Leaving it too late for the narcissus …

It was one of the excursions that we were looking forward to do this spring … to see the narcissi (or narcissuses) blooming on the mountain slopes above Montreux.

The last time that the hubby saw this beautiful event was many, many years ago, he was still a little boy. So he was eager to see it again this year and was quite excited at the thought of bringing me to see the blooms … just as I was very eager to go and excited to see it for myself.

Unfortunately for us, the hubby had mistakenly assumed that the best time to go and visit the narcissus in full bloom is in the month of June. A check on the official website over the weekend seemed to suggest that we might have left it a little too late. But deciding to try our luck,  the hubby took leave on Monday from work … and off we went to the slopes above Montreux (near the village of Les Avants) so that we could go and see the narcissi blooming on the mountain slopes.

However, much to my disappointment … there were hardly any narcissus left to be seen blooming on the mountain slopes except for a clump or two here and there. So it seems that we should have gone there in May … and not waited until the middle of June to go and see them! Pffff …

However, the weather had been unpredictable, with lots of rain in May and even some snowfalls towards the end of that month and in all fairness this was one of the reasons why the excursion was delayed, the hubby is keen to point out.

Luckily for the hubby … there were plenty of wildflowers along the way  to get me excited … so that the excursion did not become a total waste. Especially when it was such a sunny and warm afternoon on Monday… to be trekking up and down the mountain! The temperature was 31° Celcius when we reached Lausanne train station at about 9.00pm. What a crazy weather we have been having this year. It was cold and even snowed in May as if we were still in winter … and now it is so warm that it feels as if we are already in the middle of summer!

Anyway … here are some photos of our excursion that day.

After changing trains at Montreux, we arrived at the village of Les Avants … where we would start our walk looking for fields filled with blooming narcissi … at least that was what we had hoped to see lah!

It was not too difficult to find le chemin des Narcissus (Narcissus Path) … a dedicated path to areas where narcissi are known to bloom …  as there were signs to indicate the path to take as well as information boards.

I must say that the area is very beautiful and the sunny day made it even so.

Walking along the path heading towards … what we had hoped would be … fields full of blooming narcissi.

View of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) to one side of the little path.

From open path with beautiful lake view … we then had to walk through some stretches of extremely muddy path inside a little forest. Not my kind of walk … not at all. But for the narcissi, I did it.

And then back out in the open … with the lake in view once again, on the left.

It was as we were passing by this stretch of field that I spotted a few narcissi. The hubby who was walking far ahead of me had totally overlooked this field … which is understandable … because unless one was looking very closely, it was easy to miss the narcissus because …

… since we had come too late in the season … most of the narcissi on this field were already looking like this!

And, really, there were lots of them … but most of them were already spent. Imagine coming to see this …

Patrimoine Vaudois/Traditions vivantes : Fin XIXe, Cueillette des narcisses

… when this was what I was hoping to see! What a let down it was! But of course, there were still some healthy looking blooms … just not enough to enable me to have my photo like the picture above [source] lah!

If the field had been full of them, I would have picked some to bring home … as they were such pretty flowers.

According to the visitors’ guideline to this area, one is allowed to pick not more than a handful from a public field … so I would not have been breaking the rule by picking some lah!

But since there were not that many of them left … I did not pick even one. Maybe next year, if we manage to come here again in the correct month … I will get to have my pick of narcissi!

And maybe even get to have my picture taken like in the old picture (further above) … or with this lovely background of Lac Léman and the valley of Rhone! Now … that will be a nice souvenir of our visit to the area!

We then continued our way along the narcissus path passing some fields and farmhouses … hoping to find another field with more blooming narcissi.

It was fortunate that the drizzle that started when we were in the field of narcissi did not progress into rain … so that we were able to continue our walk without any worry of getting drenched as we did when we went to the garden centre in Assens a little more than a week ago.

After walking for sometime and passing through more stretches of muddy path, we were quite excited when we saw the sign again … which indicated that we might be able to see some narcissi again.

But apart from seeing some cows eyeing me as I was walking along the path, we did not see a single narcissus! Haizzz … really no luck lah!

And then at a crossroad, the hubby suggested going up to the belvedere at Le Cubly so as to have a quick look at the view from there. I agreed, even though I was starting to feel very tired and warm from the hot weather. However, it took me ages to reach the belvedere … as I stopped often to rest.

It had been a while since we did a walking excursion … so I was really out of shape lah!

Unfortunately, the strong glare from the sun made it difficult to have a good look at the vista … and even harder to take any nice shot of an otherwise very picturesque view!

But I tried.

We rested for a while after taking a few shots of the panoramic view … before making our way down the slope to head towards the railway station at Chamby. Actually, the hubby was keen to explore a little more to look for the elusive narcissus … but by then, I was ready to go home.

The walk down the mountain slope to the railway station took longer than I had anticipated. And I was very glad when we finally saw the Chamby railway station further ahead … as I was starting to feel really tired with the long walk in the heat.

But our day was not over … as, after learning up in the mountain that there was a mineral water source in Montreux, the hubby was keen to look for it.

So instead of going straight home, we did a little détour in Montreux to look for the water source in the nearby old town. Thankfully, the hubby managed to find it without too much difficulty … and without me having to walk too far!

After drinking our fill … the hubby even brought a big bottle home as souvenir. So the next time we want some free mineral water, we now know where to get our supply … apart from taking the boat across to Evian!

Despite the fatigue, I was quite happy to be able to do our mountain walks once again. Not being able to see any field full of blooming narcissi was certainly a huge disappointment … but … I was happy to be able to capture many shots of the wildflowers that grew in the area during our walk.

And because I took many shots …  I will, therefore, share photos of those wildflowers in a separate entry!

Link

• Hubby’s entry on the same excursion

Balcony garden in June … the beans are coming … !

I am not sure whether you have noticed the size of the broad bean plants in yesterday’s post. They have certainly grown up and sideways, too … since I last shared pictures of the blooms in April. But since it is a dwarf variety, the plants will not grow overly tall lah.

I have been checking thoroughly the plants for ants and aphids almost on a daily basis … to make sure that there will not be a repeat of what had happened last year.  And I am excited to say … that maybe this year, I will be luckier with the broad beans … because … I just realised four days ago … that the broad bean plants had started to pod! Yeayyy!!

I was so excited at seeing the beans that I took quite a number of shots of them! hehehe …

The broad bean plants four days ago … before the major shifting that I did to accommodate the tomatoes and a few other plants …

… and when I first noticed the bean pods that had formed … only because I was trying to take snapshots of a bee enjoying the blooms!

And the same bean pods …  two days later. Once the pods have started forming, they certainly become big quite fast!

I am pretty sure that if I can continue to keep the ants and the black aphids away from the new blooms that form near the top … I should be able to get a reasonable number of broad beans this year.

They look good, are they not? Ahhh …. finally, I will get to enjoy some fresh broad beans this summer! But maybe … I should not start counting my chickens before they are hatched (or in this case, my beans before they are harvested!)

However, the broad bean plants are not the only one that have started to pod.

One of the bean plants here has also started to pod. Not the dwarf runner bean plant … which is the biggest of the three … but the tiny plant with the blue clip.

This is the only runner bean plant that survived the long wait to get onto the balcony. I lost two others while waiting for the weather to turn warm. It started flowering quite early (even before I repotted it outside) … but was affected by the chilly spring weather in late May. And these second flush of blooms at the beginning of June, which I had hoped would develop into beans … dropped off about a week ago, with not a single one developed into pod! Haizzz …

But this tiny plant (only a few inches tall) … with an equally tiny and nondescript looking flowers which hardly look like flowers to me … and which I had been wondering when it would ever get bigger … had actually managed to spring a surprise on me.

It may be really tiny … even tinier than the Tom Thumb pea plant and was among the last of the several varieties of beans to be sown … but on the day I discovered that the broad bean plants had started to pod, I saw that this Andante green bean plant was also doing the same! And the beans were so skinny and tiny.

And the Andante beans as they are this morning … still skinny but longer. I had bought the seeds online, not expecting the plant and the beans to be as tiny as they are. But then … they look very cute … too cute to pick, in fact!

Another of this tiny plant is just about to bloom … so maybe in another week or so, I might get a few more tiny green beans. Not enough to make a meal … I know. To have more, I will have to sow more seeds lah … which I am definitely going to do!

But then … they can always be added to the other vegetables that I am growing on the balcony.

Like for dinner yesterday … I added freshly picked golden sweet peas, broad bean shoots and white onions to supermarket-bought mushrooms to make a stir fried vegetables.

And then, a few radishes with some mix greens for salads. Not a five course dinner, definitely … but enough to make a simple meal which the hubby and I enjoyed. And also the added pleasure of picking them, myself!

Related entries on balcony garden in June:

• Balcony garden in June … peas, peas and more peas … !
• Balcony garden in June … potatoes …
• Balcony garden in June … little berries …
• Balcony garden in June … salad greens …

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• Balcony garden in May … broad beans …
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Balcony garden in June … shaping up …

The past two days have been very sunny and very warm. I had hoped to get more work done on my balcony garden today. But it was just sooo hot on the balcony this afternoon that I decided to take a break and do something indoor, instead … like writing a quick entry on the balcony garden!

Although delayed by the lousy weather … by nearly two months (compared with last year) … I am happy that my balcony garden is finally shaping up and roaring to go. I have removed all the seedlings from the windowsills as well as that near the balcony door … but a good number of them are still in the greenhouse outside.

By next week … at the very latest … I hope to dismantle the greenhouse shelf so that we can then set up the balcony table … and then the balcony will look more presentable. Right now … the balcony is in a mess … well, almost!

Okay … let me show you a quick tour of my balcony garden, for now.

As seen through the door of the living room … this afternoon. It is shaping up quite nicely … I would say …

… but only if one ignores the mess on one side of the balcony! hehehe … First thing, first lah … and the plants definitely come first, because of the delay in planting out as a result of the lousy spring weather! The tidying will have to come second.

The group of plants just outside the living room door (for now) … potatoes, strawberries, raspberries, peppers and hot chillies, tomatillos, a few varieties of beans, lemongrass, zucchini, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, wild garlic, beetroot, violas as well as pandan and curry.

Followed by more plants along the railing … lemon cucumbers, several varieties of radishes (including a pot of rat-tailed radish), sweet basil, pattypan squash, eggplant, more chillies, a few varieties of tomatoes, broad beans, Tom thumb peas, pandan as well as jicamas in the orange grow bag (which do not seem as if they will survive for long after having to sit and wait inside the living room for so long!)

Oh well … I  have tried, but there is not much that I can do if the weather refuses to cooperate! If the jicamas die on me, I shall just use their spot to grow something else lah! After all, I still have to find spots to grow several more greens … hopefully before end of spring.

Three varieties of carrots, golden beetroot, Tom Thumb peas as well as a small pot of strawberry … growing outside of the living room door. Unfortunately, the round parmex and the demi-longue carrots are not sprouting well. The golden beetroot is even worse. Only 3 seeds of the many that I sowed have sprouted! Haizz … I shall have to sow them again, it seems.

The top of the garden shed outside the kitchen partly covered (for now, as it will grow more stuff, rest assured! ) … with several pots of salads, herbs (thyme, oregano and greek basil), rat’s tail radish, Spanish lavender, nasturtium hanging from the pole and a flowering chinese cabbage (grown from the bottom of supermarket-bought Chinese cabbage).

Instead of sprouting delicious leaves for me to harvest, the Chinese cabbage immediately started bolting as soon as I transplanted it into a pot. But I decided to let it bloom so that I would be able to collect the seeds. It has not stopped blooming since April!

And a pot of alpine strawberries next to the shed.

The group opposite the kitchen door … sugar snap and golden sweet peas growing up the frame of a greenhouse shelf, and pots of rosemary, mints, pepper, zucchini, white onions, ulam raja  (Cosmos caudatus), Tom thumb peas and red radishes.

Followed by three varieties of cucumbers, more radishes of various varieties, more chillies, two varieties of eggplants, garlic, cape gooseberry, woodland strawberries, pandan as well as five dustbins of different tomatoes grown together with chards.

And so as not to waste some of the available space outside the railing …

…  I decided to place pots of marigolds, lavender as well as several pots of flowering chives there. I cannot put anything too big here … so as not to block the sunshine … but I should be able to use the space to grow most of the flowering plants that I have to help attract the bees!

You cannot imagine the frequent shifting that had to be done to fit in the various pots and containers on the balcony. And once the greenhouse shelf has been dismantled and the balcony table set up, I know that I will have to do another major shifting again to accommodate the balcony table and several more pots of plants!

I am not looking forward to the shifting … but I am definitely looking forward to be able to relax a little once all the seedlings have been re-potted … and to be able to enjoy my garden (and the harvesting) more!

Related entries on balcony garden in June:

• Balcony garden in June … peas, peas and more peas … !
• Balcony garden in June … potatoes …
• Balcony garden in June … little berries …
• Balcony garden in June … salad greens …