ’23

It’s been a long time coming, but at long last we’ve had some lovely summery weather here in N.E. Switzerland, and I’ve been out and about.

Last week started with a trip to Zürich Zoo, something I haven’t done for at least a decade. It’s a good zoo, with huge enclosures for the animals, but the thing that really caught my eye there was the number of free-nesting pairs of storks. There are nests on poles, roofs and trees, all over the place. An attendant told us they have forty-two baby storks this year, all about ready to start flying the nest. That would be a sight to see… The flamingos were the usual spash of pink among the greenery, and the tropical rainforest hall was amazing. (It was cooler in there than it was outside, the day we went…)

The next trip was a real experience. Here in Switzerland, we don’t often get to go on a double-decker bus (though we do have double-decker trains). But this year, the Anglo-Swiss Club I’m a member of had its 50th anniversary, and to celebrate, we hired a real, bright red ex-London bus, plus driver, and drove through N.E. Switzerland to the German island of Mainau on Lake Constance. The island is famous for its flower gardens, and although the roses were just past their best, it was an amazing trip with some gorgeous views.

The writing highlight of this week was a writers’ lunch in Zürich, where Louise Mangos, Alison Baillie and I met up with Jane Riddell, who’s here again cat-sitting. And as usual, we put the writing world to rights over a glass of something. Here we are by the Limmat, the river that runs through Zürich.

The blog will be on holiday now for a few weeks, but we’ll have a Cover Love post tucked in at some point. Have a lovely summer – happy reading! (To start your summer reading, Amazon have put the first two books in the Lakeside Hotel series on a monthly deal in the UK – just 99p each all July. That’s a nice cheap holiday in Switzerland for you…)