Saturday 14 July 2012

Summer Should Be Like This!

It has been raining at least once a day for the past two weeks or so, and with the rain have come cooler temperatures. I know we are still having more of a summer than other areas, such as England, but still... The weather keeps interfering with my activities, such as going for a run, or attending a street party, or a concert in a park, which my parents and I wanted to go to last night but then decided against it because of the rain.

Two Saturdays ago, we had a wonderful day exactly the way summer should be. It was really warm (some would say hot), warm enough for me to enjoy the shade as much as the sun.
My Mum and I went to the park; the very same one you have often read about here on my blog before (and I suspect it will keep featuring, since we so love going there, and it is never boring).

Here are the pictures I took. They show, in my eyes, what summer should be like:

View from the south entrance to the park. We rested on a bench in the shade for a little while before we walked on.

Topiary figures near the orangery (that's the place where they have changing exhibitions, such as the one with the "interesting" works of "art" I showed you here).



Looking back towards the café-restaurant where we have just had a cold drink.

To my knowledge, this is the only araukarie (sorry, I've forgotten the English name of this tree; only the other day, either Graham or John showed one on their blog, I think) in our park. The picture to the left is how I really saw it from where I stood, and the one on the right zoomed in.

The people who live in this house have some job or other at the palace or in its grounds. Behind the building, they have a nice garden with a wall and high fence around it, so even in the middle of this tourist-filled park, they get to have their privacy. And they have a cat, I've seen it often.



This picture does not do the pond justice. The water lilies were very beautiful, and there were many goldfish.

You can see the contrast between the formal gardens and the more overgrown and "natural" parts of the park; I love them both, but my heart beats for the overgrown bits.





This is what's inside the orangery right now, a sort of palm garden. 

In the evening, a massive thunderstorm swept across town (which meant I was not going to the market square fest but watched the spectacular "show" from my kitchen window), and I was glad we had been out in the park while it was so lovely.

22 comments:

  1. Hey Meike!
    So sorry you had to cancel your plans due to rain. Hopefully, the rest of the summer will improve!
    Love your photos here! And I wonder how I could have a job like those folks and live in such a gorgeous spot! Like you, I love all gardens but really prefer the less formal ones, which remind me of the gardens in England!
    Look, I still cannot type without an exclamation point! Have a great day, mine started at 3:30am!

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    1. Thank you, Kay, I am having a rather relaxed day, nothing more strenuous than doing my weekly cleaning, because in an hour, I'll be running the 10k CityRun here in Ludwigsburg - the weather looks fine for a change :-)
      Why did your day start so terribly early??

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    2. Oh dear, I am SUCH a big kid! I heard on the news that there was a POSSIBILITY of PERHAPS with an unusual solar activity that the Northern Lights could be seen as far south as Alabama. And since I am right next to Alabama, I reasoned that I might be able to see them too. I slept in my clothes and slept fitfully until 3:30AM and got up hoping to see something, but alas...the sky was very cloudy and there is so much light in the sky here, not much chance of seeing anything anyway...Can you tell that I would like to see the Northern Lights? I would!
      I hope you did well on your run!

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    3. Thank you, Kay, the run went well and even the weather was right, although it had not looked like it before early afternoon.
      I've never seen Aurea Borealis myself but would MUCH love to; no chance of that here, though. I guess I'd done the same, getting up at 3.30 :-) Maybe you should have gone to Arabia Mountain where you have less light pollution...

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  2. Beautiful photos! But you have been relatively lucky, Meike. We in England haven't seen the sun for about two months, and are apparently suffering from vitamin D deficiency :(

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    1. I know, Frances; my friends and relatives in England keep telling me about floods etc., and I am grateful it is not that bad here.
      Glad you like the photos, it is a lot more beautiful in real life!

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  3. Beautiful house! And as Frances says, over here blue sky is a long distant memory. So jealous!

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    1. Sorry to hear that, Macy. I hope you'll get a sunny autumn at least to make up for a non-existent summer...

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  4. Wow, so beautiful! Most of the USA has been cooking all summer with high temps! We're headed into a heat wave with 90+ temps (32.222) for the next 6 days! Have a wonderful weekend & keep dry!

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    1. We've had around 32-34 Celsius on that day I took these pictures, but I didn't complain - it is supposed to be summer, after all :-)
      You too enjoy your weekend, and keep cool!

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  5. This is so beautiful! I remember some of the buildings, though it has been so long since I was there - can it be 38 years? Yes, I'm afraid it can. We usually came in the spring, I think. I am so glad you took these pictures while it was feeling like summer! Do they still have the wonderful ceramics display? Maybe I asked you this before. I was able to find a beautiful book about it. The whole park looks gorgeous now.

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    1. Yes, the ceramics museum is still there, and for some years now, also a fashion museum and some other rooms open to the public which weren't accessible when I was a kid.
      The porcellain manufactory has been moved, though; it is now in east Germany. The Ludwigsburg china is still sold here, but I sometimes look at what they have in their show room and wonder who is prepared to pay such prices!

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  6. I forgot to add, I find the weather troubling these days. Ohio is not in the worst place though we have had far too hot and dry weather for June and early July. But west of us, there is a real agricultural disaster looming.

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    1. Seems so unbalanced, doesn't it; draught in one part, floods in another. I think we are mostly alright here with our more moderate weather, although gardeners and farmers are possibly of a different opinion.

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  7. You're right, it looks like the perfect summer day, the perfect summer memory. Thanks for sharing it with us. Have a great weekend! xoxo

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    1. You are welcome - I am glad you like it! I am sure we'll have more beautiful summery days later on in the year; it is often that we get a rather dreadful July and then September turns out to be a most glorious month.

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  8. I really enjoyed that post, Meike. Perfection. I so miss the warmth of summer. We've had drier weather than the rest of the UK here on Lewis but it's so unseasonably cold.

    I have blogged about the araukarie tree on my Hebridean in New Zealand Blog but CJ/Scriptor blogged about one recently on our visit to A La Ronde near Exeter. It's called a Monkey Puzzle Tree.

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    1. That's it - the Monkey Puzzle Tree! Thank you for reminding me, I did remember that it had an animal's name in it but somehow thought of elephant-something... I went to both your and John's blog and put "elephant" in the search bar but of course didn't find the post about the araukarie.

      Only 15 Celsius here today, and copious rain again, which is not really what I'd like to see in July.

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  9. What a beautiful park. Those roses are just luscious!

    You are right that England has been very wet this summer, but I noticed too how green all the trees and fields are looking around here. I hate it when we have a long dry summer and everything looks so brown and parched. It would just be nice if we had more balance in our weather right now.

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    1. That balance really seems to be missing, doesn't it, Joanne?

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  10. Hello,

    How divine to live so close to such a fascinating place. And when the weather is fine, all the better. I live on the West Coast, and its been the nicest i can remember for years. Usually its foggy but now fog just in the morning and clearing to seventies or so for the day. Weather does seem out of whack this year.
    Thats such a lovely rose you have there, and now I know what a monkey puzzle tree looks like!
    xx
    julie

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    1. It is the part of my hometown I love most, Julie, and no matter the season, it is always worth a visit (with the camera!).

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