Swiss Memories

Growing up my parents would take my sister and me to Switzerland for summer vacations. I loved the place so much my room was covered in posters of mountains, alpine huts with farmers and cows with large bells around their neck. Every Christmas I would get a new Swiss calendar for my room and just to be safe I taught myself the Swiss national anthem. Secretly I had decided that I would marry a Swiss farmer and spend the rest of my life in the mountains. Ultimately it turned out differently; I met my husband at art school in the Netherlands and he was never interested in living in the mountains with a herd of cows! But we still visit Switzerland every year, the alpine meadows are a marvelous place to discover flowers. While some people are able to hike for miles and miles in a few hours, I’m lucky if I make it past the first few meadows. And so instead of making my own traditional Swiss napkins in my alpine hut I have to paint one with some of my favorite flowers.