The Week After Easter

Another short working week with only four days, this one brought some family time, a few walks and a mix of sun and rain, most welcome this time of year.

Easter Monday, the 10th of April, was a holiday in Germany. I was still at O.K.'s and went to mass at the village church, where O.K. and the village band were providing the music for the service. The morning was chilly, but the day remained dry and with the sun out, temperatures got as high as 18 Celsius (64.4 F).

After church, we had a lunch of leftovers from yesterday's family meal and then rested for a bit before setting out for a nice long walk across the wooded hilltop (Hohhölzle) behind the village to the next village (Zunsweier) and back.

Tuesday (April 11) brought the early start for both of us that we usually have on a Monday morning when O.K. takes me to the train station. Because of the Easter holidays, my usual trains were not running, and I had to change twice instead of once. The planned connection in Karlsruhe did not work out, but I was able to make a spontaneous change and still arrived home at the usual time.

It was a sunny day with clouds drawing in later but remained dry, and so I took my standard walk to Benningen after work, with slight variations, enjoying every step of it.

Former entrance to the deer park at the outskirts of Ludwigsburg

entering Freiberg

approaching Benningen via a tiny protected area (no building allowed here)

row of fruit trees in bloom on the fields near Benningen

It was office time on Wednesday, the 12th of April. A busy but otherwise unremarkable day; rain in the morning, sun during the day and clouds later on. I got off the train in Kornwestheim and walked the rest of the way home.

I worked from home on Thursday (April 13) and then went to my Mum's at 6:00 pm for a delicious meal of pasta with two sauces: my Mum's home-made pesto and a tomato sugo. My sister was also there, and the three of us had a chatty, cosy evening. After a sunny day, it began to rain just as I was on my way there.  

Friday, the 14th of April, would have been my grandma's 108th birthday. Please read my Mum's guest post about her if you have not done so when I first posted it.

By the time I wrapped up work, I was extremely tired and would have liked to lay down for a nap. But the day was so beautiful with sunshine and somewhere around 12-14 C that I really wanted to be out there, too, and so I went for a walk on the fields with a stop at the cemetery, and was back home about two hours later.

Forgetmenots at the cemetery. As usual, I find them hard to photograph - the picture does not really do them justice.

My Dad's bird marker is the blue one at the far right, friend R's is the white one with the potted red primrose.

I made a point of visiting one of my favourite spots on the fields. A line in a song by Jamiroquai says "I know this corner of the Earth, it smiles at me", and that is exactly what this place means to me. It is nothing spectacular, but something about it "smiles" at me.

O.K. arrived at my place around coffee time on Saturday (April 15), which gave me all morning to do my cleaning, food shopping etc. From about 5:00 pm onwards, I was in the kitchen, getting a family meal on the way. My Mum and my sister arrived at 6:30, and after glasses of Apérol Spritz and cheese nibbles, we sat down for Yorkshire Puddings and oven-baked vegetables, a creamy sauce made with the same red wine we later drank, and fried sausages. 

Yorkshire puddings rising in the oven. You can see how uneven my oven heats, but the result was still good enough to eat.

On Friday, I had baked a Rocky Road cake (admittedly, I used a ready-made baking mix that only required me to add butter, egg and milk), and we had that for dessert.

Sunday, the 16th of April, was a wet day. It never really stopped raining, but let up enough for us to manage a 45 minute walk around the neighbourhood before dinner. Otherwise, it was a day of rest, sleeping until 10 in the morning and generally not doing much at all.