Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Emilie in (not hot) water

After finding a lot of wild strawberries along some of our hike yesterday, I really wanted to go with the girls today to pick some. Both of them love the tiny red jewels full of flavor. Alas, even though we did pretty much nothing today, the time somehow flew by, and before I knew it, it was five o'clock. I left Martin with Sonja, and went with Emilie to get a few berries for all of us.

We hiked up to Driery,(or is it Drieri?), a water way that can carry three waters, hence its name. Water ways are these channels that the swiss living three or four or five hundred years ago dug into the mountainsides to carry the water from the creek that comes out of the glacier towards the meadows where they grow grass for hay. They go for miles, relatively horizontally but with enough slope that the water, when they carry it, flows with a good speed. There are paths along many of them. Here is a picture of one form April. No water in it that time since it was not growing season yet.



So today I was walking with Emilie in a baby carrier along one of these water ways. There was no water in it at the moment, but it had been earlier in the day, so there was standing water in many places. We were looking for strawberries, and there were a lot. But right on the pathway next to the waterway there were only a few - most were off into the uphill or downhill side. So most of the time, I set Emilie in the baby carrier on the path. Since she is walking, I did not want her walking/falling into either the water way or down the hill. And after setting her down I went to pick the berries, giving her some of them, and putting some of them into the box to bring back. Emilie was getting a bit grumpy but she does love strawberries, so I always managed to bribe her with a few that I had picked. And so we continued.

A few yards father, same thing - set Emilie down, go off collecting. Then again. Until the moment I heard a "thud" from the place where I left Emilie one yard above me. I scrambled up the steep side and saw the whole baby carrier together with Emilie in the standing two-inches deep water. Got Emilie out. She was fine, luckily, just covered with (wet) dried larch needles that were on the ground everywhere and that stuck to her now that she was rather wet. Looked pretty funny, actually. Poor girl. What a crazy mother she has. At least I was right there.

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