Last of February, First of March

The end of a month and the start of a new one often feels a bit like a mini new year to me; I have written about this a few times before here on my blog.
Maybe this is even more so when February ends and March begins, because the 1st of March is considered the meteorological start of sping. It also happens to be the start of my birthday month, and it usually means more flowers and longer daylight in my area.

On Saturday morning, my sister picked me up early so that we'd get some more work done at my parents' allotment, preparing for handing it over to whoever will come to enjoy it next, now that my family can not keep it any longer.

There were only the two of us, so that heavy gardening work was out of the question. Instead, we focused on the hut, mainly sorting through the "upstairs" bit and generally making it more presentable. Now that the black bin bags that were filled with rubbish from the garden and the hut were gone, we put a pretty wax cloth on the table in front of the hut, instantly giving it a more friendly and cheerful look. If only it were closer to home; we'd have so loved to keep it.

We did what was feasible to do in about a couple of hours, and finished still well before lunch time. The weather was dry, and we decided we deserved a walk - maybe for the last time in the beautiful countryside there.

You have seen many pictures of the area around the allotment, of the woodland and hills, fields and the small village on the opposite side of the valley.

By the time we were back at the allotment, the sun was out, as you can see in the first picture of this post. We were hungry and took our sandwiches and thermos flask of tea to the bench by the pond. Amazingly, the goldfish have not only survived, but even produced young ones, although nobody has been feeding them for months and months. We do hope that the new owners will keep the pond and not ask us to remove it before they take over!

Most of what is inside and around the hut - furniture, crockery, tools etc. - is meant to go to the new owners, if they want it. But we took some personal items back to our parents after we locked up, and were rewareded with coffee and freshly baked cake. Speaking of baking, our Mum mentioned that she'd almost run out of flour, and we agreed to buy some for her, as we were headed towards the supermarket anyway.

And can you believe it - the flour shelf was completely empty!! People have been "hamstering" basic food items such as flour and pasta for the past few days here, all because of corona. I wonder what makes them think they will indeed use up all that flour - do they really believe they'll be baking their own bread or making their own pasta? Or is it all going to end up cluttering their storage cupboards at home until eventually it will all be thrown out after reaching its sell-by date?

Honestly, I do not think there will be a serious shortage of food in this country due to corona. I know there are already shortages of supplies or product parts from other countries, such as China, needed to make mobile phones, motors and other items, but not food.


Back to a nicer topic:
It was the fourth anniversary of O.K. and my first meeting, and he brought me this beautiful bouquet of flowers:

Originally, we had planned to go out for dinner, but the weather turned nasty in the evening, and so we decided to stay home, starting off our meal of salad and arancini with a glass of champagne, and sharing a bottle of red wine with the meal itself.

Sunday morning came round with plenty of sun and blustery winds. We walked about 14.5 km altogether, over to the town of Asperg and its castle on the hill, also featured several times on my blog.

On the way back, we stopped at a café that is also a popular spot on Sundays for buying cake to take home, which is what we did. After big pieces of cake late afternoon, neither of us was very hungry in the evening, and so it was just a light meal before O.K. had to pack and drive home. By that time, the weather had turned nasty again, with rain and high winds, making the drive rather tiring. But O.K. reached his cottage just after 10:00 pm; it is always a relief when he texts me and I know he's home safe and sound.

Let me finish this post with a picture of Thursday afternoon; this was the view from my client's office building after the blizzard. You can already see how wet the snow was from the shiny surface of the road; when I left work about an hour later, it had all turned into rain and no snow was left.

I wonder if that was it for this season, or whether there will be a bit more snow before March (and possibly April) is over.