Hello! Here I am on the settee in O.K.‘s cottage, cosily wrapped in a white plushy fleece throw while a light rain is pattering on the roof windows. We have been out for a walk earlier today, got soaked twice, saw some sun and were back at the cottage in time for coffee. Now, after a rest and finishing reading my current book, I thought I‘d let you know how the first few days of my May holiday went.
Thursday saw me travelling from Ludwigsburg to Offenburg on three different, largely empty trains, all of them punctual.
For Friday, the second online wine tasting in my life was scheduled - this time, along with a full meal ordered from a country inn at a nearby village. Like all restaurants, pubs, bars etc., they are shut under pandemic regulations, but they are allowed selling food to order. Since that is the only way they can make any money and hope to survive, we are happy to help.
The wine tasting was done by an organic winery, run by a couple about our age. They are passionate about what they do, and the tasting was not only about the wines we had been sent, but we were also told a lot about the work involved, what needs doing all year round in a vineyard to get a good harvest.
Saturday, the 1st of May, would normally have been the village May fest, but of course just like last year, nothing of the kind is happening this year. Instead, a handful of village band members set up their semi-professional grills and a smoker, and offered pulled pork burgers and grilled sausages. We ordered burgers, which were huge and made for a good, filling lunch. O.K.‘s band colleagues sold 135 burgers and 93 sausages in the few hours around lunch time, the only extra income the band can make at the moment.
The weather has been a very mixed bag so far, with badly needed rain and relatively cold. It has not stopped us from going for walks, and just having time off is really good.
More later!
PS: I forgot to tell you that I have now shed almost all the brown dye in my hair and gone a kind of blond - in preparation for going completely natural, which has been grey-white for years but was not allowed to show for more than a centimeter before I couldn‘t stand it any longer and went to the hairdresser‘s again.
And no, I have not skipped a few years and suddenly turned 60 - it was the 60th wedding anniversary of O.K.‘s parents on Thursday.
Enjoy each day dear friend.
ReplyDeleteMary x
Thank you, dear Mary, that‘s the plan 🙂
DeleteCute hair!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteIs that you? If so the hair colour is superb. I had a similar experience - I had mine dyed for years because there were black streaks. Over the pandemic I have let it grow out completely and find it is silver and I love it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat! Yes, that‘s the idea; in a few months, I should be all white-grey-silver or whatever it turns out to be. When I was younger, I said I would stop colouring at 50. Now I am 53 and still have artificial colour on my head...
DeleteYour hair color is beautiful! That will make it easier to let the natural color grow out. I stopped dyeing my hair when I retired and it is now a blend of browns, silvers and grey. I have more of the silvers than grey and I like that color.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your vacation days are off to a wonderful start. I hope you and O.K. enjoy every minute of your holiday! I enjoyed your pictures. We don't have many passenger trains here and it is nice to see yours. Of course the wine tasting and meal looks wonderful. Have a great week!
Thank you, dear Bonnie! I hope you and your family are well, and the snow is gone from your area.
DeleteIn hindsight, I should have never started to colour my hair - such a nuisance evry 3 or 4 weeks, and the roots look ugly the week before the next layer of dye.
The asparagus looks terrific as do you. And I am not saying this to butter you up in advance of a favour I'd like to ask you.
ReplyDeleteHope you, Meike, won't mind my using your comment box to make contact with the walking Encyclopedia (Haggerty). You are my only option. Consider yourself a pigeon carrier. Thank you.
Message to
Hamel(d), hi, I don't know how to stay in touch with you as the veritable, and truly unforgiving, Yorkshire Pudding (possibly caught in a puddle of gravy not come good and pancake mixture flat) does no longer give me room at his inn. I am sure his reason is valid though can't remember my sin(s) that led to this, his, your and my misfortune. I (in absentia) did ask him (not published) to pass on both my regards and regrets to you. I dare say he didn't oblige. Or did he? There is a way out of most holes. You'll just have to find it [the hole, that is].
As an aside: Moors suck. The Yorkshire Ripper just killed. Let me know best way forward.
Yours (and Librarian's) as ever, never short changed, rarely disenchanted,
U
Thank you, Ursula. I prefer green asparagus, but that was not on the menue, and the white one in the classic combination with sauce hollandaise, spuds and Kratzede was indeed very nice, too.
DeleteI don‘t mind you using your comment on my blog for getting in touch with John. I guess once you have exchanged email addresses, you can move to that channel for your conversation.
I am no walking encyclopedia, Ursula. Maybe a talking Max Headroom?
DeleteYour exclusion from Neil's blog puzzled and saddened me: surely any comment is permissible unless it is criminal, racist, disgusting. Yours were always witty.
Read my Comment (as JackJohn Hameld) on:
*The Mitford Sisters/ Lady Diana Mosley interview/ Oswald Mosley/ Good Afternoon.* Thames TV. YouTube.
I call the late Lady Mosley a fascist, which she was, and would have called her that to her face. Oswald was a Blackshirt : See the David Frost interviews.
As for true intelligence, watch Frederic Raphael on YouTube, a Classics scholar, won an Oscar for the film Darling. His late daughter was Sarah Raphael the artist.
Setting up an email address is beyond my capabilities and I am not on Facebook or Twitter. You can write to me at 16 Regent Moray Street, Glasgow, G3 8AQ.
I was christened John but I am known as Jack.
My number is in Direct Inquiry (Haggerty) but I possess no email or mobile phone. I hope you got through the lockdown OK, Ursula. India is a vale of tears.
Thanks for allowing me to use your Comment Box, Meike.
The asparagus does look terrific as Ursula said. The spy novelist Ted Allbeury loved asparagus, spoke fluent German, and worked undercover for MI6. You can read his obituary Guardian online.
I can almost hear that rain pattering on your roof. Yesterday was bitter in Glasgow. I kept hearing Lee Remick in the film Wide River (YouTube) when she says to Montgomery Clift, *I hate to see the summers go.* And this is only May !
Scottish summers are so brief.
Jack
Oh, I love your hair! Not that I didn't like it brown but the lighter color looks good and you have such a big smile to go along with it!
ReplyDeleteI also want to stop coloring my hair but I fear I need chemicals to not only color my locks but also to TAME the frizzy mess on my head that passes for hair.
That sounds like a lot of meat that the band sold! Since it made them money, good for them!
Kay, I am still not entirely used to seeing myself in with light hair, but I was very light-haired as a little girl. and so I guess I am coming full circle!
DeleteYou look so different with lighter hair! I like it. Thanks for popping in to give us a glimpse into what you're doing with your time off. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jennifer! I like it, too, and so far have been enjoying every minute of my time off.
DeleteMeike, you look gorgeous with this hairdo. I must confess I didn't recognize you at first. It really suits you. My father had vineyards when I was a child in Sicily and it was very hard work. He used to get up at 3AM every day. But his wine was the best, no comparison to commercial wine. I will let you know when I cook up something with that fruit flour, I have no idea what to make with it. But I found out that in the back of the package there is a recipe, so I will try it. I have SIX packages, it's going to be a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Francesca! I still find it odd to see myself in the mirror with the light hair, especially when wearing a top of a colour I have not yet worn with this new hair colour.
DeleteGetting up at 3 am would not be for me - it would mean I‘d have to go to bed at 5 pm!
You are looking terrific! And it sounds like you are having a pretty good time off, too. Hope you have good weather for the rest of your holiday.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary!
DeleteYesterday was gorgeous, weather-wise. Today and the rest of the week looks pretty grim, but we can always relax at home.
Like Siciliana, I did not recognise you Meike. I think you looked great with dark hair and now you look great with blond hair. Have a happy holiday.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rachel, for all of that! I was white-blond as a toddler and turned brownish at about 5 years old. Now I am back to blond, with plenty of natural white already underneath.
DeleteThe plushy white throw and the online wine tasting -- oh, it sounds rather perfect to me! And your hair looks darling.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jeanie! That plushy white throw became ‚mine‘ almost from my first visit at O.K.‘s. At my home, I have a mustard coloured one and a yellow-grey woven one.
DeleteIt's good to know how you are getting on with your May holiday. It's not been any different for me! I used to have a rule that I never commented on a lady's change of hair colour or style the first time I met them after the change. I'm not sure that I'd get away with that on this occasion and I have had a good visits to make sure. You have the advantage of looking young naturally and I think that your new hair colour highlights that. Having known you for so many years I didn't think getting used to the change would be so easy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Graham. I was determined to finally do what I had meant to do three years ago, and I do not regret it. Maybe the change is so easy to get used to because it is only the colour, not the style as such, that is different.
DeleteMost people who have seen me for the first time with the new colour have commented immediately on it, colleagues in video conferences, neighbours and so on. And why shouldn‘t they?
Your hair looks great, and it sounds/looks like a good plan to change the colour "step by step" until you get close to your current natural colour. Back in my 40s I used a bit of 'toning' (close to my natural colour) but I stopped before my 50th. My hair seems to be of the kind that just "fades", though. In warm indoors light (like in my own bathroom mirror, which is where I mostly see myself!) it can still look deceivingly kind of blond - but in proper daylight, it's definitely grey.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Monica. I guess by now I am used to it, but when I compare older photos with recent ones, I still find the change rather radical. Another few months and nobody will notice the difference anymore!
Delete