Well, Readers, on a glorious sunny day we set off for the Arolla Pine Forest here in Obergurgl, intending to walk up through the trees to the Schonweisse hut (just opened today) and then along the Rotmoos valley, home of many a marmot. Alas, in spite of walking much trickier paths when we went to Am Beilstein, today I managed to fall over in the smallest of depressions, conveniently just before the Zirben Alm. There’s nothing broken, but as usual my ankle has puffed up alarmingly, so it’s back home for the usual RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). I’m not falling over as often as I was (and as falls go this one is relatively minor) but it is upsetting and annoying. Not being able to feel my feet properly means that I don’t make the automatic corrections for uneven terrain that I used to, so the slightest lapse of attention is enough to send me tumbling over.

Still, it’s not all bad – I have actually finished a book (Emily Wilson’s ‘Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea’, in which she talks about the relevance of classical literature to today’s world, and gives a number of interesting insights into the whole process of translation). The kestrels are nesting not far from our balcony, and I can hear them chatting away to one another as I write. The meadows are being harvested, which is sad in one way but is what keeps them so biodiverse, and also feeds the local cattle, giving their milk a subtle sweet herbaceous taste.

The photo at the top of this piece shows the lights in our room – they’re very splendid, but we regularly collide with them as we spring up from the sofa. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that once struck with a misplaced head they make a sound like cowbells?

Meadows being harvested – view from my balcony window

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that the cows at the Giggisjoch lift were all clustered around somebody’s car, rubbing up against it and licking it with great enthusiasm. What is it about cows and cars? When I was a child, we’d go to Wanstead Flats to feed the ducks, and there were often cows there (it was common land and they roamed around for most of the year). Once, we saw a female cow mounting a Mini carwith great enthusiasm, while the unfortunate driver and his passenger were trapped inside. Hormones clearly have a lot to answer for! And I have no recollection of how Dad explained what was going on, though knowing him I suspect he’d have said that the cow was ‘playing’.