Berries Galore!

Last night we had the pleasure of visiting yet another Novartis friend at his home just outside of Basel.  Thomas and his wife were wonderful hosts (the homemade pizza with dried jalapeno from the garden was divine!)  But the real prize goes to their 20 year old daughter, Domenique, who provided such fun entertainment for the kids.  She had a tea party set up for them, with a little tea light stove, where they warmed water for tea and tried to cook pasta.  She also led them on a berry hunt and boy did they get into that!  The berries are red currants and I still need to figure out exactly what to do with our supply.  I am pretty certain that a few will make their way into my salad tonight!

Posing with the haul the next day.  You can see Josh zonked out in the background.  Berry picking is exhausting!

We had a wonderful time chatting with our hosts.  Domenique is heavily involved in scouting so we learned a bit about how scouting is run in Switzerland, which is very different from back home.  Here, all of the active leadership is made up of young women, up to age 23.  No moms or Mrs. Mannzingers leading these young girls.  I like the idea of this model; I imagine that the younger girls really look up to the older girls and the fact that no parents are involved eliminates a whole host of problems.  I, of course, explained that as a teenager I had passed on an opportunity to visit Switzerland's "Our Chalet" with my scout troop.  I guess I'm making up for that now!