So, did we mention it was cold here?

This year has been an unusual one in the Dreiländerecke where we live. The average temperature for December and January swings between a low of -4° and a high of 2° C. This translates to between 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year's winter was fairly typical. I know I have mentioned before that because we are outside more - waiting for busses, waiting for trains, walking between point A and B - that we are more accutely aware of the affect of temperature on comfort. But as the Swiss say, there is no bad weather, just poorly dressed people. Then came 2009...

We have been going through a bit of a cold snap for our region. The temperature for the last several weeks has not significantly broken the freezing point and it has profound effect. This morning for example, I was getting ready to go into church - today I was leading music worship so I had to be there early. At 7:30 I checked my Yahoo! weather (we check the weather here much more frequently than we did back in Vancouver...) and it was -10° (Yikes! I need another layer.) degrees outside. That is like 14 degrees F. We have an Apotheke (pharmacy) just up the block from us which has readerboard displaying date, time and temperature that we can view from our balcony. I didn't even think about venturing out to check their temperature. So, I donned my long-johns to add another layer (4 on top, two on bottom) before going out to catch the 7:57 bus to Basel.

The pictures in this blog entry are of the Tinguely Fountain in Basel. Jean Tinguely grew up in Basel and does a lot of sculptural machines. There is an entire museum, aptly named the Tinguely Museum, devoted to his works. The Tinguely Fountain is located in front of Basel's city theater (Stadttheater) with the soaring gothic Elizabethan church in the background.

The fountain is made up of a collection of mechanical fountain pieces that spray or move water in various ways. As you can see, when we have extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures, it morphs the fountain into something new and rather alien. There was quite a crowd at the fountain today as the sun was shining brightly, adding to the beauty of crystaline water.

We have another use for our balcony - it serves as a secondary fridge during about one-third of the year. We store our drinks outside to keep them cool as our inside fridge has a fairly limited capacity. If we store them close to the windows, they normally get sufficient heat to stay in a liquid state. Unfortunately, this year, we have had to move our liters of fizzy water inside because even standing near the windows is not sufficient to keep them from becoming big icecubes of water and gas.

I hope it doesn't sound like we are complaining - for we most certainly are not. This is just an unusual year (much like it has been in Vancouver/Portland) and I wanted to comment on it. We are blessed, happy (don't we look happy?), content and thank God for every day that we live here (and I heard that it hit -20° in Frankfurt so we're glad we don't live there...).

We look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year. It will most likely include a move and we look forward to the adventure to come. In the mean time, we live each day in the surety and peace that comes from knowing Jesus.

May God grant peaceful resolutions to the wars raging in Gaza and throughout the world.