Monday 18 January 2021

Monday Last Week

A week ago today, we had the - so far - coldest day of this season: -7 Celsius (19 F). It was also the beginning of the first "proper" working week of this year for me. "Proper", because the previous week had been interrupted by a day off; Wednesday, the 6th of January, is a holiday in my part of Germany. Many of my clients had not yet returned to work that first week of the year, but now they were all going to be back, and all the regular meetings were starting again.

The day was as sunny as it was cold, and as on most Mondays, I had no meetings scheduled for the afternoon. I took advantage of that and left my desk for 1 1/2 hours and a nice walk down to the lake and back.



The lake was frozen, but the ice was very thin, making it safe to walk on only for the birds. Plenty of people were out and about, but the area is spacious enough to allow for enough distance. A kiosk was open, selling hot drinks.

Back home, I was really glad I had taken the chance to catch so much sunlight. Most days, time between one meeting and the next is so short it is not worth putting my coat on; also, I usually work on my notes from the former meeting and prepare for the next one so that there is just enough time to fetch a glass of water or a mug of coffee from the kitchen.

I went on several more walks last week, but time (again!) is running out, and so I am ending this post here. Have a good start of the week!

18 comments:

  1. I love these pictures! The water has a very unique look to it, I guess because of the thin ice. What is the interesting building across the water in the second picture? I am happy for you that you were able to get away for a nice walk. We are headed for longer days soon so maybe it will be easier for you to walk after work before long. Have a good week Meike!

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    1. Thank you, Bonnie! Yes, the days are already a little longer, sunset has shifted from around 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm.
      The building is a "small retreat" for the king, when he was tired of the busy residential palace with its hundreds of visitors and staff. It has featured a few times on my blog already, just not recently.

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  2. You have such lovely places to walk to, what it has done for me your photos is to open up the landscape of Germany. Only been once and it was in January under snow.

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    1. Thelma, that is very nice to know! I am really glad that my photos can do that. If you had been here yesterday, you would have seen it all under snow again!

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  3. Reading Thelma above - I agree. I have never been to Germany and it is lovely to see the beautiful countryside.

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    1. Ours is a very densely populated and highly industrialised part of the country, but there are still such beautiful places close by, where one can breathe a bit of (relatively) fresh air and get away from the heavy traffic.

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  4. Looks like a nice head-clearing walk and a chance at catching some Vitamin D. Must grab those moments when one can.

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  5. When the sun is shining, you can't stay in! I feel that way here as we have had many gray days lately.
    Thanks for the lovely pictures!

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    1. You are welcome, Ellen! I totally agree - only I can not always follow the sunshine's appeal; more often than not, work keeps me stuck indoors until it is too late to catch any daylight.

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  6. Beautiful winter views. One does feel one has to take advantage of sunny days this time of year!

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  7. lovely walk to the lake. I know that when we first moved here in 1996, the winter was very cold and the fishing lake next to the field where my daughter's horse was kept, was frozen. It was that bad that my future son-in-law could stand on it (he's 6' 6" and heavy). Also our house had a steep slope up to the road and it was extremely difficult to walk up it. Only short but steep. These days 2" of snow slow everything up because people don't know how to cope with it now.

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    1. Many a winter, that lake is frozen solid enough for hundreds of people to skate and walk on it. There used to be an announcement in the local paper to let everybody know that it was now thick enough for that, but at the same time they stated that it was actually forbidden to get on the ice... And every winter, a few unfortunate would break through the ice; as far as I know, nobody ever died, but it is VERY unpleasant to get into the icy cold water! (I know from experience - broke through with one leg myself when I was about 8 or 9 years old.)
      You're right, it often seems like people have forgotton how to drive when it snows, or even in rain.

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  8. Wenn die Sonne tief steht, leben wir mehr in unserem Schatten als in uns selbst.

    When the sun is low we live more in our shadows than in ourselves.
    Andreas, Hugo von Hofmannstahl

    I came across this epigraph in a 1960 book of stories, Asylum, by Aidan Higgins whose masterpiece, Langrishe, Go Down (1966) was made into a film.

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    1. I find the long shadows fascinating when I am out on late afternoon walks. Several times I have taken pictures (some are dotted across my blog in various posts), but as is often the case with photos, the result is a little disappointing; the camera can not fully capture what the human eye can make of a scene and its colours and light.

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  9. Often the stolen moments are the most memorable!

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    1. I rather say "unplanned", as I can decide for myself when I work, as long as the work gets done (and it does), and I do not miss meetings. But yes, it was a memorable afternoon, and very welcome!

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