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Autumn is here, and that means baskets of squash and pumpkins all over the place. Love the variety of colours. sizes and textures you see!

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Out of the loggia window, a horse and carriage. I haven't seen this one before.

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You obviously have to be very clever to park here.
That excludes me then if it's based on parking skills!

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Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday there are weddings conducted in the Museum Lindengut near our home, so it's quite normal to come across a horse and carriage, or a vintage car, or a funky novelty car parked outside the window.

Here's a rather fetching pink one!

une voiture - a car
un cheval - a horse
des chevaux - some horses
une voiture tiré par des chevaux - a horse drawn carriage

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A funny one today. I bought this face mask in Müller. Unusually, the instructions are in English but out of habit I read the French and also the German. Imagine my astonishment when I discovered the following.

 The English instructions say 'Apply ...... and leave for 5-10 minutes.'

The French instructions say 'Appliquer ..... et laisser poser entre 5 et 10 minutes'

The German instructions say 'Auf Gesicht, Hals und Dekolleté auftragen. 10-15 Minuten  einwirken lassen.'

So, what is different about the skin of people who speak German, I ask myself?!

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Drinks today!

The Halden Krone is John's (although he's prefer Feldschlössen - see here ) and the Rivella is Isaac's. He is a big fan, prefering Rivella Rot, Blau (low calorie) and Gelb (energy) to Rivella Grün (green tea).

The Süessmost was Jude's but he doesn't like fizzy drinks (das Getränk mit Kohhlensäure) - so I drank that. He prefers Apfelsaft - ohne Kohlensäure!

Today's helpful phrase!

To be drunk - betrunken sein oder blau sein (thanks to A flavour of German for that!) - bsoffe, en Chaib ha, Oel am Huet

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I'm going to let my picture do the talking today.

My new bicycle - mein neues Fahrrad / Velo

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Today's photograph is a railway station sign taken by John.  One of the things we love about living in Switzerland is the names of places. In fact we've always been fascinated by names of bus stops etc (Isaac aged about 5 knew all the bus stops from our campsite in Interlaken into the town centre thanks to the announcements on board!)

 The boys were amused by Töss - even when the umlauts were pointed out -, we all love Pfäffikon because it sounds nice, and on Saturday a Twitter conversation began about what Rapperswil (rappers will) do.

However, this station, pronounced 'ow' has to be one of the best.

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This is a very interesting book I purchased last week. Very helpful as it has three sections allowing me to look up words in English, German or Swiss German, depending on which I happen to know!
Not all the words are used around here - I tried some out on my friend Monika and she said she used different words for some of the ones I pointed out. That's the thing with Swiss German - there are lots of different ways of saying things depending on where you are!

Sadly my Büechli doesn't tell me the word in Swiss German for an earthquake but in German it's ein Erdbeben. As I live in Winterthur I wasn't scared - verängstigt or duuch - because das Hause wackelte nur ein wenig - the house only wobbled a bit! In Swiss German my Büechli suggests giigaagälä or gnappä instead of wackeln.
Glad I wasn't in Zürich or Zug!

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Some rather attractive toilet doors bring us very important vocabulary today. 

Damen / Frauen - d'Dame-Toalette - the ladies

Herren / Männer - d'Herre-Toalette - the mens

Wo ist die Toilette?  Wo isch d'Tualettä? 

 - Where is the toilet?

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Jude wrote a letter to his friend Joe today so off I went to the Kiosk to buy eine Briefmarke für England.
Here is d'Briefmarke.

Why does it say Helvetia?
Helvetia is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially Confœderatio Helvetica, the "Helvetic Confederation". (Wikipedia)

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Recycling is a serious business in Switzerland and this is what happens when you don't get it right! The dreaded pink sticker is slapped on your bundle and it is left behind to shame you! The 'crime' with this bundle was that the 'bundler' mixed paper and cardboard. Whilst they are collected at the same time, they must be separate.

There are various words for rubbish in German - der Müll, der Abfall, der Biomüll and so on. You put der Abfall in die Mülltonne in a special (very expensive!) Gebührensack from which der Müllmann collects it.