Spörtli

No idea if the word used in the title exists. If so it has to be Swiss.

My bees continue to give cause for concern and I think the virus that certainly attacked one hive may have spread to the others. I can't quite work out if the mainly good long autumn weather has been a good or bad thing. They are very active but I wonder if they are too active, using up more food stores than they are bringing in and especially shortening their life cycles when there is generally not large quantities of replacement brood around. While a hive can happily more than halve the size of its folk in winter, it still needs a certain good number to keep it warm over the winter.

And apart from having a queen, the next most important thing is having food = energy. And at this time of year, in our climate, this is done almost exclusively with sugar fondant. I have used up all I had and as the beekeeping shop is only open on Fridays outside the season, I had to go there today.

Apart from being in a club which may collectively order supplies at a cheaper rate, the fondant is not available anywhere locally cheaper and certainly not online where the weight adds greatly to the shipping costs.

So Luna and I set off at lunchtime to make a day of it. As we passed through the last village Ronsberg (1,795 inhabitants), there was an unusual buzz around with cars parked everywhere and on a small green patch in the centre, a few tents set up and colourful flags flying. I simply had to stop and see what was going on.

Ronsberg is dominated by a Finnish owned paperboard packaging business, Huhtamaki who employ some 18,000 people worldwide and 1,000 in Ronsberg. Added to that the spin-off jobs in the forestry and transport businesses make it essential for the region. And I see that there are rumours they may be in financial difficulty having announced a closure in New Zealand and the share price over the last three years has been falling dramatically. 

No doubt some in our village would not mind if the Ronsberg operation closes down as their products are picked up in an almost constant ( I think around 16 hours/day) convoy of trucks that pass through the village. However, I know several people from the village are employed there. I can't find too much detail but see they have several units in the UK including large egg box and coffee cup manufacture in Northern Ireland, seemingly from recycled paper. What strikes me most about their website is the somewhat lacklustre attention to environmental issues although it seems to be a world leader in trying to manufacture recyclable products - here the "complicated" UK paper cup system they have  - I would expect them to show they are working on making it a non-issue.

I digress - the action in Ronsberg today was around the village sports shop "Schindele". I have never been in but some years ago, Bliper Tochterpleach had told me it was very well known as being a top sporting gear shop in the whole region. Today I went in and was amazed. The place was heaving and was huge with specialist areas for all those types of outdoor alpine sports and recreation - skiing and winter sports in all its forms, mountaineering, trecking, camping, biking. The shop can compete with anything in Munich.

It transpires they are celebrating their 60th anniversary this October/November and offering special deals. Today was "Swiss Day" and although a normal working day, it is a so-called "Bridge Day" when many take the day off after yesterdays public holiday and make a long weekend of it.

The Blip shows the outdoor display two speciality Swiss ski equipment companys, "Fritschi" and "Movement", had set up. I am not sure if the lack of people at the beer tables meant the beer was not free or whether people were unimpressed by the rows of brown bread slices the staff were buttering alongside the ski waxing machine which was not being used (gas bottle bottom left).

Luna and I disappeared up the steep hill above the town passing the ski-lift that is waiting for the snow to come. At the beekeeping shop in "Eglofs", had a quick chat with the owner who said the virus I mentioned has been around for years and while there is no known instant cure (nor the cause), an otherwise relatively fit and well-fed colony ought to be able to shrug it off and survive.

Then drove a kilometre to the next village "Willofs" and tried out a new walk in the last rays of the sun and the calm air. The surrounding area is a bit of a renewable energy centre with lots of windmills and I was quite surprised to see them turning. Checked the mobile phone weather app and saw 7 km/h which clearly is sufficient to get them working. Extra Photo of the tranquil walk near Willofs at about 825m above sea level.

Finally a stopover in Ottobeuren to pick up some essential groceries before returning home in the dark. Then caught up on my family news - daughter Kate had suffered a large-scale attack on her chickens just after I had sent her a message from the ski lift a few hours earlier. Six out of nine of her chickens had disappeared and there were feathers all over the garden. Two hours later she had found all the missing girls hidden in all manner of places and all alive but one (Becky) was injured and taken into the house to spend the night with Snowy the hamster for company.

Meanwhile, San Clemente and the coast road to San Diego was being terrorised by son J and Mathison. I can't and won't try to describe the short musical cruising videos that came in during the evening. And the Americans think the few thousand immigrants heading their way are the major problem they have. Given Tijuana is directly on the San Diego border, I expect Homeland Security to do a bargain with"The Caravan" and let them all in so long as Mexico take the two Loco Brits.

German looking words with the letter "i" at the end are invariably Swiss dialect words.