It is not unusual for my part of the world to see snow in April, but this time, the change was rather extreme and sudden. March was the sunniest March on record, topping the previous record from some time in the 1950s. Everywhere was getting very dry, and it was often mild enough during the day to allow for after work walks without a padded coat.
The magnolia trees in my street on Tuesday:
Here are three photos from the same day, taken by my sister at the palace grounds. Admittedly, I have not asked her permission to use them here, so should she object, I shall of course take them down immediately.
Wednesday (March 30) finally brought rain, as did Thursday. Then April! Friday started cold and grey, with more rain that turned into sleet and then snow. It kept snowing all afternoon and evening, and my train ride to O.K.‘s was through strange looking countryside with orchards in bloom and woodland in its first tender green but the ground covered in white and the evening light being of a pearly grey.
All of Saturday snow kept falling. Very unusual for us, we did not go for a walk; we only ventured out for 20 minutes to deliver a card for a couple who are getting married next week, the bride being in the village band like O.K.
My Mum took this picture of her balcony this morning:
O.K.‘s area is often a few degrees warmer than Ludwigsburg, and no snow has remained on the ground here since yesterday. We may go for a longer walk today, wrapping up well against the cold.
Another very cold morning is forecast tomorrow, but during the week, milder temperatures are expected to return. Hopefully, not too much damage will be left behind once this cold spell is gone.
One day I expect to see a German Murder Mystery in my local bookstore.
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*All of Saturday snow kept falling. The body of Ludwigsburg's most hated man was lying beside a Japanese flowering cherry: a strange sight on the first day of April.*
There is a scene in The Glen Miller Story with Jimmy Stewart as the band leader.
He finds the 'sound' he has been looking for quite by accident, when the trumpet player bruises his lip, necessitating Miller's rewriting of the score.
If memory serves, the song with the new score is *I Know Why and So Do You*.
Why do robins sing in December
Long before the springtime is due?
And even though it's snowing
Violets are growing
I know why and so do you.
Although I have seen The Glen Miller Story decades ago, I can‘t remember that bit about how he found his sound. Interesting! I have several Glen Miller CDs in my small collection of CDs, you have just reminded me of how much I like that music.
DeleteAn intriguing first sentence for a novel! Now I am wondering who the most hated man in my town might be, and why.
Newspaper headlines tell of good people murdered.
DeleteSomething prevents me from alluding to such tragedies.
*The starry sky above me, the moral law within me*: Kant's great phrase.
Somehow I saw a Scottish gangster living in Ludwigsburg, estranged from his German wife, most likely shot by a professional hitman.
Nobody is going to miss him, but a German-speaking Scottish journalist arrives in town, asking all sorts of questions.
In Scotland we have Tartan Noir, home-grown thriller writers, and I have never read one of them, because I have a horror of murder, vice and gun crime.
Maigret novels are different because the settings range from Montparnasse to the Dutch border of Germany or a fishing town on the French Atlantic coast.
*Madame Maigret's Friend*, *A Crime in Holland* and *The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien* are on my reading table, reprinted by Penguin.
Simenon was indeed Le Maitre. He wrote Maigret novels over the weekend.
Hitchcock once rang him and Madame Simenon said her husband was locked in his study.
*I can wait,* said Hitch.
I never imagined you enjoyed Glenn Miller, great music for dancing.
Ella Fitzgerald sings Moonlight Serenade (YouTube).
Tartan Noir? I have not come across this term before, but I understand it immediately. Speaking of Tartan, I love Tartan patterns, checks and gingham. They appeal to the tidy, orderly part of me, I suppose.
DeleteYour novel plot is beginning to take shape. If I had more time, we could form a writing team such as Nicci French or Fruttero & Lucentini.
I would LOVE to make my living by writing - actually, what I do now for a living is mostly writing, but not something people read in their spare time.
Tartan Noir goes Teutonic?
DeleteLanguage re-visions the world even as it makes a subjective copy of it.
We all want to go through the Looking Glass.
Your world is familiar to you, but exotic to a British reader.
I remember a bus from Antwerp to Hoogstraten.
My companion could not understand why I kept looking out the window, instead of looking at her.
She worked in Antwerp and was baffled by my love of the city's Jewish district.
A Chinese-Finnish woman works in Glasgow, her parents having fled China.
She had never read Yiyun Li's *Kinder Than Solitude* or Zhou Haohui's *Death Notice*.
The world she never knew fascinated her.
Novels are better than TV drama because novels live in us.
Two months of watching Mad Men's box set left me with nothing but an image of Ted and Joan sitting in a bar, listening to Doris Day's Christmas Waltz.
Only literature re-visions the world though great film directors come close.
14 Revision Tips!/How To Edit Your Novel.
Shaelin Writes. April 1 2022. YouTube.
Shaelin is a marvellous teacher and also vlogs under Reedsy.
We went from warm to snow overnight earlier in the week too. However being on the coast it was nothing like that shown in your picture
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I expect it‘s all gone by the time I arrive back in Ludwigsburg at around 9:20 this morning.
DeleteAll the flowers and flowering trees are beautiful! I hope the snow didn't do too much damage. We do not have any flowers blooming here yet, although I did see a few tiny buds on my redbud tree. This March has been a very snowy one for us. I hope for both of us the warmer Spring days will arrive soon!
ReplyDeleteIt's sunny here today, but still rather cold. By mid-week we should see warmer temps again. My cherry tree has not yet opened any blossoms, so I hope it got away with it!
DeleteSnowing here too today. But we didn't have trees in bloom yet - nor a lot of flowers on the ground either.
ReplyDeleteIt does look odd, but it is not so unusual here, really, to have snow when many flowers and blossoms are out.
DeleteWe had a blowing snow while we were driving to Wisconsin on Saturday! Luckily, my oldest son was driving me and he is such a good driver. It was stressful but we arrived with no trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy daffodils are starting to bloom...they weren't damaged by the snow at all.
Daffodils are probably well prepared for the old cold spell; after all, they are spring flowers, and one always has to expect frost and snow in spring.
DeleteGood to know your son drove you safely through the blowing snow!
I don't think I've ever seen snow here in April, although we do get the occasional hard freeze which ruins the peach harvest for that year. Chilly nights are pretty common, but most days are warm and nice this time of year.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful magnolia tree!
It must be tough when the peach harvest is damaged or a total loss. I well remember that icy rain late in April a few years back, killing off much of the local orchards. That year, cherries and other fruit that is usually grown locally was extremely expensive, as it was almost all being imported from Turkey.
DeleteThe magnolias look rather rusty today; not sure whether the frost did that or the blossoms are past their best already anyway.
We too can get snow in April, but if it happens it doesn't last long. The march toward spring is inexorable and all kinds of green shoots are poking up through the ground. Birds are pairing off, and I saw my first Eastern Bluebirds of the spring yesterday. Soon it ill be tee shirt weather!
ReplyDeleteWe've already had t-shirt weather for a day or two during March, but right now, I am glad I have not yet put away my padded coat, scarf and bobble hat!
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