Photo by Prem Roshan on Unsplash
According to tradition the 6th of January, Epiphany, marks the time to take your Christmas tree down and tidy up all the decorations. If you have invested in a cut tree, then you will likely be wondering how to get rid of it ecologically. In Switzerland, each canton has various solutions. Check with your local mairie or voirie to find out what is required.
During the month of January, The Geneva City Service Voirie - Ville Propre Department will pick up your Christmas tree near you. Trees must be placed in the early morning on the street, without decorations, between 5h-6h30 on the day of collection:
- Geneva January only: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays
- Lausanne all year: Wednesdays
- Nyon January only: Thursdays
- Renens January only: Mondays (see chart below)
- Divonne-les-Bains: After the end of the year festivities, you can deposit your Christmas tree at the green waste platform - rue du Crêt d'Eau (opposite Carrefour Market) during opening hours Monday to Saturday (except Tuesdays) from 9h-12h30 and 13h30-17h
It is very important that you remove all the decorations, garlands, strings, and tinsel so that the tree can be recycled easily.
The upcoming Lac du Cygne (Swan Lake) exhibit that will take place from 23 September 2021 for one year, is all about the importance of the local swans to our Lake Geneva.
The lake without its swans?
Yet, not so long ago, the swan was an exotic animal. How did the beautiful white bird become the most photographed bird on the lake? Why has this large bird adapted so well to the shores of Lake Geneva? With its majestic silhouette, the way it glides over the water, and its majestic appearance, it embodies purity, love, and fidelity. A caring parent and a perfect companion, this bird is gifted with all these virtues and is loved by all, or almost all.
Call for Swan items for upcoming exhibit
Put your items together and contribute to the upcoming "Lac du Cygne" exhibit at the Musée du Léman in Nyon planned from 23 September 2021 through 18 September 2022. In preparation for the exhibition, they are calling for loans of any of your swan items.
The Museum says, "We realized that in almost every home there is some sort of swan. Look around your home, in your drawers, your cupboards, and your attic; there is surely a swan hidden somewhere. Small or big, kitsch or classic, pretty or ugly, whether it is made of porcelain, crystal, or even crochet, they are all welcome in our exhibition."
We wrote an article about HOTBIN last year at this link. With a special discount for our readers at the end of the article, recycling food waste at home can be started by next week!
It's fast to produce compost in just 30 to 90 days.
- 32 times faster than cold composting
- works all year round
- tidy and compact with a sealed base
- no bad odors
- no accelerators
- no turning or tumbling
- no plug in heat source
So how does it all work? Bacteria naturally populate your waste. They chomp down on your old peelings and pruning and generate heat at the same time. This heat is locked in by the thick insulating walls of HotBin. The hotter the heap becomes, the more efficient. HotBin works to break down your waste and generate rich garden compost.
Just throw in your chopped waste, mixed up with some shredded paper and wood chips, and sit back and let HotBin take the hard work out of composting. HotBin composting. Recycle more if you waste into rich homemade peat-free compost and watch your garden blossom.
Watch this 90-second video ⇩ and see how easy it is to compost at home with HOTBIN.
This week the forecast is snow and you will have the opportunity to observe the snowflakes more closely. What do you know about these beautiful miniature ice sculptures? Thanks to MétéoSuisse for giving knowitall.ch permission to translate their article published in January 2021.
No two snowflakes are alike. An old adage that, on closer inspection, has a good deal of truth to it. The appearance of a snowflake, which can be seen on your coat sleeve or glove, actually tells the story of its life cycle: its birth in a cloud, its descent, its interaction with other crystals, and the atmospheric conditions that see a development that can be read through the below image.
Photos of snow crystals and snowflakes. Source: Praz et al, 2017 (DOI:10.5194/amt-10-1335-2017) Source: Libbrecht, 2005 (DOI:10.1088/0034-4885/68/4/R03)
Know-it-all passport and our sister site, knowitall.ch, have partnered with the Living in Nyon website for many years. Catherine Nelson-Pollard now has one foot in Switzerland and one foot in the UK and was fortunate to come into contact with Mandy Bronsil last year. Mandy has jumped into the website and article-writing with her own style of enthusiastic dynamism... and after meeting with her, and finding out about her other company, we couldn't wait to introduce Mandy Bronsil to our readers.
Tell our readers who you are and your background
Although I am originally Dutch, I grew up in Spain and came to Switzerland originally to study at the Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne. After coming and going from Switzerland for a short time after graduating, I finally moved back here in 2009.
I have a professional background in career development and recruitment, mostly in the Swiss French part of Switzerland. In 2019 I founded my own company called B-inspired Partners where I support people positioning themselves clearly and confidently in their careers through an online course as well as creating individual “career roadmaps” with them.
I took over as the editor of Living in Nyon at the end of the summer due to the fact that Catherine, the website’s previous editor moved back to the UK with her husband.
What has been the inspiration for you to take over LIN?
Aside from working, I’ve always been active in committees and I really enjoy contributing to a community and connecting people or businesses. Living in Nyon does this wonderfully and I am very lucky to have the opportunity to take over a website that has been up and running for 11 years and was created with that exact same spirit. It really felt instantly like it was something I wanted to carry on with.
