Last of April, First of May

April was much drier than average in my area, and in my diary I have recorded rain only four times for the entire month, none of which was substantial. There are large cracks in the soil now, but everything is amazingly green in spite of this lack of water. Maybe vegetation still benefits from February‘s more than average rain.

On Monday (27 April) I worked until 6:00 pm and then went to enjoy the evening light on my standard walk to Benningen.

No shortage of buttercups this year!

Tuesday (28 April) was spent working from home, and in the evening, our team was booked for the pub quiz. 

It was a truly special quiz night for us, not only because we came first: One of our team mates is moving to Hawaii to be with his wife (she‘s native and lives there) for at least a couple of years. Chris has been a regular and valuable team member and friend for many years, and we‘ll miss him. I had prepared a good-bye gift from all of us, and two of us had secretly asked the landlord and quiz master to include a question or two about Hawaii, as a subtle nod to Chris. When those questions came up, he was wondering aloud whether it was a coincidence, and then we told him that it had been our doing.

I worked at the office as usual on Wednesday (29 April) and said good-bye to my colleagues for 2 1/2 weeks - next time they see me I will be married! To celebrate, I‘m inviting them for an after work drink at the hotel bar next door on my first day back.

Sunrise on Wednesday

I went to my Mum‘s after work for a meal and a chat; we‘ll see each other next on my wedding day (and my sister, of course!).

On Thursday (30 April), I finished a few tasks for work in between going for a morning walk with my friend, a back & shoulders massage at the nearby day spa and having coffee with my downstairs neighbour who will look after my few house plants and the mail while I‘m away. I cleaned the flat and packed my suitcase, and at about 6:00 pm left for what was planned as a relaxed train ride to Offenburg with only one change in Stuttgart.

Well… I ended up changing trains FOUR times for the 150 km long trip… that‘s more changes than our standard trip to Yorkshire in the summer!! It was the opposite of relaxed, with the chaotic situation leading to very packed trains and a constant need to check connections on my phone and take quick decisions. In the end, I arrived in Offenburg only about 10 minutes later than scheduled, but rather exhausted.

The navigator app on my phone showed almost an hour‘s delay for my original train.

We were up early the next morning (Friday, 1st of May), and along with many other village band members and other helpers began to set up everything for the May fête which was to start at 10:30 with the Maypole being set up and the actual fête - serving food and drink - at 11:00.

The weather could not have been better, although the wind was a bit nippy at times. Many people came to the Maypole ceremony and the fête; we met some friends and neighbours and were able to sit with them for a bit when O.K. had a break from playing music and before we started our shift at the dishwasher.

We were scheduled to do the dishes from 6:00 pm until ‚open end‘, helping also with clearing and cleaning up as much as possible afterwards, and I had braced myself for being up half the night. Imagine my surprise when most people were leaving by about 8:00 pm; it was of course still daylight and mild enough to sit outside, but O.K. reckoned that many had been out and about already since the morning and possibly been up for much of the night before, when traditionally there are bonfires lit in the fields and allotments to celebrate Walpurgisnacht and welcome in the month of May.

The more helping hands work together on such occasions, the better, and we were back at the cottage already at 10:15 pm - at a time I had expected us just to begin clearing up.

I didn‘t take my mobile with me all day and therefore took no photos, but you can find pictures of previous Maypole setting-ups and the fête on my blog here and here, for instance.

Saturday (2nd of May) was the warmest day of the week at 26 C. O.K. spent all day on various garden jobs around his Mum‘s house. I went on a few errands in the village and during the last couple of hours assisted O.K. mainly by fetching water from the fountain on the square near the cottage, watering his tiny front garden and fetching more water for the jobs he was finishing.

It was getting on to sunset when he finally called it a day, and we enjoyed a refreshing Apėrol Spritz on the balcony, listening to bird song and looking at the evening sky.

It was O.K.‘s birthday on Sunday (3rd of May), and we had a rather relaxed day with enough time for a walk in the afternoon before getting changed and being driven to nearby Ortenberg, where O.K. had booked a table for family and friends at a traditional village restaurant. The meal was good, and it was nice to see the friends we don‘t meet very often. O.K. and I ended his birthday, the day and the week with a nightcap at the cottage, trying out one of the birthday gifts.