He did get some lovely photos, he isn't terribly happy with them though as there is some light pollution here, unlike where you were, and where Odile lives! Must be amazing!
Where were you stargazing MC?

My sister and her husband in Zeeland at the moment, in Middleburg. If you see a middle-aged English couple with their bikes, give them a wave!

You should come visit one day ... we have a large deck at the back facing the mountains- and there is not a single light in sight apart from the stars. We often sit there before going to bed.

Put benches and chairs up there so some visitors can listen to the Down to the Bunker from above, in the shade.

Sounds wonderful Odile. This is one of his pics, taken from Baldegg, above Baden..

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We are currently trying to help a stray cat missing a paw currently (recent injury) and I got up as I heard cats fighting outside at 5am- dawn breaking over the Jura was just wonderful.

We always say we will get up at dawn more often to go walking and take pictures- see the ibex at the Creux-du-Van and walk to the to see all the Alps as the sun cracks on them - but we are too lazy. Must do!

In the UK I used to go badger watching often and got quite used to walk in the dark - which is amazingly light when your eyes get used to it. Had to stop when lampers began to be active in the area- they were so intimidating and really nasty

Go for it! And post some photos.

I do hope the poor cat is ok.

Up to 35° in Basel yesterday and the town was amazing - so many festivals going on, so much live music, so many cold beers ....

And then, just as I was about to go to bed around 1:30 it started to rain. Wasn't predicted, but welcomed nonetheless. I turned off all the lights (to stop millions of insects going "oooo, the moon! let's go to the moon as I've never been"), opened all my doors and windows and waited for the cooler air.

Then it got loud. Really loud. And then I trod on something on my balcony. Cold! A 2cm cubed lump of ice. For around 20 minutes it was a huge hailstorm. Amazing! Had to mop up the floor around my windows where the wind had brought in loads of ice.

However, it's now back to 30° already and the hailstorm did nothing to cool it down. I love the hot weather, as it brings places like Basel to life, but after a few days of it I get sick of it. So fingers crossed for cooler weather soon.

Last night I sat on the balcony for a couple of hours and it was incredible to see so much lightening at around 5 different places. We are on the Balcon du Jura so the views are amazing.
What was strange was that there were no sounds of thunder just a spectacular light show so the hits must have been some way away.
Incredibly hot up here today but luckily it is comfortable at night.

Actually, I asked about this last night as we had experts on hand, the light pollution is pretty much everywhere, around our big lake. We were near Echichens. It was really cool, though, even with cities all lit up around. We were able to see quite a bit. The telescope was good, 80cm long and really wide (cca 40cm), a monster.

It is still really warm here, which I don't mind..Would like to see this surf/SUP service they have nearby, so hope it stays. Just worried a bit about the lake parasites, it has been warm long enough now.

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

That thunderstorm this morning was pretty amazing. Was directly above us, havn't heard thunder that loud in years.

I love the fact that I now have a balcony, so I can sit out and watch nature's live performance!

No storm, no rain, no lighting here - but the weather has definitely turned- light grey and much cooler- feels good after all that tropical heat. Weather changed just after the rock concert was finished- perfect.

Heat is set to continue & no rain in sight for the foreseeable future. It's extremely dry here. We had decided not to water the grass this year but it's abysmal & looking dead now so I have decided to water it a bit to see if it comes back.

Thank you for the update on your grass; I'll just blatantly assume, that the grass appears to be much greener on the other side, from your prespective at least.

and the Swiss call it a good summer. 3 weeks fine weather in August. Thats a good summer?

We have had solid sun and hot weather for more than three weeks in Geneva.

The babies are crying and the dogs are howling every night!!

And my night sweats have gone into over drive!!

Oh you poor little Patsycat!

We had two and a half months of very pleasant summer by the Lake

Yep we have here too. The first half of June was pretty much a washout but it's been pretty good ( give or take the odd day) ever since.

Now we need snowy winter

Thieving frontaliers are stealing our rain today. I can see it over the Salève. My gazon maudit is still in need of a good soaking.