A Frosty Week

Last week we experienced wintry temperatures well below freezing, and although I wouldn't go as far as saying that we had the first snow of the season, there were a glorious few minutes on Thursday around lunch time when the first white flakes were falling. Saturday saw the first of many events of this year's Advent and Christmas period.

Because I had a busy morning and an online meeting lasting all afternoon from 2:00 until 6:00, I didn't go for a walk on Monday (17 November); sunset is well before 5:00 pm now, and I wasn't in the mood for a stroll in the dark.

On Tuesday (18 November), my team and I played our last pub quiz for this year. The four of us kept our good mood even though we weren't doing as well as we had hoped, leaving the pub without a prize but determined to return for more (and do better) in 2026. I am truly happy that, after years of only occasional participation, my sister has become an integral part of the team this year. It gives us a chance to catch up when, due to work and other things, we don't see each other as often as we'd like to.

The day had started frosty but sunny, and my friend V and I took advantage of the good weather and appointment-free first half of the morning by going for a walk. 

In the evening, just a little before I was off to the pub, my book-swapping friend A popped by to lend me the latest book in the Thursday Murder Club series, which I was really looking forward to.

Wednesday (19 November) went by unremarkably. It was frosty and sunny again, but of course by the time I left the office, it was dark (and still frosty).

I worked from home on Thursday (20 November), hoping for a walk before dark, and managed indeed about an hour. Stupidly, I left the house thinking I didn't need a woolly hat; it was really cold, though, and I made sure to warm up well once I was back home. So far, I seem to have avoided any unpleasant consequences of my carelessness.

I used to work on the 9th floor of the building on the horizon.

Friday (21 November) started again below freezing. The sun came out later, and I undertook a walk to Benningen - this time wearing a woolly hat. Because of construction work going on close to Freiberg, the normally clean asphalted lanes were covered in mud; my shoes were dirtier than they'd been in quite a while. It still did me good, of course, but next time I walk to Benningen I will use a different route to avoid the traffic and dirt near the construction site. On the other hand, I am curious to see how they are progressing, and what's actually being done there.

Shortly after Freiberg, looking towards Benningen. The sky was still blue then!

Near Benningen, looking back towards Freiberg, half an hour before sunset.

In Ludwigsburg, walking home from the station, the sunset looked almost like Aurora Borealis.

O.K. and I were spending the weekend separately. As always this time of year, the village band are busy preparing their annual concert on the Saturday before Christmas, and four weeks before, they always set aside an entire weekend for rehearsing. It makes no sense for me to go to O.K.'s then, and of course he can't come to Ludwigsburg either.

Instead, on Saturday (22 November) my Mum and friend R, my sister and I went to the sale and small fête in preparation of Advent at the garden center on the fields just on the edge of town, like we've done every year over the past few years. They serve food and drink, coffee & cakes, you can buy oranges from Sicily, honey and apples from our region, and of course all sorts of Advent wreaths and decoration. At 2:00 pm, a local brass band plays carols in one of the large greenhouses, and it all makes for a very nice, low-key festive start of the season.

A Saturday morning in winter pastel; not snow, just a thin layer of frost on the roofs and trees.

The brass band getting ready. The young woman standing in the front is the band's director Sophie Pope, originally from Sheffield. 

At home, I prepared for O.K.'s village band's concert in my own way. Like in previous years, I am going to be on stage with them to introduce each piece of music and give some organisational and other information to the audience. My prepration means I listen to each piece on the playlist, research the piece and its composer, and take notes of what I think is interesting to know. It is a "job" I greatly enjoy, both preparing for it and the concert itself.

My sister suggested we bake Christmas cookies together on Sunday (23 November), and like last year, we had a lot of fun doing that. She had prepared three types of dough, and warned me that one (made with a mix normally used to prepare a creamy chocolate dessert) looked like dog turds... See for yourself :-D

View from my kitchen window at 8:00 in the morning; the temperature was -8C (17F) at that time!

Sausages...? Dog turds...? No - just cookie dough waiting to be processed :-D

Once again we had 80s music playing at (more or less) full blast, singing along and dancing around the kitchen while trying to produce three kinds of tasty and nice-looking cookies. Do you think we succeeded?

I was home at about 5:30 pm; it was dark by then of course, but I was happy to see the big beautiful Christmas tree in front of a bank lit up for the first time this season. And after the afternoon's baking (and tasting!), I really needed something savoury, fresh and healthy to eat.