Foxy!

We took our guests to see the Wildpark last Saturday, and saw all kinds of things - wolves, bears, wild boar, beavers, alpine ibex, wild cats, lynx, elk, buffalo... and the cutest red foxes!

This one didn't care that there was a crowd of people just a few feet away. Maybe we were in the cage from where he was looking.

In your eyes

Himself looks out at Lake Zurich on a sunny Saturday.

Brand name tentacles

Walking back from dropping friends off at their hotel last night, we passed by something himself had seen before and referred to as the "tentacle window display". Turns out it's the windows of Louis Vuitton, empty of their products and instead filled with the characteristic dots and eyes of artist Yayoi Kusama.

Not quite right

Last Sunday we went for a walk along the ridge of the hills behind us, taking the Felsenegg cable car up from behind the station. There was something a little bit curious about one of the road signs.

Nothing wrong here, some lovely German literalness - cable car street. But what's that at the bottom?

Hmm. Didn't know there was a combat kitty.

And this spotted in the 2Fr shop by the station today. Another I'm-not-sure-that's-licensed moment!

暑中お見舞い申し上げます

炎暑ことのほかきびしい中お変わりなくお過ごしでいらっしゃいますか。

色々とお世話になりながらもご無沙汰してしまい申し訳ありません。お蔭様で相変わらず元気に暮らしています。

この写真は京都水族館で見かけたかわいいハコフグです。

この暑さはまだしばらく続きそうです。くれぐれもご自愛ください。

Summer greetings!

Japan has a tradition of sending greetings in mid-summer, the hottest time of the year, to keep in touch with friends and family. So I'm sending you this exceedingly cute boxfish who was causing a logjam at Kyoto Aquarium. (They're really sweet. Until they get startled, release a toxin and kill everything else in the tank.)

We'll be in Zurich for the foreseeable future, so please let us know how you're doing and if we can see you sometime soon, here or elsewhere!

Swiss Miss

We had a nice lazy day yesterday - Swiss national day - sleeping in, having a late lunch, heading out to meet a friend, ending up at the apartment of some other friends for BBQ, then down to the lake for some amazing fireworks. I had no idea what you could get these days, some of the rockets and cakes were amazing. We headed home after midnight, and got utterly drenched on the way back from the station by a sudden thunderstorm. (Himself wondered if all the fireworks had seeded the clouds.) I'm sure the fire brigade were glad to see it.

We also got a leaflet from a nationalist party asking us to sign a petition to kick criminal foreigners out of the country (I'm sure that must already be a law, you can get kicked out for being on benefits here) - but there seems to be one foreign cat they're happy to let in... And the amusingly-named "Lady Crackers".