Friday 22 April 2016

The Big Switch - Part IV: An Interlude

As YP rightly remarked in his comment on this post, I like order and tidiness in my flat, so all this disruption was getting to me and it was no wonder I was on the window sill, contemplating leaping out.
His comment was certainly spot on in its first part, although not quite so much in the second :-)

Tuesday was a beautiful day, cold to begin with, but looking very promising with plenty of sun and blue skies. I couldn't do anything at home, really, while the painting was going on, and so I fled the "chaos" (it was not as chaotic as it appears from the pictures) and accompanied my Mum into town.

She had to take some books back to the library, a welcome occasion for me to have a look round at the place where I well and truly became a Librarian all those years ago (we are talking 1986 - 1992 here). Ludwigsburg's City Library has undergone many changes in the past years, and I had not yet seen the latest one. Maybe this will warrant its own post; for now, it was just the start of our afternoon out.

We walked across the sunlit market square with the market still going on - the scent of strawberries from one stall was so strong, we nearly fell for it. But we knew we did not want to carry boxes of fruit around all day, and so went on to the palace grounds, where I took these pictures:


 Gorgeous!!!



I loved playing here as a child, and since there was nobody about but me (my Mum was having a little rest outside those hedges on a bench), I made this experiment with the self-timer on my camera:


When you cross the pond on the stepping stones, each stone does something different: One makes the frogs spit water at you (a big hit with kids on hot summer days!), another one makes the yellow ball go up on a jet of water, one makes the crowns on the frogs' heads move, and yet another one does nothing. I must have gotten soaking wet here countless times when I was little! 

The alley lined with yellow tulips:

A year ago to the day (what a coincidence!), I told you about a stork unhappily in love. I was genuinely worried about the poor unfortunate couple back then. Imagine my pleasure when we now found a couple of storks, both "free as birds", nesting at the same spot on the roof of the aviary! I don't know whether one of them is the same stork I observed here last year, but I like to think so, and hope he either found a mate from somewhere else, or they let his chosen one out of the aviary to join him. 


Forgetmenots in abundance:

This was not the end of our outing, but this post is becoming a bit long, so I better stop here.

18 comments:

  1. I love these gardens and never knew about the Frog stepping stones and the amazing things they do. Such fun! Spring gardens always seem especially beautiful, so fresh and coming after we have missed them for so long.

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    1. Yes, that explosion of colours after the browns and geyish-greens of winter is so welcome! After such a beautiful few days as we've just had, I can't imagine it is going to be like winter again this weekend...
      The frogs are just one small part of the large "Märchengarten" (fairytale garden) here in the park. It was started in the 1950s, as the design of these frogs still shows, and holds many childhood memories for me.

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  2. The photo of the palace grounds, the gardens, the stone bridge, all offered so casually had me enlarging and studying. Nature we have here, in abundance, but the man made and human-organised remnants of history date from no earlier than the 1860's and even these are rare because so many were built from wood and burned or fell into ruin. Such beautiful views you've shared!

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    1. The palace grounds the way they are now date from the 1950s, but they are based on the original designs which range from late Baroque to the 1800s. Ludwigsburg itself is comparatively young - the foundation stone of the palace was laid in 1704, while the surrounding villages (now all part of Ludwigsburg) are several centuries older.
      Glad you liked my photos enough to enlarge them!

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  3. Order and tidiness...are you a Virgo by any chance?:) I also love things in order but I have to admit I'm too lazy to tidy up. Anyway, your pictures are just beautiful, it seems that spring has arrived in your area. Here it was hot and summery two weeks ago but now it's back to cool temperatures and cold wind. We went to town today and nearly froze, so instead of walking around we just sat in a cafè, where it was nice and warm. Unusual for this time of year.

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    1. We have much colder temperatures forecast for the weekend and next week, too, so I guess a lot of the beautiful spring flowers are going to suffer.
      I'm an Aries, not a Virgo :-)

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  4. What a beautiful photo essay, Meike. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You are welcome, Carol. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  5. Oh, it looks quite delightful, beautiful, springlike and just a bit quirky. (I love the idea of those stepping stones). I hope you managed to get the strawberries on the way back!

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    1. We got strawberries on Thursday afternoon from a farm shop when we went on another walk, this time on the fields.
      My boyfriend and I just shared the last of them for breakfast on top of our muesli :-)

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  6. You are very lucky to live in such a beautiful area. Lovely to see all the Spring flowers.

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    1. Thanks, Maggie! Yes, I feel very lucky to call this place my home town.

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  7. You live in the most beautiful place! The walks you take, the flowers, the historical stuff. Really, I'd love to be there!

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    1. I love the area, too, Nan (as I hope transpires from my blog). You are welcome to visit here any time - I'd love to be your guide!

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  8. As usual, spring comes earlier to your part of the world... We're still a bit behind here (even with a backlash of snow this weekend, even if not the kind that lingers). Lovely to see your pictures from the palace grounds.

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    1. It's gone wintery cold again here on Saturday and Sunday, and is forecast to continue well into this week. Even some snow is forecast, although probably not in my area. It was OK for this weekend, though, because it made me want to stay home and sort things out and back into cabinets etc. instead of going out for long walks and icecream :-)

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