Switzerland's Day

Gary arrived home yesterday, after three long hard weeks in Nairobi. Our plant is now producing fantastic avocado oil, the farmers are cooperative and very happy with their new income - but we still have the same old problems with our former "partners" there, who are doing all they can to sabotage the operation and wrest it away from us. They haven't realised yet that Gary never gives up!

But back here in Switzerland it was Swiss National Day, and a glorious summer day, the doleful, spine-tingling sounds of alphorns mingling with churchbells and cowbells, as the Swiss celebrate their day of independence over 700 years ago. We joined them in the evening, up on the Seebodenalp, a plateau halfway up the Rigi, watching the fireworks and bonfires in the villages and hillsides around the lake.