Building Wixi 6 Man Skilift

Wixi and Fallboden Talstation July 2012

 Building the new Wixi Bridge that takes the skiers over the train line.

Looking back up the Wixi Piste.

Looking at the potential bridge from the blue ski track.

And two weeks later......

Hypericum from Alp to Oil!

Hypericum richeri

One hundred years ago a famous swiss priest-herbalist, Kräuterpfarrer Johann Künzle, wrote that the best Hypericum was to be found in the alps (Kräuteratlas zu Chrut und Uchrut, pg 11). The infused oil made from these flowers certainly has a fabulous colour, as we will see in a few weeks. This presumably means a high concentration of hypericin, but it would be rather interesting to do an HPLC to see if science bears out Pfarrer Künzle's experience.

 Having walked the harvested plant home, the flowers are plucked and placed into oil. 

 Stains on my fingers prove that I have the right plant.

 And not even an hour later the oil is already starting to change colour.

A few weeks later ...... August 11th, and thanks to some wonderful sunshine, the oil is ready to be strained, bottled and used.

The Jungfrau and Alpenrose

Rhododendron ferrugineum

Spring Flowers still to be found

Cardamine pratensis

One of the great pleasures of the Alps is that one can enjoy all seasons in the same day. The same also goes for the flora. Even in high summer it is possible to turn a corner and find yourself back in spring, as I discovered last week when I stumbled on Lady's Smock, at 2000m.

Introducing Arnica montana

Please remember Arnica is a protected plant for a very good reason, it is rare.

In the French Alps it is disappearing apparently because of the contamination from the flight paths above.                                                                               

Leopardsbane

Arnica montana

A video Blog!

Am I ready to move out of my comfort zone and into posting home grown videos of my favourite plants? Well, here goes!

Symphytum officinale var patens

For those who require the full reference mentioned, it is from a book called A Modern Herbal by Mrs M. Grieve, New York 1971, Dover Publications, originally published in 1931.
The white flowers in view while I'm mentioning the purple flowers of comfrey are actually feverfew, so don't get confused.

I'm Back!

My apologies for the rather long absence, life sort of took over for a while. However, I have been re-inspired by some wonderful people, who were on my Herb Walk this week, into reposting here on my blog. How does it get any better than that?

A couple of pictures of my recent trip to Schynige Platte.



The Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau, with Maennlichen in front.



Dryas octopetala, mountain avens and the Brienzer See.








June 14th 1893 was the opening of the railway to Schynige Platte, and every year on that day they celebrate by selling cheap tickets!