Very little snow in the lower Alps this year so far [Climate Change, get used to it!], so when some of it finally comes along, that's fun.
You
may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a
good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught
up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Imagine our surprise, mid-January, foggy cold rain for weeks and weeks, and poof! we wake up to foggy cold snow instead. (The climbing rope on the balcony is meant to be taming a rose bush that has gone mad.)
So we'll pull on a sweater and grab the little Sony Cyber-shot.
We're only at 480m altitude here in downtown Ollon, so we don't expect too much snow here, jusqu'à la plaine, but the ski resort of Villars-sur-Ollon at 1300m (up to the summit of Le Chamossaire at 2112m) is also part of the municipality of Ollon. We're starting our walk from our flat in the dead centre of town up the Rue de l'Industrie towards the top of the village.
Our local pizza place, the Auberge de l'Union
Up the Rue de l'Industrie
Downtown farming
Vineyards above us north of town
Vineyard scenes
The little Chemin du Bornel-Dessous
A house on the corner of Grape Street (Le Raisin), with something like a poya painting out front.
The poya is a Fribourg dialect word for the late-spring ascent of the cows to the highland pastures, and for the past 200 years there has been a regional tradition of placing paintings of that procession over the doors of barns, usually primitive art with a deliberate lack of perspective. The valleys of the canton of Fribourg are full of them (and so is the Musée Gruérien in Bulle), but we're in the canton of Vaud.
If not an authentic poya, it's beautiful anyway
The Rue de l'Industrie has now become the Chemin du Bornel-Dessus. The house is dated 1666.
The road into the Domaine de Trécord, vintners
At the top of the village, the mill farther up the hill
Two residences in the middle of the vineyards (on the Chemin des Morettes)
A glance downtown
Safe trampolining
The Chemin du Moulin up to the sawmills
The sawmills above downtown Ollon (leading up to the plowed road to the village of Panex, also part of the municipality of Ollon)
Back into town
The Protestant church in the town centre -- comparatively not a very attractive bell tower, by medieval Italian standards for example, but scenic anyway.
On Le Raisin street
On the intersection with the Rue de l'Industrie; we'll go left.
Down the Rue Demesse to the town centre
Arriving down near the Boucherie Nicollier (red building)
The town centre. We're just passing through, crossing the Route de Villars.
Down the Rue du Château (that's not the château; we'll come back this way)
Turning left out into the vineyards
The Chemin de la Roche leading out south of town along the hillside
Some cute but cold sheepses
On the Chemin de la Roche out through the vineyards, looking back into town
This is the route of our usual late afternoon constitutional walk . . .
. . . out to the forest and back again. Just for a breath of fresh air.
Ollon village
A side trip to the Château de la Roche in downtown Ollon
A footnote to the château
The Château is undergoing long-term renovations but presently hosts a full programme of exhibitions in the meantime.
Back into town; unfortunately, the snow has stopped.
On our way home, just before the church, our favorite pharmacy
The central intersection (the Socialist Party platform in the upcoming elections, 28/02/16, includes a reconstruction of the town centre with a public space for casual meetings)
Down to home on the Rue du Carroz
The Rue du Margeiron across from our front door
Our tiny carpark on the left
And our tiny back yard, with the church and the city administration building looming
Our patio and flat, with Lisa's patio and flat above
Our meeting room
The study (most of the books are in an unheated room some doors up the street)
The living room, which is . . .
. . . also the bedroom. Formerly a doctor's consultation "cabinet".
The snow is over now, soon melted off, and (a month later, in mid-February) hasn't come back.
Dwight Peck's personal website
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 10 February 2016. 
