A pretty hike in Switzerland

Last summer in July I took my parents to Italy and Switzerland.  During our stay in Switzerland we stayed in Wengen which is in the Bernese Oberland. 

We visited the Jungfraujoch early one morning and on the way back down to Wengen I departed from the train to hike the rest of the way.  The trails are well marked and it was a beautiful day for hiking - sunny and pleasantly warm.  The walk was maybe an hour, tops.

Magpie Moments

I follow many blogs and when I returned home from my week abroad I had well over 1000 new blog posts waiting for me...  so hard to keep up!  As quickly as I read through them, many more multiply in their place.

While I have your attention, do you like the new name above?  I am going to try (try hard, I promise) to make this a weekly feature and I tried to think of something catchy.  It went from Blogging Bijoux Found (which isn't too bad I suppose) to Sparkly Bits (also not bad?) and the sparkly made me think of Magpie which made me think of the name.  Feel free to comment.  My previous post similar to this I called "This week I love" which sounds too gooey.  My hope is that you might start to follow some of these blogs which I enjoy - or just get a kick out of the randomness of it all. 

Here are a few (only a few, alas) which have caught my eye in the past week. I would love to put up many more but I meant to post this on the past Friday (my planned day for this) and here it is Monday. I know, I said I would try really hard and here I'm already late for my debut.


Here they are.  Oh wait, a photo first, gotta have a photo!  I took the below in Pisaq, Peru in November 2010. 

Follow these for a healthy happy life.
I love lists, don't you?

I find this blog to be very inspiring on a few levels.  Her first book is Number 2 on the WSJ list of books!  Her name is Holly Becker and the book is called Decorate (decor8)
Check out her bad self!

What iPad apps do you favor?
Having just bought an iPad last month, I am collecting cool apps

If you need a Tuscany fix:
Will location-scout for food...

Living the dream!  Check these guys out, I am so very very jealous.  Very.
Now why didn't I think of this first?

I will close with exhibits currently showing in Paris.  I saw the Caillebotte exhibit...  and the pre-Raphaelites when they were in Washington DC.  I dragged myself past the Hotel de Ville exhibit, too tired to wait in line for an hour (plus it was almost closing time by the time I got there...). I dearly wish I had seen the Chagall exhibit, because while in Amsterdam I bought an original lithograph of a study from a stained glass window Chagall made...  from a collector's studio. 
Is there another guerilla vacation in my near future?

Visiting the Jordaan (Amsterdam)

I am spending the morning sorting photos and bouncing back and forth between my photo albums.  I love the finished product but reviewing the hundreds if not thousands of photos is very time consuming!

I spent a morning last month walking in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam.  Looks like they like red as much as the Parisians.  This home was owned, once upon a time, by Pieter Adriaenszoon Raep (also known as P.A. Turnip). 

Where in Paris?

Paris-philes, where is this?  Hints to come.. 

Shake your groove thang

More from my recent visit to Paris.  We are no longer in the 2ieme arrondissement, we have skipped up to Montmartre.  I spent the entire day with a guide, Michael Osman, who is now a friend!  We had a fantastic day.  I saw the below outfit on a mannequin at the very start of our walk through Montmartre.  Where fabric stores and naughty clubs collide. 

I took a second photo of this where I stepped back for more details.  The better to see the hot pink boa.

The Bourse

More of my May 1 walk in the 2d Arrondissement.

Not exactly a red balloon...

But the next best thing.  Near Rue Reaumur, 2d Arrondissement, Paris.

On May 1 (the French labor day) I walked from Rue Montorgueil to the Opera Garnier.  I spied this along my path. 

Another "where am I"

Only hint (right now):  Paris.

The Red Hat Society (a teaser...)

I visited Keukenhof on Monday of last week (end of April)... and in the queue to get tickets were ladies from Belgium who were members of the Red Hat Society!  I happen to like the combination of Red and Purple (and Orange and Pink while we are at it...) so here are two photos.  The first, some tulips I stumbled across, and second, the ladies of the Red Hats!  My Mom is a Red Hat so I had to take their photo...

Where is this?

I will give one hint (for now):  I just got back from Paris.

Where am I?