Beautiful Spring Week

Although we've had mixed weather this week, starting chilly and wet, it became milder from mid-week onwards, and spring has been at its best since Thursday. I took advantage of the good weather and got quite a few walks in.

Monday (13 April) was chilly, wet and grey. My trains were on time, and I was able to start work (from home) at 9:30. Early afternoon I was booked for my quarterly eye check-up, which went as smoothly as can be expected. My last work appointment for the day ended at 6:00 pm, and 15 minutes later I was out for a walk. However, the almost imperceptible drizzle turned into proper rain, and so I cut my walk short and was back after less than an hour.

There was no time for a walk on Tuesday (14 April) between work and the pub, where my team and I were booked for the quiz. Out of the five who had said they'd be there, two cancelled at the last minute, which left just three of us - a very small team with no realistic chance at one of the first three places, especially considering that some of the teams are ten strong (sometimes more). 

Still, we decided to go ahead, also because we thought it unfair towards the publican to cancel our booked table at such short notice. And guess what - when it comes to the sheer number of points, we would have come third, but because three other (larger) teams had the same highest score, they took the three first places. We were justly proud of ourselves, particularly because we'd had a PERFECT score in the 2nd round. (Our quiz is two rounds with 12 questions each.)

My usual day at the office followed on Wednesday (15 April), but unlike most Wednesday, I didn't go to my Mum's after work. Instead, it was the day of our department's event.

Most departments at the company where I work have their annual event before Christmas; often they visit a Christmas market together and then go for a booked meal. But everybody tends to be rather busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and therefore we have decided years ago to have an after-work outing some time in the spring.

At about 4:30 pm, our group took local trains to get to Esslingen which is on the opposite side of Stuttgart. Germany's oldest maker of sparkling wine is there; this year, the company (Kessler) have their 200th anniversary. We were booked for a tour of the cellars, followed by a glass of sparkling wine and then a meal at a nearby restaurant.

Back in 2011, with my family and some friends I had been to such a tour, but this time was a bit different; our friendly and knowledgable guide told us more about the company's history and less about the cellars as such. Comparing both tours, I can't say that one was "better" than the other, they just had a different focus but were equally interesting.

Under ten minutes on foot, and we were at the restaurant where we had a very good meal with friendly and efficient service. From there, it was only about another ten minutes back to the train station, and I was home at 10:00 pm.

Thursday (16 April) was sunny and a bit warmer than the week so far. I worked from home, walked for an hour afterwards and then went to my Mum's for a delicious fresh salad.

Sunrise on Thursday

Late afternoon on Thursday

Sunset on Thursday, as seen from my Mum's balcony

O.K. and I spent the weekend separately because of an engagement with the band, which gave me plenty of time after work on Friday (17 April) to do my cleaning and then walk to Benningen in the beautiful early evening sun. Much to my delight, the lane that had been blocked by construction work last time was open again, and I had a very relaxing walk with no need to find alternative paths.

Between Ludwigsburg and Freiberg

On the way to Benningen

Evening light on Friday. The three-coloured lilac has been sending wafts of its scent towards my kitchen.

Cherry tree in front of my other kitchen window.

Saturday (18 April) was the warmest day of the week at 23C/73F. My sister and I had arranged to meet friends from our former group of volunteers for breakfast; it was very nice to sit in the morning sun (not too hot yet) and catch up with them.

In the afternoon, I took a train to Marbach and went for my familiar walk to Steinheim, with a few deliberate variations. I'd not been at the remnants of Blankenstein castle since June 2023, and it was good to see the place is kept clean and cared for.

A familiar view for many of you - looking back towards Marbach, shortly after the start of the walk.

It's actually the view from this bench, where my Mum and I have usually had a brief rest after climbing the hill.

_River Murr in Steinheim

Rapeseed

Blankenstein Castle above Steinheim

View across the valley from the castle ruins

Lehrhof

View from "my" bench

My grassy path

View from another bench where I stopped for a few minutes

On the way back to Marbach

It was beautiful in the woods; still sunny but more tender green leaves on the trees now, while the pretty white star-shaped anemone bloossoms still adorn the ground between the trees and along the path, all enhanced by incessant birdsong.

I really "bathed" in all things spring that afternoon, and almost four hours later was back at the train station in Marbach for the short ride home and something to eat.

A bit of rain (but not as much as would be necessary right now) fell on Sunday (19 April), and it was windy and a lot chillier - no shorts and short sleeves for me today! My sister and I met at our Mum's for coffee and a delicious home-baked apple pie - still a bit warm when we ate it. I didn't go straight home afterwards but took a short loop on the fields before turning in.

Read in 2026 - 11: The Wonders of the Wild Places

The Wonders of The Wild Places

Rachel Lister Jones

If you look at the cover of this book and you know me a little, you will instantly see why it attracted me at first glance: 

The cover is in blue and yellow (my favourite colour combination), the cover art is a lino or wood cut reminding me of Angela Harding's work (which I like very much); I enjoy being outdoors (especially in woodland) and I love reading non-fiction.

This book had it all, I thought when I spotted it at the National Trust Shop at Fountains Abbey last summer, or maybe it was at The Little Ripon Book shop. I would have bought it there and then but knew that adding anything more to my luggage wasn't a good idea. Instead, I took a photo of the book cover, and when later in the year O.K. asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I sent him the photo. He duly ordered the book for me, and I was happy to unwrap it on Christmas Day.

When I began to read it a while ago, though, I was disappointed at first: There is hardly a page - or even a paragraph - without errors. Some chapters show less errors, so I guess there must have been some editing; it just wasn't done thoroughly or systematically. Also, I found the lack of structure exhausting. Yes, there are chapters (divided by habitat, such as woods, farms, the Sea and so on), and at the end of each chapter neatly headlined sections list why each habitat is so important, what's threatening it, what's being done to save it and what each of us can do to help.

But from the start to each chapter until those sections at its end, paragraph follows upon paragraph with no space between them, nothing to make you pause and think a little before you move on to the next description of a species. As an example, the first chapter has 20 pages of unstructured information - a lot to take in.

Having said that, I found the information so good and important that I persisted reading, and I am glad I did; I got used to the many errors and pouring out of information and just think how much this otherwise truly wonderful and important book would have profited from proper editing, which clearly wasn't done.

Rachel Lister Jones knows a great deal about nature, be it plants or animals or terrain or water. She also lets us have a glimpse of her sense of humour every now and then, and she is obviously a keen walker and good observer. 

When she wrote this book in 2022, the UK (as almost all the world) was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic with all its restrictions, and it is interesting to read how this influenced her experience and outlook. Four years later, we know that unfortunately, the brief period of recovery for the natural world did not last, and there are more cars on our roads and more plastic is being produced than ever.

Anyway, if you love nature and can find this book at your local library, I encourage you to give it a go. If Rachel Lister Jones and her publisher should ever decide to print a new version of the book, I'd strongly recommend systematic editing and structuring.

Easter Week II, and some firsts

My previous Easter Week post ended with Easter Sunday, but of course that was not yet the end of Easter. In Germany, Easter Monday is a bank holiday, and children are off school for two weeks. Since Good Friday is also a holiday here, most people whose jobs are not in a line of work that requires them to be there on weekends and holidays will have had two working weeks of 4 days each.

While these short working weeks are welcome, for many of us they also mean that we have to do the same tasks but complete them in a shorter time. Still, I managed quite well, and now everything is back to normal.

Easter Monday (6 April) was a perfect day of spring sunshine, and after a chilly morning, the thermometer reached a very pleasant 20C/68F. As every year, the village band were providing the music for the family mass in church, and as usual on such occasions, I go to church with O.K. While there were a good number of families with children, the church was by no means full.

Stork in the nest on top of the former fire station.

Close-up of the nest; it is one of several in the village.

view from the church across the village

Hofweier village church

The band getting ready

Afterwards, we were glad to simply warm up leftovers from our Easter Sunday meal and thus have a quick lunch, followed by half an hour of rest.

At around 2:00 pm, we headed out for a walk straight from the cottage - my favourite kind. We very much enjoyed every step of the ca. 14 km we walked in the countryside made so beautiful by spring, among orchards and vineyards and into the woods with their first tender green and the birdsong. At one point, a deer crossed our path - it was all very idyllic with surprisingly few other people about.

Coming through the village of Diersburg, we saw that the beer garden was open, and we had our first shandy of this season right there sitting in the sun before tackling the last 2 km or so back to O.K.'s village.

Diersburg

We were back at about 6:00 pm and later had a meal of my Mum's home-made Maultaschen (see the post linked above if you don't know what they are) and watched two old episodes of Midsomer Murders together, with Barnaby played by John Nettles and Troy as his assistant. A perfect day!

On Tuesday (7 April) it was time for me to return to Ludwigsburg. Another wonderful sunny day meant I made sure to finish work early enough to go for a walk, and when my sister suggested we visit the palace grounds together, I was all for it. She had not yet been this season and agreed with me that the artificial decorations I showed you previously are ugly and completely unnecessary.

glorious magnolia tree in the palace grounds

I can rarely resist the chance for some silliness!

Wednesday (8 April) was just as beautiful. I worked at the office in Weilimdorf and in the evening visited my Mum along with my sister.

For the second time that week, I worked at the office on Thursday (9 April), training some new colleagues in the basics of data protection. After work, I did not get off the train at Ludwigsburg's main station but waited until the next stop. From there, it is only a bit more than an hour to walk to Benningen across the fields, saving myself the ugliest part of the route.

Sunrise on Wednesday morning, seen from my kitchen

This time, however, I had to backtrack and find different paths, finding the usual paths blocked by construction work nearly everywhere I turned. It felt like it cost me a lot of time, but when I finally did make it to Benningen, I found that the entire walk had only taken 20 minutes longer than expected. And those "new" paths were nice to explore, too.

I am pretty sure I have never walked here before.

apple blossoms

This is very familiar ground, just a few minutes until Benningen from here.

A change in the weather had been forecast for Friday (10 April), and the day was indeed wet, chilly and grey. 

My trip to Offenburg did not go quite as planned; the long-distance high speed train I had booked for the second part of the trip was over an hour late. I got on a regional train instead, which meant arriving on time but also spending an hour without a proper seat, squeezed in with way too many other passengers, some of them (as usual on such packed trains on Friday evenings) imposing their noisy conversations and/or unpleasant body odours on the others. But I survived, and was just very relieved to finally get off the train in Offenburg, where O.K. was waiting for me.

Saturday (11 April) was supposed to be the warmest day of the week, and at about 22C/72F that was certainly true. For the first time this year, I dared wearing shorts and a short-sleeved top, and the sun felt so good on my bare legs and arms during the walk O.K. and I had in the afternoon.

By 5:00 pm, together with O.K.'s Mum, we were at his sister's; she and her husband had invited us to the first family BBQ of this season. We enjoyed that very much but eventually had to retreat indoors, because a chilly wind brought rain, as had been forecast.

That rain was of course welcome to everything that wants to grow right now, and it lasted all night.

It kept raining or at least drizzling on and off most of Sunday (12 April), but that did not deter us from driving the short distance to the historic town of Gengenbach, for a walk as well as to see an exhibition one of our neighbours had told us about.

Although I'd been to Gengenbach before, we'd not visited the monastery's garden before, and I found that quite beautiful.

in the middle of Gengenbach

near the monastery garden

Ein Engel für Mama

monastery garden

camellia

old (restored) tower, part of the wall that originally enclosed the town as well as the monastery. It is closed to the public, but I would so love to go inside and look out from the windows at the top!

chapel on the hill above the vineyards

close up of the chapel; we went inside, too, but there were people praying and I did not want to take photos

lilac in bloom

Gengenbach

The exhibition was impressive and thought-provoking: 

Tom Hegen, a photographer specialised on aerial views by using a drone for his camera (he pioneered that technique), showed part of his work making obvious how man's activities have changed the face of our beautiful planet forever - and definitely not for the better (I think we can all agree on that). Some of it is really scary to know, and the contrast between the aesthetics of some of the photos and what catastrophic effects you are actually looking at couldn't be bigger.

Please have a look at his website (in English) to learn about him and his important work.

We had coffee and cake at home after that and spent the rest of the afternoon at the cottage. The week ended with us watching a kitschy romance on TV while eating a delicious meal cooked by O.K.