Staff Training Day in the Forest

making the calzone pizza

making the feta cheese wrap

Leaves with feta cheese and herbs in them

Where the fire would be made

Vero with some of the starters

The hut

The tomato sauce in jars heating up

Calzone

making lip balm

These can be used to start a fire

On the 9th September we had a staff training day in forest near Oberrieden, hosted by Christa and her husband Roland. It was a cold and rainy day but that did not hinder us at all. Christa told us the programme for the day and we started off with 3 or 4 activities in the forest such as tying knots and a trust exercise.

A well earned break with tea/coffee and biscuits was had before we started with the next round which was to make our own lunch. First of all we learnt which plants can be eaten and which are NOT to be eaten. We broke into groups, some of us made the starters and the others made the fire and also some food.

Our lunch was really was tasty and so simple to make, from the photos you can see what we made, once lunch was finished we had some time left. We spit into groups again and made lip balm, firestarters and animal tracks stamps!

It was a fun day, we all enjoyed ourselves and both our instructors were very helpful and nice.

Have a nice weekend!

365 Photo Challenge Days 277 to 288

Day 277: Thursday 13th July - Spotted this cool van!

Day 278: Friday 14th July - Lake Zurich

Day 279: Saturday 15th - Goodbye party of Cori and Colin

Day 280: Sunday 16th July - Alessio on the trian

Day 281: Monday 17th July - trip on a boat

Day 282: Tuesday 18th July - Present from a parent

Day 283: Wednesday 19th July - Very much liked this travel book

Day 284: Thursday 20th July - Alessio at different ages

Day 285: Friday 21st July - Cupcake by Hannah Galli

Day 286: Saturday 22nd July - Fleamarket in Zurich

Day 287: Sunday 23rd July - Lunch time

This is a long week as I am working tomorrow, but on the bright side Alessio returns from his school sport camp!

I went to see the movie My Cousin Rachel which I enjoyed a lot. Otherwise did not do much except work! The weekend is almost here though, can`t wait!

August Reading List

In August I got through 6 books which is not too bad! I really enjoyed them all, some more than others though!

Dead Men And Broken Hearts by Craig Russell, set in Glasgow with PI Lennox, this is the fourth in the series.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, this was a bit of strange one, I did enjoy it but parts I just didn`t get into it. Here is a review!

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, I really enjoyed this thriller set on a fancy cruise ship off the Norwegian coast.

I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh, this was also really good and with a shocking start too! It kept me going right to the end and with a twist!

Wildflower Hill by Kimberly Freeman, this is one of my favorite types of novels set in different countries and in different times. Starts off in Glasgow in 1929 and goes to Tasmania/Australia in present day. Very moving and sad at times!

The Chalk Pit by Ellie Griffiths, the latest installment with Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson. I love this series so much, can`t wait for the next one!!

Weekend in Milan

Back in May Alessio and I went to Milan for a weekend with a group of friends as a birthday celebration for Arlene. As I had not been to Milan for a long time we tried to explore some new areas, but first of all we went to see the famous cathedral. It is a very impressive cathedral and one of the largest in the world. It is called Santa Maria Nascente but the Milanese just call it "il Duomo". Afterwards we strolled inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II which is also quite impressive with lots of cafes and luxury shops. We had a small bite to eat on a rooftop with the cathedral as a view!

In the evening we went to the canal areas which was full of bars, restaurants, shops and galleries all open. This is one of the busy nightlife areas for the Milanese, we strolled around looking at the shops, jewelry stalls. We found a restaurant which was called L´altro Luca e Andrea, which is funnily enough the names of Alessio`s uncle and aunt! We returned to this area in the morning/afternoon as we wanted to see it in daylight. It is a very interesting area and there is lots and lots of street art to see.

Then we visited the Prada Foundation/Bar Luce later on in the afternoon, which I already did a post about it. It was a lovely weekend away with friends!

My parents left today back to Scotland after there usual two weeks in Switzerland. Alessio will be playing football on Saturday and then we will be packing his suitcase as he has a school camp in the Ticino, next week. He is looking forward to this a lot!

Have a great weekend!

Great Bernera, Scalpay and Eriskay Islands in the Outer Hebrides

Great Bernera

Scalpay

Eriskay

During our trip to the Western Isles we managed to visit 8 islands, and 3 of them were rather small and we only stopped for a small amount of time.

The first was Great Bernera, linked to Isle of Lewis by a bridge we went to see the Iron Age Village at Bosta. We also stopped to walk a little on the beach and collect shells and stones.

The second island was called Scalpay which is connected to Harris by a single track bridge. We did not stay that long as it was raining really hard. We made a short walk to see the Eilean Glass lighthouse and saw it from a far and returned to the car.

The final island was Eriskay which is connected to South Uist by a causeway. It is famous for a few things one being that it is the island which the film Whisky Galore is based on. The ship SS Politician sank off the north east coast of Eriskay with its cargo of 28,000 cases of malt whisky. Much of the cargo was salvaged by the inhabitants. And one of its beaches is where Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot of Scottish soil on 20th July 1745.

I enjoyed visiting all the these islands and would have liked to have visited more. That will have to be on another visit now!