the generous powder of Crans Montana in January 2008

just too good to be true. Crans on 9 January 2008

a red piste in Ovronnaz -- just for you.

The plaque on the birthplace of the Benedictine Monk Guido in the town of Arezzo in the Toscana. No Guido - no musical notation - no Beethoven, no Mozart.

Ryefields on the cycling road between Bad Ragaz and Walensee in July 2008

zwanen op en plas vlakbij Den Haag in augustus 2008. Het kroos is hartstikke mooi!

Rose window at the Basilique de St Denis in Paris

View of the Aletsch glacier from the Eggishorn at 2,934 metres (9,626 ft)

Mont Blanc chain (4810 m) and our local mountain the Mont Salève (1380m) in the foreground, taken form my KLM flight on 4 February 2010.

May 2009 in Les Avants over Montreux. These are the delicate "narcisses du poète" that grow wild and literally in the millions on the slopes and meadows over Vevey and Montreux. It's a feast for the eye -- daffodils for lovers of William Wordsworth. At night under the moon and the stars they are magic and emit a mild and sensuous fragrance

skiing paradise at Praz de Lys, France, on 3 January 2010

poppies in the Bourgogne June 2009 .

perlmutterfalter in the Swiss National Park in Engadine

Albrecht Dürer, Praying hands, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1508

View of the Aletsch glacier (Western Europe's largest glacier at 23 km, UNESCO world heritage site), taken from the cliffs on the north edge of the black Eggishorn ski piste Nr. 70, truly spectacular skiin. In the background the Aletschhorn 4193 m, and further in the distance the Jungfraujoch.

La dolce vita: sunset apéro on a balmy terrace at a sandy Italian beach resort near Viareggio. Does it come any better?

Mont Aiguille, France

Edelweiss happily growing on a south slope of the Arolla mountains in Val d'Hérens

Edelweis in the Swiss National Park August 2009

The village of Cully, near Riex and Epesses in the Lavaux, 1 August 2008

the walk from col de la forclaz to the col de la balme, October 2008

The Trient glacier near Col de la Forclaz in Switzerland

skating at lac de joux 11 january 2009

Lac de Joux on Sunday, 11 January, at 1000 meters above sea level, frozen solid by temperature of minus seven. View from Le Pont toward Le Sentier.

The Corvatsch piste in Engadin
14 March 2009

Val Rosegg near Pontresina 14 March 2009

Here the Mont Aiguille 2087 m in the French Vercors chain, seen from the village of Chichilianne on 10 September 2009.

Joux (left) and lac Brenet in the Swiss Jura, viewed from the Dent de Vaulion (1483 m), barely one hour away from Geneva.

The lac de Quatre Cantons (Lake Lucerne) under the imposing Mont Pilatus (2132m) seen from the "Queen of mountains", the legendary Rigi (1797m).

Wall decoration in one of the vast corridors of the Villa Poppaea in Oplontis (Torre Annunziata), a suburb of Pompeii, residence of Nero's wife Sabina Poppaea (30-65 AD), preserved with numerous other frescoes, bronzes and marbles under the ashes of the Vesuvius.