A suburb of contrasts ...

Zurich Affoltern is a strange little place. Tucked into the Glatt valley, it is encroached on in the south by the sprawling, high-rise arms of Zurich that creep ever closer. Its main street is run down, with shabby-looking shops and tacky bars. Its railway station is always packed with people, revealing its importance as a commuter hub. However walk towards the north, over the motorway that snakes into the distance carrying as many cars as its capacity can hold, and you find a haven of green fields, twee hamlets and wooded trails. The woods are currently carpeted with snow drops and blossom is beginning to bloom. Quite the surprise when it snowed a storm today, on Easter Sunday.

On the top of a rise in the ground is a solitary tree. He is quite the undisturbed majesty, proudly buffeted by wind and rain. If you were to draw a tree, you would draw him, with his solid trunk that rises up to frail little branches, twisting and curling to create a perfect sphere. I will enjoy watching him bloom a mane of greenery later in the Spring. Walking back towards Affoltern, you pass a road sign that declares the official start of Zurich. The roaring motorway below is the only sign that this may indeed be the case. After the sign a cluster of tumbledown barns in Unteraffoltern, a homely bakery and fields of grazing horses meet your eye. As you walk along the lane, you can smell that comforting leathery, smell that lingers around stables. And then you look beyond to the ugly high rises that are invading...