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.

Read in 2025 - 30: Gabriel's Moon

Gabriel's Moon

William Boyd

Borrowed from my sister (who bought it this past summer at The Little Ripon Bookshop, if I remember correctly), I enjoyed the book very much and can recommend it to anyone, whether you're into crime fiction, 20th century history, spy novels, romance (to an extent) or coming-of-age stories and hero's journeys. Gabriel's Moon as something of all of these, and it is so well written that you will want to know what happens next.

Set in 1960s London (and elsewhere), the book paints a believable picture of time and place, and the characters are similarly plausible.

It starts in 1936, when six-year-old Gabriel wakes up in the night to find the house on fire and his mother dead. He survives by a combination of instinct and luck, but understandably, the tragedy haunts him for the rest of his life.

Fast forward to the 1960s. By now, Gabriel is a published author. Specialising on travel writing, by coincidence he finds himself as the unlikely interviewer of Congo's Prime Minister Lumumba. Although he doesn't know it then, the interview is a turning point in his life, just like the house fire was nearly 30 years ago.

Back in London, he is contacted by the MI6 and asked to do them a simple favour, much like he's been doing every now and then for his brother who works at the Foreign Office. Reluctantly, he accepts the task, last but not least because he is fascinated by the woman who becomes his handler, and is paid generously. In his mind, he becomes her "useful idiot", not knowing what his apparently easy tasks are really about, but she calls him "her spy".

Combining the missions with his travel writing, earning money, seeing interesting places and meeting equally interesting people works well for a while, but Gabriel is more and more determined to find out the bigger picture behind it all. At the same time, the insomnia he has been suffering from since the house fire makes him seek the help of a psychoanalyst, and he investigates the events of that fateful night in 1936 to find out what really happened.

I don't want to tell you too much, but I have really enjoyed this book and was happy to learn that William Boyd plans a trilogy about Gabriel Dax. The second book has already been published this year ("Gabriel's Moon" was out in 2024), so I guess the third one is in the making.

You can find out more about the book and its author on wikipedia or, of course, on the author's own website.

Hard to believe this is only the 2nd time I have read something by this great author! Click here for my 2013 review of "Any Human Heart", if you are interested.

Read in 2025 - 29: The Otley Murders

The Otley Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, # 11)

J. R. Ellis

My review for # 10 is here. In that post, you will also find the link to Monica's blog which first introduced this series to me. It has become a firm favourite of mine, with me eagerly anticipating each next instalment, and it is one of the very few cases when I actually spend money on ebooks in Amazon's kindle store.

I like everything about this series: 

The setting in Yorkshire, with many of the places more or less familiar to me, was what first drew me to these books. Then there are the characters of DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team, his partner and family members as well as some other recurring figures. To me, they are entirely believable in their thoughts and actions, and as a reader, I care about them and want to know what happens next both in their private and professional lives.

The author writes in a contemporary style without ever being vulgar, giving enough detail to create atmosphere and three-dimensional characters but not overdoing it to the point of unnecessary lenghts.

For me, the pace of the stories is just right - not so fast that it feels rushed, but not as slow that I want to skim pages just to finally get to the point.

In this book, Oldroyd and the people he cares most about are in danger when a serial killer he helped to put behind bars for life ten years ago manages to escape from prison. Just as news of the escape has reached him, a murder victim is found with the word "Vindicta", Latin for "revenge", written on his forehead.

This can't be a coincidence, but even before Oldroyd and his trusted team have had time to interview all the suspects and witnesses, the next victim is found.

Meanwhile, the escaped prisoner makes several phone calls to Oldroyd, taunting him and increasing his stress level to almost breaking point. Then, a third murder changes everything and has the investigation almost go back to square one.

All of it happens in and around the pretty Yorkshire market town of Otley, a real place (like all places in the series). High above the town on a steep ridge sits the fictitional Chevin Towers, a former mansion turned into a children's home but abandoned very suddenly and under mysterious circumstances about 30 years ago. Oldroyd has a hunch that somehow the murders are connected to the home and what happened there, and as usual, he follows his hunch...

Click here for the author's website. By the way, him chosing Otley for the setting of his latest book is not a coincidence - J. R. Ellis is a member of the Otley Writers, a club for creative writing.

A Warm Week

Last week was unusually warm here. November in Germany is generally associated with chilly, grey, wet days, fog enveloping the world outside, leaves falling off their trees and covering the soggy ground - not with days warm enough to be outdoors without a jacket or coat, or even sitting at a streetside café, basking in the sunshine.

Thursday was the warmest day with a high of 17C/62F in my town, and the Germany-wide record of around 22C/71F not too far away in the same federal state. That's almost a summer day in terms of temperature, but of course the late sunrise and early sunset, yellow and brown leaves everywhere and the familiar constellation of Orion in the nightly sky are all sure signs of what time of year it actually is.

Still, I enjoyed the mild weather while it lasted, keeping the windows wide open in the afternoon and not needing the heating apart from early morning and late evening.

What else was I up to?

On Monday (10 November), travelling home from Offenburg went smoothly. Dense fog over the fields meant I hardly saw the sunrise, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. I interrupted work in the afternoon so that I could walk to Benningen in daylight, and picked up work for some time afterwards. 

This birch tree along the way was particularly beautiful with its gold-yellow leaves against the blue sky.

At 6:00 pm, I was at my Mum's and brought her winter coats down from the attic for her.

My team and I were booked for this year's next-to-last pub quiz on Tuesday (11 November). There were six of us, and we did reasonably well, ending up third although we had the 2nd highest number of points - but two teams had the most points and split 1st and 2nd places between them after a tie question.

The fish & chips I had were really good, and it was a fun evening out.

Nothing remarkable happened on Wednesday (12 November). 

Sunrise as seen from my kitchen window on Wednesday.

Instead of the scheduled 17 minutes, it took me nearly an hour to get to work, due to our notoriously bad public transport. 

By the time I finished work, daylight was as good as gone, so no walk for me apart from the few minutes it takes to get from my house to the station in Ludwigsburg, from the station to the office in Weilimdorf, and back.

As mentioned above, Thursday (13 November) was the warmest day of the week. Working from home allowed me to start at 6:15 and then interrupt at 9:00 for an hour of walking with my friend. It truly felt like spring in the mild morning sunshine.

Sunrise on Thursday

Friday (14 November) was a bit of a strange day. I wasn't overly busy, just regular work and household tasks lined up. I got up around 6:00 and felt just the usual tiredness at first. A few hours later, exhaustion came over me as if someone had pulled a plug, and by mid-morning, I had to creep back into bed where I stayed for a full hour, sleeping maybe for half of that time.

Getting up for the second time that day, I still didn't feel entirely myself but worked a bit more until I took my lunch break, after which I had to rest for another half hour. 

I had to really muster the energy to do the cleaning but was determined to go for a walk afterwards, while it was still daylight. I managed 1 1/2 hours of a very undemanding walk finishing by sunset, and it did me good but left me more exhausted than it should have.

There were no other symptoms except for a dull, half-present headache at the right side of the nape of my neck. I even self-tested for COVID, with a negative result.

When evening came, I was actually glad that I was on my own; O.K. was at a work do, and so I could go to bed as early as I wanted without feeling the need to produce a nice meal or hold a conversation. (Of course I could have gone to bed whenever I wanted even with O.K. present, but one does not want that when one sees their partner only on weekends.) 

I still don't know what it was, but was very glad to wake up on Saturday (15 November) feeling my usual self again. O.K. arrived in time for a late simple lunch followed by coffee and cake, before we made use of the sunny and mild afternoon and strolled into town.

A few shops and several hours later, we picked up the pre-ordered Indian food at the restaurant half way between my and my Mum's place. The four of us (Mum, sister, O.K. and I) enjoyed the delicious dishes, although the restaurant had gotten one wrong in spite of me having ordered online directly from their menu. 

Sunday (16 November) is usually the day for a late, long, leisurely breakfast, and this one was no exception. A walk followed, and at about 3:00 pm we arrived at the small neighbourhood museum where both my sister and I had celebrated our birthdays this year. 

They were open for a temporary exhibition, showing nativity scenes lent to the museum for a few weeks and usually on display for Christmas at home with the families who lent them. The scenes ranged from large to tiny, from 100 years old to modern, and it was interesting to see how the same topic can take such different forms. A lot was handmade, among them a small nativity scene my sister made when she was 9 or 10 years old. That little scene still takes pride of place at our Mum's every year at Christmas, and it was nice to see it at the museum.

My Mum took this picture; all I did was cutting off the sign with my sister's name on it and the bits visible of other exhibits left and right (I did not cut off the star at the top). Look at the beautiful and detailed little figures! Even the tallest one is only about half my thumb in height. Notice anything unusual about the animals? There are a white sheep and a grey cow donkey, but what's that black one behind the sheep? It's not... an elephant? Yes, it is! When my sister made this nativity, she said she had wanted to include a camel an ox but didn't know how to make one. Still wanting another animal an exotic animal to show that it all happened in a place far away from us, she made an elephant instead. (Remember, she was only around 10 years old.)*

The volunteers working at the museum serve coffee and (usually home-made) cake, which we enjoyed, and chatted a while with my Mum and her friend R who were also there.

It was raining when we left the museum, and so O.K. and I didn't extend our walk any further but spent the rest of the afternoon at home. We ate relatively early so that O.K. would not arrive at home too late; driving on the motorway in darkness and rain is not much fun, but he made it home in good time and without any incidents, something I am always very grateful for.

* The first version of this paragraph was based on a misunderstanding. My sister told me the true story behind the elephant, and clarified that the grey animal that I took for a cow (or an ox) is meant to be a donkey. Sorry, sis!

Read in 2025 - 27, 28

The following two reviews are both about works of crime fiction, each part of a series, but that's where the parallels end. 

One was a free ebook from Amazon's kindle shop, the other one a paperback borrowed from my book-swapping friend A (the one I was having the "Thursday Murder Club" evening with the other day). One was written by an Australian, the other by an American. They were originally published more than 100 years apart, in 1916 and 2023 respectively.

#27: The Hampstead Mystery

Arthur J. Rees

The wikipedia entry about the author doesn't say much about him as a person, but has a list of his works.

Sometimes I found the book hard going, not because it was complicated or in any way difficult to understand, but because of its sheer length and word-for-word repetition of conversations that weren't entirely necessary to bring the story forward.

Still, the case itself was interesting enough: 

A well-known Judge is found shot dead in his luxurious Hampstead home under mysterious circumstances. He was supposed to be in Scotland, hunting with friends; even his trusted butler claims not to know the reason for his unexpected return. He'd been a widower for many years and lived alone, but evidence points to a lady having been present at the time of his death.

Scotland Yard detectives Chippenfield and Rolfe are baffled, but it's not only vital for them to solve the case for the obvious reasons - they are also up against famous gentleman detective Crewe, employed by the victim's daughter, and the chase for the murderer turns into a race against time between them.

Who will first disentangle the web of relationships between the victim, characters from the underworld, servants, friends and lovers, and find out who really did it?

#28: Unnatural Death

Patricia Cornwell

The 27th book in the series about medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, I found this one gripping enough to keep going although I do not intend to seek out any more of the series. 

The author started the Scarpetta series in 1990, and I am pretty sure that the first one I ever read with this character at its centre was 1994's "The Body Farm". I quite liked it back then but never really followed up.

This recent story, only about 2 years old, references quite a lot from past books which I have not read; it is possible to read it as a standalone novel but probably better to stay within the series - or at least catch up with the fictional characters' biographies on wikipedia.

At the start of the book, Kay and her team are called to recover and examine the bodies of a married couple, wealthy owners of an outdoor equipment store, found dead near a site in dense woodland not accessible to the public where they had been camping for several months. Who had reason to kill them, and how did their murderer manage to get past their extensive security system, not even showing up on camera although there was only one way to get to the camp site?

What annoyed me was the almost real-time account of events; the helicopter flight out to the woods is described so that every sentence Kay and the pilot (her niece) speak is followed by what they think and feel, what in their past has lead to them thinking and feeling that way, and what they are going to say and do next. 

Of course I understand that much of this was done to remind (or introduce) the reader about the characters' background, but there really was a bit too much of that in my opinion.

As with The Hampstead Mystery, the case itself was interesting enough, but the claim on the book's cover "Edge-of-the-seat, packed with twists" I can not confirm.

If any of you have been reading the Kay Scarpetta series, I'd like to know your opinion; I find that either my taste or the style of the books (or both?) has changed  considerably since I first read one of the novels in the 1990s.

A Very Busy Week

Those of you who read my blog more or less regularly know that I am usually relatively busy, both at work and in the hours before and after. Last week felt busier than usual; a trip to Cologne for work had something to do with that.

Monday (3 November) was a reasonably quiet start of the week that allowed me not only to work through my tasks mostly undisturbed but even gave me the chance for a walk to Benningen in the golden afternoon sun, which I appreciated very much.

I got up well before 5:00 am on Tuesday (4 November) in order to take an early train to Cologne where I was to attend a meeting of Data Protection Officers in the same industry (insurance). Scheduled to start at 10:00 am, I had planned to arrive with about an hour to spare, and wisely so; in the end, due to our notoriously unreliable railway system, I arrived in Cologne with a delay of about 35 minutes and made it to the venue ten minutes before the meeting began.

I enjoyed the train ride with beautiful views of the sunrise and morning mist on the fields.

I also enjoyed my breakfast on board!

Afterwards, "thanks" to my train back to Stuttgart being also delayed, I had time to stroll around the (not very nice) area around Cologne's main station, and for the first time ever I visited the cathedral (in spite of me having been to Cologne for work many, many times). 

Part of the floor inside the cathedral.

I was quite impressed by the beauty and calm, peaceful atmosphere; once inside, it is easy to forget how ugly the immediate surroundings are. If you want to find out more about this wonderful building, click here for the wikipedia article in English.

Deutzer Brücke ("Deutz Bridge") in Cologne, famous for the huge number of "love locks" on it.

The Rhine in Cologne.

By the way, for the first time this season it was so cold in the morning that I saw my own breath when I left the house on my way to the station.

On Wednesday (5 November) was not only the 16th anniversary of my late husband's death but also my usual day at the office. Although Tuesday had been a day of work (and a very long one at that), I had of course not done any actual "work" as usual, and so a pile of emails and many other tasks made it busier than usual. 

Sunrise on the 5th

Last but not least, my boss (who is bipolar) was on a high and kept coming to my room every five minutes (I am NOT exaggerating; when he is on a high he really is like that), and at some point I had to ask him to let me get on with things... it's not nice if you have to say that to your boss, but it's the only way to handle things during such a phase, and he is not offended or anything (he knows that he can be VERY exhausting).

I can not tell you how relieved I was when left the office that day.

This is not the sun, but the moon on the evening of the 5th - it was incredibly bright that night!

At only 4C/39F, Thursday (6 November) was cold in the morning but sunny. For the first time since the summer, my friend and I managed to meet for a pre-work walk, which was very nice. In the evening, I went to my see my Mum.

Sunrise from my kitchen window on Thursday morning

Pre-work walk

Another busy working day followed on Friday (7 November), but the weekend was already in sight. It was wet, cold and grey with a fog that didn't lift properly all day, so I didn't mind not having time for a walk. 

After work, I did my usual cleaning, packed my little red suitcase and went to the train station. Miraculously, my train to Offenburg was on time, and O.K. and I were happy to start the weekend with our customary Friday evening meal of salad, cheese, bread and wine.

I had time to rest on Saturday (8 November) but also for a walk around the village combined with one or two errands while O.K. was doing some jobs around his Mum's house. 

There is actually a rather busy road outside the village - it was hardly visible for the fog on Saturday.

Late afternoon, we had a quick snack, donned our village band t-shirts and walked up to the village hall. 

In this part of Germany, Carnival begins officially on the 11th of November, but especially in villages, many associations and bands who are active during the Carnival period organise an event to kick-off the "silly season" on the weekend before the 11th. In O.K.'s village, a big event was held in the village hall, calling for nearly everyone to lend a hand.

O.K. and I had put down our names to help in the kitchen, but not with the food; we were manning the dishwasher and dealt with an unknown number of glasses and cups from 6:00 to 10:30 pm. It wasn't stressful at all, just constant work, and while our hands were busy, we were free to chat. We were allowed to help ourselves to whatever food and drink we wanted, and being tucked away in the kitchen also meant that we were not exposed to the full noise in the hall.

After our shift, we stayed on only for a little while; after all, we had been on our feet since before 6:00. We had a drink with some of our friends from the village band and then said good-bye. It was well before midnight when we were back at the cottage.

Sunday (9 November) was a slow, quiet day with rain almost all morning. In the afternoon it stopped, allowing us to go for a leisurely walk before popping in with O.K.'s Mum. Coffee and cake was next, followed by a rest, and in the evening, our meal was basically a repeat of what we had on Friday.