Where there is chaos and catastrophe...

...there is resilience, always, says nature

This is an unusual post for me with mainly photos rather than text to remind us to look to nature, who is always a good teacher. It’s hard to avoid despair when things go badly wrong, but resilience is always there under the surface. Give it time, pay attention, look for it and work with it.

These are photos from my garden before and after our extraordinary April 17 snowstorm in the Alps in Valais, Switzerland. Spring arrived, the cows were out in the pasture next door, flowers were up—and then we had a surprise record 100cm of snow in 24 hours, more than forecast. Power lines and large tree branches went down under the weight of it, bushes were broken in two. This is Switzerland, so people sensibly stayed home and allowed the snowplows to work: they were out in force all night and day. Remarkably, the snow disappeared within 48 hours as temperatures suddenly rose. (Northern Italy suffered more, with heavy rains leading to swollen rivers, flooding and mudslides.)

Before the snow

Spring in the Swiss Alps but heavy snow coming from Italy, visible up the Rhone valley

During the snowfall

Broken by the snow

Eight trees with major damage at my house, but the rest of the garden loves the moisture

Rising again: resilience

They made it through: tadpoles despite the massive water flow, tulips buried upright, apple buds intact, cherry blossoms still strong, maverick tulips, rhubarb which sees it as an opportunity, Easter flowers rising again for Easter Sunday, fine skies with clouds telling us: changing weather