Central Switzerland: Chinzig Chulm and its wildflowers

She is kneeling on the grass, a tapestry of bright yellow and green, poring over an open book - this is one of my favourite photos of my Grandma, who was the keenest lover of flowers I can imagine. On walks, she would name trees and flowers as we passed them - such an encyclopaedia of knowledge about them she had that I only wish I could come close to remembering all she told me.

As Tim and I hiked in central Switzerland at the weekend, Grandma felt close - in the bright wash of cheery colour that greeted us as we emerged from the Biel-Kinzig cable car at some 1,600 metres' altitude. Petals of orange, yellow, purple, white, blue and pink danced in the breeze, like confetti for a fairy wedding. Above them, grassy slopes swept upwards to rocky crags that carved a magnificent outline against the sky.

We spotted marmots too - a flurry of brown fur between the flowers that provided welcome amusement on our steep climb up to the Chinzig Chulm pass. Apparently Russian General Suworow and his troops crossed the pass in 1799 - which made our effort in shorts and T-shirts pale by comparison.

From the top, where we stopped for lunch, the views were quintessentially Swiss, stretching across a panorama of snow-topped summits above grassy meadows. An inquisitive Alpine chough tiptoed close to us, appetite clearly heightened by the sight of our Arran oatcakes and Gruyère. From there it was a seemingly never-ending descent - from a wilderness between towers of rock, past an aquamarine lake and a sleepy Alpine farm, then down and down through shaded woodland, finally reaching a splendid gorge of light-stippled pools and caves carved out by a waterfall.

A poem etched on a post as we reached journey's end summed the day up: "Eyes filled with green, nose filled with grass, and belly filled with summer," it read. Please note: I have attempted to identify the flowers we saw, as named below, and cannot promise the names are correct!
GLOBE FLOWER, TROLLIUS EUROPAEUS
HAIRY ALPENROSE, RHODODENDRON HIRSUTA
WOOD CRANESBILL, GERANIUM SYLVATICUM
COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID, DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII
KIDNEY VETCH, ANTHYLLIS VULNERARIA
ALPINE CALAMINT, ACINOS ALPINUS
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