Identified Flying Objects

At the moment my garden seems to be alive with flying objects hopping from flower to flower to collect whatever they collect, probably mostly pollen. I am not an expert in these things, but my Wikipedia tells me that this would/might be a hawk moth. They seem to believe in “safety in numbers”, and if you see one of them hovering, their relatives will not be far behind. As they hover and move, they are not the ideal subject for a photo and I am not the ideal photographer. However I managed to catch this one mid air as it was probing with whatever he probes to do his hawk moth work. I suppose you could compare them with mini humming birds, flapping their wings to stay in one position. I was thinking about having a conversation with this insect, but realised there was no time. As soon as I wanted to speak it flew to the next available flower on my buddleia.

It was just after lunch, although I was still devouring the rest of my spaghetti, when Mr. Swiss said “Look a red admiral”. It is not every day that I see a red admiral and to be honest, I believe I had only seen and heard of them in a book or on Internet. I immediately forgot the remains of the spaghetti to fetch my super Nikon camera, knowing that it would need a close-up photo from a distance, not wanting to frighten this unique specimen Heedless of the the warnings of Mr. Swiss not to rush as I might fall, I arrived in the kitchen in one piece, hung my camera around my neck and began to shoot outside in the garden. Unfortunately the red admiral was not waiting for me but in my usual sneaky way I managed a shot showing the details of the wing patterns. Again it was resting on my buddleia so a small tip to all photography experts (like myself?) plant a buddleia in your garden, it seems to be the Piccadilly Circus/Times Square of the insect world. I can imagine the hawk moth saying to the red admiral “Meet you on the buddleia for a pollen session” and the red admiral answering “no problem, but don’t forget to bring your pollen tube for a good result”.

I now decided to eat the remainder of the spaghetti when I heard a strange chugging noise above my head. Had the insects now developed turbine engines to propel themselves faster and gather even more pollen? I then looked up towards the sky and what did I see?

Another flying object just disappearing behind the neighbours blinds on her balcony. Were we being invaded by the Swiss airforce? This is Switzerland and any strange unexpected invasion would immediately be stopped by our troops armed with their crossbows. I called Mr. Swiss, who always knows the answer to almost everything. He reads the newspapers, I no longer read newspapers, no time as I have a daily blog to write full of nonsense.

He informed me that there was a zeppelin in Switzerland travelling to the various airports and at the moment it was stationed in Grenchen. This is a neighbouring town and they have an airport. Apparently you can book a flight on this zeppelin. There is a gondola hanging from the balloon which has a wonderful panorama window for seeing the landscape below. It seems that this is such a success, the tickets for the flights were all booked some time ago, although I am not sure if I would have gone. I heard climbing into the ship is somewhat precarious as the ship tends to move on its moorings. I was a little disappointed to only catch part of the ship, but no problem. Our small village must have been on the zeppelin sightseeing list and so it returned and I took another photo. By the way Edelweiss Air, a Swiss air company, are celebrating 20 years anniversary this year with these special zeppelin flights. The ship returned, so I managed a full length view from my garden.

The Zeppelin

The Zeppelin probably brings to most people memories of a very bad accident which happened in 1937, the cause of which has never been found. Was it an accident or was it sabotage? I was watching a very interesting film on the television made by a German company. The programme showed the history of the Zeppelin and also the film of the accident. There were interviews with a few survivors, who could be seen jumping out of the Zepplin 1937 upon the landing in Lakehurst in America. They were then children of course, but nevertheless the memories of this crash landing and the burning remains of the Zepplin surrounding them had never been forgotton.

One survivor had lost his sister and father in the crash, and his mother survived with bad burns. The father had a camera on board and had taken photos of his family. The father did not survive, but the camera did and with it the film showing the last photos of the sister and the father himself. It was the mother that had pushed her children out of the wreck taking a chance that survival was more likely from falling as from being burnt. Another survivor was a 15 year old cabin boy that just jumped and ran for his life.

There was a discussion as to whether it was an accident or not. The main problem and cause for the fire was that at this time the balloon was filled with hydrogen (inflammable) and not with helium as was the case with the American ships. Helium was not being delivered to Germany at the time. Any further information as to these interesting ships can be found in Wikipedia under

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin.

The Zeppelin lives again. Flights are being made from the port of Friedrichshafen a city on the shore of the Lake of Constance which borders Switzerland and Germany. I was once on a visit to this part of Switzerland and made a tour of the Lake on one of the sightseeing boats. It was quite an impression to see one of these Zeppelins flying across the Lake. Some time ago their manufacture was started, naturally suited to modern day science, and they are no longer the dangerous gas balloons of earlier years, although their engines can still be heard when they fly over. Even where I live, in the Northern part of Switzerland, a Zeppelin has been known to take a flight over our village. You hear a strange noise and go to see what it is and lo and behold and Zeppelin is flying over the house. Most impressive.

I do know a few people that have made a trip on one of these modern day Zeppelins. It is not a cheap flight, and you must have patience as it can be that a waiting time of months is to be taken into calculation. The photo above shows one of the new modern zeppelins and the photo below a close up of the passenger compartment. If anyone would like to take a trip then you may follow this link