Last of September, First of October

Last week saw the end of September and start of October, in some ways almost the same as the end of summer and start of autumn. It is a time of year I love particularly, as for me it combines melancholy for the summer that was, joy and pleasure at the colours and abundance of autumn and anticipation of Advent and Christmas.

Monday (28 September) was still summerly warm at 29C/84F and sunny. I arrived home from Offenburg on time but then shut myself out of the flat, leaving the key inside - something that happens maybe once in ten years, if that! Fortunately, I had my mobile phone with me and could ring my Mum to make sure she was home; among the three of us (Mum, sister and myself) we keep keys to each other's flats. It cost me only a total of maybe 25 minutes, walking to my Mum, picking up the keys and walking back, but I was quite angry with myself.

The rest of the day went by without any further incidents, and I enjoyed my after-work walk to Benningen in the evening light.

I worked at the office on Tuesday (29 September) and chose to walk home from Kornwestheim afterwards. Later that evening, for the first time since the spring my team and I met at "our" Irish Pub for the quiz. Only four of us could make it, but in spite of being such a small team, we did well, coming second with just one point less than the winning team. It was good to see the others after the long break.

Wednesday (30 September) was my second day at the office, and like most Wednesdays I went to see my Mum after work. The day was so nice and the evening still warm enough without being too hot that we sat on the balcony, surrounded by my Mum's beautiful flowers, enjoying food & drink together as much as our chat.

Last Sunrise in September, as seen from my kitchen

Thursday was the 1st of October, and although it was still warm-ish at 21C/70F, a grey sky and a succession of showers made for more of an autumn feel. I wore my rain coat for the walk to Asperg after work, but only for the last third of the walk did it rain properly. The feeling of wet clothes and partly wet feet was quite unfamiliar!

After a little rain, Friday (2nd of October) turned into another sunny day. After work and cleaning my flat, I took the trains to Offenburg where my husband picked me up; I was only delayed by about 8 minutes, but the train had been VERY full, and a young woman in the seat behind me was permanently snivelling and coughing. (So far, it looks as if she has not managed to pass her cold on to me.)

On Saturday (3rd of October), O.K. drove us into Offenburg for a walk in a quarter of town we quite like. We finished the walk with ice creams in town, possibly for the last time this season. 

Offenburg

Late afternoon we drove to the nearby village where O.K.'s sister and her husband live to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. The food was delicious!

Sunday (4th of October) called for a hike. We started straight from the cottage and opted for a tour mostly on flat terrain with hardly any ups and downs. 

Through the neighbouring village of Zunsweier along the river (Kinzig) to a beer garden for a refreshing shandy in the sun (which by now was warmer than what we had expected from the forecast), then skimming Offenburg by lake Giffiz, leaving town and walking past the small air field and another lake back to the village.

We found this caterpillar crossing the path. It was as long as my finger, and according to photo identification on my phone most likely a hawk moth (Agrius convolvuli).

We made sure it reached the other side of the path safely. According to wikipedia, though, its chances of survival are slim, as this is the second brood of the year and it won't be "finished" in time to leave for warmer zones before winter sets in.

"Großer Deich", the place where we stopped for a shandy

At the cottage, we had my mother-in-law's home-made apple cake (from her own apples) and coffee on the balcony. For our evening meal, my husband prepared a zucchini ratatouille with couscous.

Phew! I have finally managed to catch up with most of my back log of posts since our holiday in Austria. From now on, there will mostly be one post a week from me, not one almost every day. I still want to write up a couple of book reviews, but generally I am now "on top" of my blogging again.

Last Full Week of September

The last full week of September, the second week back from our hiking holiday, was nearly completely sunny with not a drop of rain. For the first time this season, at night and early in the mornings the thermometer sunk below 10C/50F, the lowest being 7C/44F on Thursday morning. By Sunday we were back to almost 30C/86F during the day.

On Monday (21 September) I was happy to find my trains back from Offenburg on time and arrive in Ludwigsburg without delay - a rare enough thing to happen,  certainly worth mentioning!

My after-work walk to Benningen was beautiful in the golden evening light.

On the way to Benningen

Sunset that evening as seen from my study...

...and from my living room.

Tuesday (22 September) was a cold enough morning for me not to leave the windows open all the time. It definitely felt like early autumn and not like late summer anymore.

I worked from home and afterwards met my sister at the train station where we took a local train into Stuttgart to meet a couple of friends for a meal. We had not seen them in a long time, and it was good to catch up. The food was very nice, too.

Unfortunately, we met with utter chaos at the local train system as soon as we arrived at the underground station. Information was confusing and unreliable, and when we turned to one of the manned information points, we found that the staff knew no more than us. I think it took us about an hour to get home, twice the regular time.

As usual, I worked at the office on Wednesday (23 September). Because the after-work gathering at the bar of the Holiday Inn next to our building had been such a success in May to celebrate my wedding, I had arranged for another such gathering (this time "just for fun", and everybody was paying for their drinks). Only four of us could make it, but it was a nice hour spent chatting with my colleagues.

It was still only 6:00 pm when I left the bar, and so I decided to walk home from Zuffenhausen. Like the evening before, local strains were still (or again) chaotic.

I took these sunset pictures starting at 7:10 pm and ending at 7:36 pm - it was breathtakingly beautiful, the colours were much more luminous in real life than what my phone's camera picked up:

I was back at the office on Thursday (24 September) but only for the morning. Around lunch time I took a train to Feuerbach where I had been invited to a conference of Data Protection Officers in the insurance industry. This particular meeting was new to me, and I didn't know what to expect. However, I must say it wasn't worth attending. The man who organised and MCed the meeting liked to hear himself talk more than anything, and he went off on a political rant every chance he got, whether it suited the discussed subject or not.

Still, something good came out of it: I met one of the professors who had taught me back in 2014, when I did my training for Data Protection Officer (DPO). He is semi-retired, not teaching at the academy anymore, but he is as alert and interested in  matters relevant to our work as before. During coffee break, we had a good chat and exchanged email addresses so that I can invite him to the meetings of the Stuttgart group of DPOs I organise several times a year.

Along the way between the train station and the conference venue

My Mum had invited me for her home-made savoury onion pie, a typical dish for our region at this time of year, so I went there after the conference. Delicious!

I worked from home on Friday (25 September) and had a quietly productive day. The opposite of it was the chaos at Stuttgart Main Station when I arrived there late afternoon. 

In the range of half an hour, six out of 10 trains were delayed, one was cancelled (at the bottom of the board), three had changed platforms. This, I'm afraid, is nothing out of the ordinary for Stuttgart on a Friday evening.

My trip to Offenburg was about half an hour late, and so my husband and I sat down to welcome the weekend with salad, cheese, bread and wine as late as 9:30 pm.

On Saturday (26 September) the village band were scheduled to perform at a traditional fête in a small village in the High Black Forest, about a 2-hour drive from O.K.'s village. Reiselfingen has less than 600 inhabitants and is within easy walking distance of the Wutachschlucht (Wutach Gorge), where O.K. and I went hiking nine years ago. Click here for my "main post" about that holiday.

This time we were not there for a hike. The musicians were of course in their uniforms and had to get ready for their performance as soon as we arrived. 

The venue

Only a small "fan club" this time - we've had more on other occasions.

The band getting ready

While they were playing, I sat for the first two pieces with the other spouses who had come along on the bus chartered for our group, and then went out for a little exploring on my own around the village.

Reiselfingen church

When I stood at one of the roads, a car with two ladies pulled up next to me. They asked whether I needed help, or was I looking for something? I needed neither help nor directions, I explained to them; I was just going for a stroll and would return to the fête shortly. Of course I thanked them for their kindness, and they drove on as I made my way back to the fête.

After the village band's performance, our musicians were free to eat and drink with us and we all listened to the band whose turn it was next. It was a nice, cheerful atmosphere with nobody overdoing things too much, and we were back on the bus and ready for the long ride home at 10:30 pm as scheduled.

While the ride there had been in beautiful sunshine and I had really enjoyed seeing the countryside in its early autumn colours, it was of course too dark to see much on the way back, and we were glad to reach the cottage at around 1:00 am.

Sunday (27 September) was the warmest day of the week, almost a little too warm for a proper hike, but we chose a long walk that would at least partly be in the shade of the woods. 

Starting right from the front door, we walked to the next village (Niederschopfheim) and from there to Oberschopfheim, into the woods to Lendersbach-Hütte (a shelter) where we had our sandwiches, from there to Diersburg and back to Hofweier, a total of 14.5 km. It was warm and therefore somewhat exhausting (especially the uphill bits), but I enjoyed it very much nonetheless.

Back home, we sat for a bit on the balcony before retreating inside - the mozzies were really pestering us, and it was getting dark fast. We ended the evening and the week early-ish as usual on a Sunday in view of the early start on Monday morning.

Returning to Work

The second half of September saw us returning to work. It wasn't an unusual week for me, and I enjoyed many walks.

On Monday (14 September) I made a first round through all my email inboxes (with two employers and a small number of clients where I have my own account), finding a total of 177 messages waiting for me to sort through. That's less than what I often have after being away; I don't always record the number but a quick research on my blog tells me that there has been as many as 288 emails after a holiday.

Sunrise that morning, as seen from my kitchen

Anyway, I managed to get through the most pressing matters and used my lunch break for a neck & shoulders massage at the Day Spa in my neighbourhood.

The day was beautiful, and at 24C pleasantly warm without being too hot. After work, I put in a 12 km walk on the fields outside the southern end of town.

It was warmer at 27C on Tuesday (15 September), but still not too hot for meeting my sister after work for a pleasant stroll in the palace grounds.

Wednesday (16 September) saw me at the office for the first time since our Bregenzerwald holiday. The day started and ended with sunshine, but we had a precious bit of rain in between.

I left the office on the usual local train but got off at Kornwestheim, one stop before Ludwigsburg, to walk the rest of the way to my Mum's where I spent the evening.

Temperatures on Thursday (17 September) ranged from 12 to 21C - it can be tricky to choose what to wear on such days, especially when you leave the house in the chilly morning and spend all day at the office with no chance to adapt your outfit other than taking a cardigan on or off, or similar.

For my way home, I got off the train at Zuffenhausen and decided to walk via Kornwestheim, instead of Schwieberdingen which is what I nearly always do. Several times I had to take detours because of roadworks, ending up with 2 hours and 12 km under my soles. One of the detours took me through a part of Kornwestheim where I've never been before, which made it interesting in its own way and less annoying about the unexpected and enforced deviation.

I finally had a long-needed haircut on Friday (18 September) between working and doing my weekly cleaning.

My trains to Offenburg were unusually punctual, and I arrived shortly after 7:30 pm, so that my husband and I had our customary meal to ring in the weekend a little earlier than normal.

Since Saturday (19 September) was again sunny and dry, O.K. worked around his mother's house and garden for most of the day while I occupied myself with a walk to the bakery to fetch us a snack for lunch, a quick trip to the cemetery to look after the flowers on the family grave and another walk to the allotment where I harvested tomatoes and beans, and of course the ironing, which I have made "my job" almost from the start since the two of us started visiting each other.

On the way to the allotment

Early evening, O.K. drove us and his Mum to Oberharmersbach where he had booked a table at a farm restaurant. The food was good, service friendly and the view from our table in the garden lovely, especially as the evening light fell on the hills opposite with orchards and pastures and the Black Forest on top.

Sunday (20 September) was warm at 25C and sunny - no way we were going to stay put on such a day! After breakfast, we went on a hike of 18 km starting directly from the cottage to Zunsweier - Sägereck - Handwerkerhütte - Diersburg - Riedmühle - Niederschopfheim and back to Hofweier.

Sägereck

The Vosges mountains (France) on the horizon

In the vineyards around Diersburg we came across a goat which had somehow gotten out of the pasture where the rest of the herd was grazing. She wanted to get back in but the gate was shut, and we couldn't see any opening in the fence. While I talked to the goat and kept her close by (fortunately, she was neither aggressive nor too scared, just a little nervous, and wore a collar), my husband opened the gate (which took some strength) and I ushered the stray goat back in.

She immediately went towards her herd, and we were relieved that all had gone well. Not many cars come that way, but it wasn't entirely impossible that the goat could have been in danger from a car or people with a large dog not under control.

That evening, O.K. made us a salad from the tomatoes I had harvested the day before, which was quite delicious and tasted of summer.