Mignon Naegeli

Monastery of Immaculate Conception – Photograph copyright © 2015 Mignon Naegeli Ferdinand After the tumultuous adventure at Lake Rudolph campground in Santa Claus everybody longed for some serenity. Moi, a grouchy old dodger, had probably a harder time digesting the odd activities than anybody else. The cat stared at an artificial black thing resembling her slightly, hanging from a tree. Made me shudder! The next day, after not too much in activities… Read More

Kentucky Horse Park – Photograph copyright © 2015 Mignon Naegeli Our fall trip started all right. A few weeks after the Humans had returned from their sad journey to Switzerland, our—as it seems to me shrinking—La Ventura (due to the expanding size of my sister, the Bernese beauty) was ready for a trip. On the day of our departure in mid September, my over eager sister Annebäbi couldn’t wait to jump into the RV,… Read More

Photograph copyright © 2015 Mignon Naegeli My Human’s European journeys to the Old Country will be no more. From now on, roads travelled will be in our—four legged ones—vast beautiful birthland. No planes or trains, just rolling on four wheels. Farewells will become remembrances, trigger some tales, the past becomes the future. The last goodbye to the remaining parent always hurts most. A deep unfounded sorrow and regret, added to the chagrin… Read More

Blue Ridge – Photograph copyright © 2015 Mignon Naegeli One day, when we where traveling the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina we had a reservation in a high country campground. The gate house was closed, as is quite common since the National Park Service’s budgets cannot keep up with the maintenance backlog, despite more and more people flocking to the serenity of our remaining treasures of the land. As the Wolfman drove… Read More

Annebäbi – Photograph copyright © 2015 Mignon Naegeli In a few days we’ll celebrate the Fourth of July. This great day is not only the United States of America’s anniversary of independence. In my life, and my feline sister Verushka’s, this special day also commemorates the year and a half since the birth of our sometimes exuberant, often slightly annoying, and always beautiful, exquisitely smelling, fluffy, gentle female companion Annebäbi. About this… Read More

L’Oiseau Amoureux, 1993, a wonderful Nana fountain sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle**  at Murten Harbor, Switzerland Photograph copyright © 2008 Mignon Naegeli While my hometown in Tennessee is suffering from heat and humidity, we escaped to the nearby mountains of North Carolina. Preparing for days without Internet and all the interferences needed by modern humans, the Female planned ahead and downloaded several books. One she discovered ,  a book that was… Read More

Phyllis Wichner, May 2006  Copyright © 2006 Mignon Naegeli Ralph Kniseley & Susan Van Wyk: Family Ties Phyllis Wichner: A Life’s Work Oak Ridge Art Center, through June 20, 2015 An interesting show of a local artist, his daughter, and an unforgettable retrospective of a New Yorker who spent her life in a place stomped out of the ground by our government to develop the ultimate weapons of mass destruction, ostensibly to… Read More

Hans Erni working in his studio, May 2002. Photograph by Mignon Naegeli Early this morning around two o’clock my Female woke up after a bad dream. Unable to fall asleep again, she downloaded the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. On the front page she read, “Hans Erni died Saturday afternoon at the Hirslanden Klinik Lucerne,” formerly known as St. Anna Hospital, the very place my Female (then called “little Heideli”) spent the very first days of… Read More

It was a Thursday, almost a year ago, when the Wolfman and the Female suddenly rushed my sister Verushka and me to the vet for emergency boarding, leaving us pondering about the reason for this cruel and unusual punishment. The next day, when they came to pick us up, and we met our new sister, Annebäbi, our beautiful eight week old Bernese Mountain dog we understood their reason and urgency to drive to the middle of nowhere in… Read More

Photograph copyright © 2009 Mignon Naegeli Almost fifty years ago, two young women spent the last day of the year in a mountain resort in central Switzerland. They went skiing. Both women where at about the same level of untalented downhillers, but one was slightly more adventurous. One was a bit overweight, one a bit too skinny. One was leading the way down the slope with awkward moves, falling on her butt… Read More

In my life this letter H means many things: hurt, hostility, humans, humiliation – hope – happiness! And also names. Let’s begin with an H name: Heideli. When conceived during a piano étude at her mother’s home on Himmelrich Strasse, Heideli had no clue of the passion and desire that brought her to life. Neither did she know that all this wasn’t about her; merely about a beautiful woman strutting with a state… Read More