Guest Blogs

Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!

To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.

We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!

: Published: 08 May 2020

treepeony 2020

By Tara Lissner, Swiss Gardening School

The garden continues to be the constant in our lives. The beds need weeding, the lawn needs mowing, the seedlings need thinning, the climbing roses need tying in, the garden always needs work. I’ve spent much of these last weeks in my garden, like you certainly, watching the weather for much needed rain, pulling the weeds as they grow like crazy as soon as my back is turned. I have managed to spend longer periods of time in the garden as I’ve not been distracted by the general running around and jumping in the car that is my life. I’ve had time to consider things and to plan.

I’ve managed to replant the many plants that spend sometimes years in temporary pots around my garden. Plants that don’t quite fit where I want them, plants that I plan to move on to somewhere else in the garden or plants that I don’t have time to place somewhere more permanently. I dig them up and put them into a pot with new soil and try to remember to water them. I am constantly tripping over these lost souls, I even have a nursery shelf of plants waiting to find their forever home. Happily today I can say that many of them are now tucked into new places, at long last – I can almost hear them sigh.

My raised vegetable beds, I have six, are being slowly taken over by my new found love of dahlias. Out with the tomatoes and in with the cut flowers. I love dahlias but they really do take up a huge amount of space. I mentioned to my husband that I’d really like another two large raised beds for vegetables but he hasn’t seemed keen on this construction project and quickly returned to the safe haven excuse of getting back to the office for a call – in the next room! I’m going to have to work something out. I have planted so many seeds; edamame beans, spinach, courgettes, pumpkins, broccoli, kale, spicy salad mixes and Italian salad mixes, and I know there will be tomato plants once I get out to my tomato guy. With so much growing its a good job that all our summer plans are on hold – I’ll be busy in the garden for the duration.

The raspberries and blackberries are covered in flowers and looking healthy and strong but I always have a big issue with weeds. I garden on a hill, which is not ideal, this makes weeding a very slow and difficult job – trying to not fall down the hill demands a lot of concentration. Last year I tried a weed suppressant trick – weeding the base of the plants, adding compost, covering the compost with cardboard, dampening the cardboard before covering it with wood chips.

This year I’ve done the same just minus the cardboard – for me the cardboard didn’t work very well as it eventually migrated to the bottom of the hill. However, if you garden on the flat (lucky you) it will work brilliantly. The weeds have to work very hard to get through the cardboard and they become very leggy and easy to pull resulting in less weeding which I love.

: Published: 06 May 2020

Click on photo to see short video recipe

When I saw these spirally rolled sausages, I thought... hmmm, that would make a fun "Toad in a Hole". However, it resembles a snail so I've renamed it.

: Published: 05 May 2020

Click on photo to see short video recipe

Here is an easy soup recipe that has the added level of chestnuts and chorizo to make it extra special.

: Published: 06 May 2020

13. Plan your transition copy

By Anna Lascols, Organizing Geneva

It looks like our Covid-19 confinement time is coming to an end. We have been adjusting to the situation, living and working at home for the past weeks. And now we will soon get back to normal. What is ‘normal’ though? Have you asked yourself the question? Does it mean going back to exactly the same life than you had before? Or is there a new normal – a happier, more fulfilled normal?

Most of my friends and family somehow say they enjoyed part or even all of the Corona quarantine. If you are honest with yourself, can you say that for yourself as well?

Now, why did we enjoy this time? Because we were forced to abruptly change and slow down our habits and routines. Because we had no more FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), as everyone seemed to do the same. Because we had enough time to overcome the deception and incomprehension phase and plunge into the letting go and relaxing phase. And this enabled us to naturally take a step back and enjoy the little things in life we had forgotten about. Going for a run, laughing with the kids, calling grand-parents, watching flowers bloom, talking to neighbors, doing nothing.

Is there a way to capture those instants and take them with us? To keep the good aspects of our flexible work hours, quality time, acts of empathy and mutual support, happiness with us into our new normal? To put in place some little or major changes in our lives? To do things that would have appeared crazy and impossible before the virus? Nothing is impossible, so YES!

But… yes, there is a ‘but’… we are only humans, and it is very easy to dive back into our previous good old habits without even noticing it. We can read a lot of articles speculating about what this crisis will really change in the world. Here is my answer: it is entirely up to each one of us. Nothing will change automatically, you will have to make it happen and maintain over time. Here is my advice: prepare and plan your transition. There is no better time, you might not get another opportunity like this.

Here a couple of suggestions:

: Published: 23 April 2020

KIAP blog 3 copy 2

Photo credit, EMF

By Liz Forest, www.emf-management.com

Recently, solopreneurs far and wide have chimed in on the Internet with anecdotes, tips and tricks (not to mention some very funny memes) for surviving the current novel-corona-induced lockdown both at home and at “work-from-home”. It is refreshing to read how small businesses in so many sectors around the globe have found creative ways to keep themselves and their employees motivated, engaged and productive.

Luckily, I have always worked from a home office and so my major adjustment these last weeks has mostly been related to the invasion of my creative space by my husband who is “doing his job from home”--best currently described as a non-stop, multi-person, noisy, death-by-virtual-meeting type activity.

Admittedly, times have been more conducive to renovating your home but there is no reason why your project needs to be put on complete hold now. It is true that the majority of showrooms and shops have been closed to the public but many are still accepting orders from professionals, have improved their online presences and the majority of these companies, small to large, have put in place measures to protect their teams as well as their clients in cases where a home visit or meeting is necessary.

That being said, as the Swiss authorities just announced a loosening of their “advice” to the public, beginning on 27 April a first layer of DIY and garden shops will open (among others). The French are maintaining their more strict measures for the public until 11 May but since the week following Easter, most trades and factories are re-opening while following the professional health and safety measures issued by the authorities. This clearly means that positive things are in sight on both sides of the border.