Spring has sprung

Some more signs of spring - bulbs on sale in the local supermarket.

 And some slightly healthier eggs.

An antique Ford on my way back from my walk along the river.

Calzone creature!

Some sweet Cailler gift boxes.

Of bunnies and Buicks

More Easter nonsense and tat at Migros!

Because Kitty is the symbol of Easter! On yer bike.

Cutesy bunny clothes pegs.

Felt bunny shapes.

Felt chickens!

The weather is even better than last week, so I went walking by the river again and spotted this beauty.

There were quite a few old cars around today - not sure why. There are classic car shows on every now and again.

I even picked up a tiny hitch-hiker! It looked like a ladybird, but with a very dark shell.

Out and about

Some subtle reminders that Easter is the next big holiday, and that it's all about chocolate rabbits.

Great if you a) want to spend 60 Swiss Francs, and b) make a child scared of rabbits for life.

Chocolate rabbits and eggs as far as the eye could see.

It's enough to make you diabetic.

March of the Lindt bunnies. (Or a primitive cubic array of bunnies, as I keep seeing them now that I'm revising chemistry.)

I'm not sure "secret police" is really something children aspire to.

Horse chips!

We made it out of the house and down to Fribourg on the Sunday, mainly to meet up with Dawn & Simon. This beautiful stork sculpture was in front of the town's famous funicular. Which was closed, and had a toilet inside the front door. Hmm.

View down towards the old town. My calves are still recovering from the steps.

The walking route around the town - apart from the steep drop at the funicular, it's all very pleasant.

Spring seems to be here, and I've been trying to get out for a walk every day. This was taken crossing the bridge at Leimbach - there's no zoom on the phone, which I keep forgetting, but that's an articulated lorry with an open top having wood chips spat into it by a tree chipper that also has a grabbing arm to feed itself trees. The lorry drove off just as I got to it.

Switzerland is fairly relaxed about health and safety. The lorry driver and wood chipper operator didn't seem to care that children were walking off the path and going around them.

The ridiculously large self-feeding wood chipper.

And plenty more where that came from.

And temptation this week at Tchibo in the form of baking goods - sorely tempted by the big gugelhof tin and set of tiny silicon ones...

I got notification of my exam centre yesterday. Yes, I knew we were 2/3 of the way through the courses, but it was still a shock. I started revising the chemistry course (my weakest one) yesterday and am pleasantly surprised at how much I remember. It's still going to be a so-called challenge to demonstrate nine months of learning in just three hours... none of the course work done during the year counts, unfortunately. (Although you have to get a minimum mark to be allowed to take the exam.) And having three exams in two days (chemistry am, analytical science pm, cell biology next am) doesn't help either. At least next year it should be a bit more spread out!