Visiting Mette and family in Nuglar, Switzerland

Mette & Patrick and family

Mette's house with solar panels

Phil, the archers apprentice

Enjoying Mette and Patrick's great food

Mette is a very old good friend of Iren's since kindergarten days in Nottodden. Mette and Patrick have created a house and garden that attempt to be as energy efficient and eco friendly as possible. It looks like they have made a great success of this! The roof is covered in solar panels, the rain water is collected in huge tanks in the cellar that is used for flushing the toilet, washing clothes and watering the garden. They have tasty fresh eggs from their hens (an old and seldom breed of Swiss hen - Appenzeller Spitzhauben) and have planted several rare plants. Mette's son is very keen on using his bow and arrows and taught Phil how to do it. For those of you who are experts you will see that Phil's right arm is too high. The highest temperatures of the year were attained (34C) whilst visiting so it was good to relax in the garden and visit the local "swimbad" where we all swam in the Rhein. We had a lovely time visiting and enjoyed Patrick's excellent cooking with most of the ingredients home grown and Mette's delicious plum and pear pies. Thank you for your hospitality!