Minibeasts ... Macrominibeasts!

Ethelred the snail photobombs an otherwise nice picture of my Swiss Boyfriend, lying flat on his back.

It's okay, though, because they are good friends.

Girl reading, man with beetle on his head. There's something rather cultural here, I feel.

Surprise!

Suzy: Why, whatever could be underneath this pot of chilli seedlings?

... Of course! It's Rachel's Swiss Boyfriend.

Chorus: Hooray!

The Best Paper Plane in the World

When we brought back enough tandoori take-away menus for everybody, it turned into a paper-plane making party. Apparently this is the best paper plane design in the world, so I put it on my Swiss Boyfriend.

A Dreikönigstag Crown

My Swiss Boyfriend becomes King for the day and gets good luck for the year.

 

On Three Kings Day, or Dreikönigstag, whoever finds the little king in the Dreikönigskuchen wins the crown and a year's good luck. Last year it was me, this year it was my Swiss Boyfriend. I didn't mind because I didn't even have to pose him to get a photo for the blog.

Below: snow falls onto my Swiss Boyfriend in Bern.

This is the last of the winter posts for now!

Christmas Pudding

Above: My Swiss Boyfriend had never eaten Christmas pudding before, and was not too sure what to do with it.

Okay, I did a Christmas-related post a week ago, but Christmas celebrations go on forever in Switzerland and I've got quite a backlog of pictures.

2009 was my Swiss Boyfriend's first English Christmas and all his relatives wanted to know was, "Have you eaten Christmas pudding yet?" So we took this picture to reassure them.

A Duck and a Crow

 Above: My Swiss Boyfriend invokes the spirit of birdhood using my brother's silver rubber duck.

Below: He is rewarded by having a crow put on him. Spectators are amazed.

A Schmutzli Costume

Above: Schmutzli makes his entrance, summoned perhaps by the glowing tub of holy Vitalite.

In Switzerland, Santa Claus - known as Samichlaus - arrives on the 6th of December to give out oranges, nuts and chocolate to the good children. He is not alone, though, but accompanied by the sinister figure of Schmutzli. Schmutzli is dirty, dressed in rags and will beat the children if they have been bad - or even spirit them away in his sack.

Schmutzli and Samichlaus share a joke.

This year my Swiss Boyfriend and I staged a Samichlaus celebration for our friends. I played the good cop and he was the bad cop. Needless to say, this involved putting lots of stuff on him.

Bonus: If you want more Swiss Christmas traditions, I also found this video on the Klausjagen (St Nicholas chase) that takes place in Kuessnacht on the night before Samichlaus.

Yes, this was a Christmas-themed post in the middle of March...