Seeing the falls he named in honor of his queen, David Livingstone wrote in his journal, “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”
Waterfalls and all God’s natural beauty affect me the same way. This country of Switzerland is so full of those “scenes so lovely.”
Waterfalls and bridges in Switzerland amaze me!Chalets with lovely flowers aboundThis was on the way to Zinal yesterday But De & André’s is the best!
As we venture out, the lovely scenes are amazing in every season here.
Tania at Hotel Weisshorn – photo by Mike Solioz – taken last autumnWay back when … we climbed waaay up with DeDe.
Scenes so lovely!
Flowers are abundant in private gardens and public places. André’s croûtes au fromage (potato or bread w cheese, etc.) is a Valaisan specialty. It’s a “scene so lovely” too!
André and De are so generous as they share their chalet, meals, transportation and their love with us and with De’s best buddy (our daughter #2 Laina) and her daughter Katy. What a grand reunion we had with them here yesterday!
Katy, Laina, me, Bob & DeDe
Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Last night Mike & Tania joined us for a fun evening of raclette & karaoke. Chris & Nick and their girlfriends came, too. Ah, we are so blessed with this wonderful Swiss family!
Thanks for joining me and sharing these “Scenes so Lovely” today. Wish you were here in person! Come back tomorrow, okay? See ya then (God willing).
What a wonderful way to spend a Monday afternoon in Switzerland! DeAna drove us up to Zinal… just to enjoy the time together, the scenery, and an ice cream. We did all three. Wanna join us?
Mountain majesty
Views usually not seen
Except in movies
Sharing with our De
Made all the more beautiful
By stream and mountains
Blue sky up above
Flowing River at our feet
Life can’t be more sweet
Then add some icecream
And the cows that made the cream
Surely it’s a dream!
Hearing the children
Laughing and playing outside
Yes, it’s Paradise!
Meantime, the Groshongs
Continued their hiking fun
In this same region
Found a gentle cow
Grazing on the Swiss hillside
Up close – personal!
Lucky the bovine
Was feeling cooperative
But don’t press your luck
Here comes another
He’s looking mighty leery
Don’t try petting him
Onward to glacier
Visit before it is gone
Then back to Zinal
What will tomorrow bring? Come back and see! I love sharing with you. Which of my pictures today did you like best?
Our weekend began with a cloudy day in Sierre, Switzerland, but soon the sky cleared and the weekend was sunny and beautiful.
It was a beautiful fun-filled time with family and friends. Let me share some highlights with you. We’re having such sweet Swiss times! One highlight of our weekend was a choir festival in Véraz (near Sierre) where our daughter, DeDe, and grandson, Chris, sang with the Chippis choir.
Every day here in this beautiful country is full of the blessing of family and friends. Sweet catch-up time. I love sharing the fun with you.
Me with DeDe at the choir festivalBob with DeDe
After the festival, we went to André’s brother’s fiancée’s place for a raclette evening. So nice to have catch-up time with Kad & Roger.
Meantime, our friends, Jim & Terry, took the bus from Vissoie up to Grimentz where they are enjoying a few days of hiking in those fabulous mountains. They’re sharing a few photos of their experiences. Have a look!
Wow! Great photo, Terry!Terry, the hikerJim … the trooperHah! Listen to Terry’s description of their hike and Jim’s take on this!
Yes, the mountains are alive with the sounds of water and hikers and joy! Once upon a time, a dozen years ago, Bob & I took that hike. Now we are content to enjoy those high Alpine views through others’ cameras! Oh, and from the bus- of course.
Thank you for your responses to our posts. We love sharing our trip vicariously with you, dear friends. Wish you could be here in person.
Yesterday our daughter, DeAna, drove us down into the Rhône River Valley, through Sierre, and up into the Alps on the other side to an area called Crans-Montana. It is where she & André lived 30 years ago when they first moved here. On the hillside e hind the restaurant André managed way back then are a few chalets. One of them, built in 1772, is owned by ZuZu & Célia. They invited us to spend the day there with them.
ZuZu (Christian Zufferey) was our AFS son in 1980-81. He is André’s first cousin. He and Célia prepared an amazing meal for us! The first plate was an outstanding eggplant quiche. The second plate was lamb (my favorite) and a ratatouille. All the vegetables they grew in their gardens here in this gorgeous high Alpine place.
The opportunity to be together again with ZuZu was so very special. After the meal we shared various liqueurs – also made by them using various fruits, etc. that they grew.
After our time there, De took us back down into Sierre where we had a nice visit with our friend, Christiane Rielle.
Then (as if day was not already blessed enough), we were treated by our DeDe and our grandson, Nick, to a wonderful dinner at Capri Restaurant in Sierre before returning to Vissoie for the night.
Then today we went on a guided tour of Sierre. Our grandson, Mike’s new bride, Tania, provided the tour. At the Sierre Tourisma Office, my buddy Terry found a hat for a souvenir… and I found a terrific pair of funky glasses that I could not resist!
Now you can see why I didn’t bring a pair of sunglasses with me on this trip. I needed THIS pair!!
Bob, Jim & Terry Groshong, our MT/CA best friends, learned all about the history of Sierre. There is the town hall behind the 4 of us. If you saw my post about Mike & Tania’s civil ceremony, it’s the same place where they were married last weekend.
Then Tania guided us to an old (1700s) chalet. Look at they key Jim is holding. It opened the cellar door where we did some wine tasting.
Next Tania drove us to Chateau Mercier where she explained the history and we tasted more fine Swiss wines.
Lovely Chateau Mercier has beautiful gardens, too. We walked around and admired them before going to Chateau Villa for Raclette dinner. Mike joined us there.
Mike & Tania’s church ceremony is Sept. 20, so we have another couple weeks here to enjoy the hills alive with family. Stay tuned!
Jim & Terry will leave tomorrow – so you can say farewell to them for now nit’s been wonderful to have them with us this week!
I can never tire of these beautiful Swiss Alpine views! Come back tomorrow. We’re going to take the bus down to stay with André’s mom. I’ll share those views with you, too..
Thanks for traveling vicariously with us! Bee 🐝 well, dear friends! See you tomorrow (God willing).
Yesterday and today we woke to the magical sound of children across the road from our bedroom here in Vissoie, Switzerland. What a joy!
Yesterday evening we were treated to an Alphorn concert. Nine dear people (one being our grandson, Mike) played this age-old instrument. I became acquainted with it when I was a child. My Uncle Hans was my mom’s oldest sister’s husband. He was a young German-Swiss cheese maker when he moved from Switzerland to Washington back in the 1930’s. He & Aunt Evelyn had 3 children. He taught them all to yodel and he taught his son, my cousin, Hanslie, to play the alpenhorn.
Mike is on the left.
My mom would be so proud to know her great-grandson is following in the musical tradition of her family! I get sentimental and cry when I hear these instruments and think of how mom & my aunt and uncle would have adored hearing this!
Today our friends, Jim & Terry, are here to enjoy a few days with us in this marvelous place. Last night they were able to meet Mike & Tania and we all celebrated Jim’s 75th and DeDe’s 55th together. André fixed an incredible dinner of ribs with a medley of vegetables. Yum!!
Here is yesterday’s delicious roast beef lunch.
Last night’s ribs
It is so wonderful to have my forever friend, dear Terry here to share these experiences with us.
This is Vissoie’s Main Street
Later this morning we’ll walk down that street and get a few groceries at the store. Wish you were here to go walking with us!
See ya later! Thanks for traveling vicariously with me. Hugs, JanBeek
Today Denise (our son-in-law’s mom) took Bob & me on a walk in Sierre. Thirty years ago, when we first started coming here (when our first grandson was born), we would have jogged up the trails into the vineyards. Today we were content to take a leisurely walk on a relatively flatter terrain.
We walked up to the hospital where Mike was born. His grandpa was the chief executive officer there. André had been a chef in its kitchen before he came to California and married our daughter.
The grounds around the hospital are beautiful. Lots of trees and flowers and park benches where we could sit and take a break.
The leaves on the acacia trees are starting to show signs that autumn is coming. The grapevines are laden with fruit ready to be harvested.
Look at the base of this grapevine. It’s over 100 years old! All gnarled and twisted behind the protective wire fence.
I thought of Derrick & Jackie Knight and their beautiful garden when I saw these gorgeous rose bushes.
Beyond this water trough, with its constantly flowing fresh drinks for the cattle that used to come through this town, you can see the concrete sides of the round church. We went to mass there this morning with Denise. This morning I posted the sounds of the bells for you. Did you catch that blog?
I pray you had a beautiful Sunday, too, my friends. Tonight we’re going up to De’s chalet in Vissoie. We’ll be there all next week. Wait til you see it!
Oh, and tomorrow is DeAna’s birthday! Our DollyWolly will be 55. Can you believe it?
Our arthritic hands show our age – even if our active spirits deny it! Stay young in spirit, my friends. Thank God every day for the gift of another opportunity to live and play, breathe, and enjoy life. Live in the now! And stay vibrant!!
This is the view from our balcony. That’s a beautiful castle on the mountainside
In front of our 4th story balcony we see the roof of the circular Catholic Church and we hear the bells ring every 15 minutes from 8: to 8: I love it!
Yesterday our grandson, Nick (the middle one – the fun-loving guy who has a band called Fluffy Machine) and his girlfriend, Céline, took us to nearby Martiny for lunch and a fun tasting experience at a micro-brewery.
Our lunch spotBob, Céline, Nick & Grandmama Denise
When we arrived on Thursday night, we had cheese fondue in Denise’s backyard with all 3 of our grandsons and their girlfriends plus our daughter, DeDe & her hubby, André.
Here is Bob on Thursday morning at Denise’s breakfast table:
The views from our balconies are wonderful – and the terraced vineyards on all the steep Alpine mountainsides here in Valais (the French part of Switzerland) are spectacular! God really worked overtime to create this scenic place!!
This is the house across the road from us. It was built in 1772. The plaque between the windows there tells the years it was renovated. 1772- 1946- 1976
Thank you for traveling vicariously with us for these next three weeks. What would you like me to show you next? Tomorrow is Mike & Tania’s civil ceremony. I’ll share. Come on back!
Have you had more than a few candles put on your birthday cake? Ever had trouble blowing them out? My friends, Kathy & Ron, served a cake at fellowship after church today. They didn’t put all 83 candles on it, thank God… don’t wanna burn the church down! But, they put on a LOT – – – and I could not believe how long it took me to blow out those sparkling candles!!!!
This is just a very brief clip of the process… It’s OK to laugh with me as you watch it!
As you can see, there were only a few left to extinguish at this point… I had been at it for awhile…
Kathy & Ron are on my right. Am I praying I can do this? I don’t know…
This was about try #5 to get them all blown out. My friend, Alex, is there encouraging me!
Yes, things take longer as time goes by… And yet time seems to go by faster as the years progress. How do you figure that?
It was a happy birthday. I celebrated in Bozeman yesterday with Bob. He got me a new travel purse for our upcoming trip to Switzerland. We had a lovely dinner at The Mint in Belgrade.
Today I enjoyed exchanging messages with over a hundred of my friends from far and near on FaceBook. Also, had a wonderful FaceTime exchange with daughters, DeAna & Laina. It’s days like this when most friends and all of our family are far away that I especially enjoy the internet.
Couldn’t sit down face-to-face with DeDe and enjoy a cup o’ java – but we could talk and see one another.
And Laina could share her java with me virtually!
Our son, Ty, and his wife Monika, were not able to be here with us this year, but they FaceTimed this evening… so my heart is full. It took longer for them to reach out this year because Ty was on a Mission trip to Mexico. But I received a card from them… and this evening’s call was the frosting on the cake!
Yes, it takes longer between visits to see our family and friends these days, but thanks to the internet, we can FT and text, message and e-mail. In those cases, communication takes shorter – not longer!
Yes, I tilted toward the computer and my cell phone today!
Where do you tilt these days? And what things do you find take longer? I’m not alone in this, I bet!
Thanks for visiting! Have a great Sunday night – and a wonderful week.
Bob & I met in the summer of 1958 at a hometown dance. We had many mutual friends because he came from his little town of Hughson, CA in to the bigger town of Turlock (about 15 miles) to church every Sunday. I didn’t go to that same church, so I didn’t meet him while I was in high school.
That summer after my freshman year in college, I returned home to Turlock and attended a dance at the War Memorial building. It seems like all our mutual friends decided it was time for us to meet.
“Fine to meetcha!” he would say each time we were introduced. “What did you say your name is?”
It took two weeks after that introductory dance for him to call and ask me out. And it was three and a half years later when I was graduated and teaching, and he was stationed at an army base in Germany, that we married and I went to Wurzburg to join him.
Here’s the guy I fell in love with in 1959
I don’t have a photo here of us in Germany, but it was a magical 9 months. I got a job teaching on the army base … a darling first grade. And when we returned to the states, I resumed my teaching career and Bob finished college.
His job at Shell Oil in San Francisco lasted only a year or so. Then he went back to college and earned his teaching credential. Bob taught at Hillsdale High in San Mateo for nine wonderful years. During that time our children, Ty & DeAna were born.
Bob with De (3) and Ty (5)
We moved back to the Turlock area in 1969 and our kids attended school in Modesto while I taught in Ceres & Hughson and Bob returned to his roots: beekeeping. The rest is history!
I just want you to know that I thank God every day for the love Bob & I have shared these 60+ years – and the gift of family God has given us.
Our “children” – Ty & DeAna
I pray that you other moms & dads out there can look back as I do, and feel enormous gratitude for the person God gave you to be co-creators… may your children honor you this day, dads.
published yesterday, April 24, 2022, wrote this poem:
Marriage is a strange equation where You take 1 Person Add another Person You get a Couple So far so good Now you add 0 Expectations to it And you get infinite Love Mind-boggling!
I wrote to Frank saying, “Hmmm… zero expectations? How do you do that?” He responded, “I guess we should try and reduce it little by little. Eventually, it will get to zero.”
What do you think? Do you agree that zero expectations = infinite love?
Bob & me on our 59th
I follow Frank’s blog along with over 22,700 other admirers of his poetry. If you will forgive me, I wish to rewrite his latest. It seems to me that marriage does not have to be a strange equation. It can be:
The Perfect Equation
Marriage can be a perfect equation when You take one person Add another person And get a couple Then you add the Love of Christ Next place the Holy Spirit in the center You add God’s expectations of compassion Mix in the joy of respect and faithfulness And you get unconditional, infinite love Now, that’s Mind-boggling!
Celebrated 60 years in February
True Friendship requires the same equation! Take one person, add another, stir in Christ’s love Center the Holy Spirit between you and Sprinkle generously with compassion and respect Remain faithful to one another, and Keep a confidential, active, listening ear You get unconditional, infinite love. Isn’t that mind-boggling?
If you were asked to create a collage of true friends who epitomize that equation, who would you include? Long-time friends, family, neighbors, church friends, internet friends, friends in heaven, those you haven’t met yet? Think about it! My collages below are by no means complete… but for starters:
Are you a reliable friend? Do you see yourself fitting into the equation? Does your collage of friends include those neighbors who stick “closer than a brother”?
Marriage and Friendship are related! They both carry with them great expectations!
24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Knowing I was hurting physically because I fell and disclocated/broke my pinky finger, friends sent cards, delivered food, sent texts, called, and dropped by. Did I EXPECT such an outpouring? Not at all! But did it do the trick? You bet! Those friends delivered the cheer and encouragement that we all need when we are feeling blue or tired or sick or (as in my case) a little stupid and careless.
Knowing my granddaughter and I were hurting emotionally because she just learned of and shared with me the news of her miscarriage, friends called, wrote, texted, responded on my blog & on FB, and reached out to Hope as well. Did we expect such an outpouring? No! But was it helpful and appreciated? You bet!
Thank You – It does help!
Does God EXPECT us to do so? Yes!
Hebrews 10:24-25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another
The Bible is full of expectations for us. God expects us to lift one another up. He commands us… The greatest of these is LOVE. His last and final commandment: Love one another!
Reach out to a friend today. Reach out in love. Do you do it because you expect something in return? Of course!
My mom always told me, “Whatever you send into the life of others comes back into your own.”
(I’m sure she read that in the Bible somewhere!)
Thanks for visiting JanBeek today See ya tomorrow (God willing)
Love & Marriage – Go together like a horse & carriage!
Who’s in your collage of friends today? Tell ’em about it! (Share my blog with ’em!!)
