After a very busy start of our May holiday (more about that in a future post), we have had a day of leisure yesterday. And with the much welcome rain finally here today, we are spending time at the cottage, catching up with housework and errands. It also gives me a chance to blog, something that won‘t be possible from Sunday onwards, when we will stay for a week at the hotel already mentioned, with no mobile signal and no wifi.
Friday, April 22, was another beautiful spring day in my area. Once more, I repeated what used to be my Mum and my favorite walk. I did change the first part of the route a bit, though, investigating what I thought could be a shortcut, leading up to the vineyards between houses and gardens instead of along a small industrial area.
And I was right - only that the path ended at a meadow, at which point I had to decide whether to go back and walk the original path, or cross the meadow and indeed arrive at the point in the vineyards where I meant to go.
I did the latter, crossing the meadow full of knee-high buttercups. My navy blue trainers looked light green dusted with the yellow pollen!
Many trees were still in bloom that day:
And if I had thought the buttercup meadows were the height of yellow, I soon realised that there was even MORE yellow with the rapeseed fields in bloom:
On I went, through the small town of Steinheim and up the hill, past the allotments and to the woods.
The late afternoon/early evening light was beautiful, the clouds kept making quite spectacular displays in the sky, and birdsong was the only sound most of the time.
On my way back, I briefly stopped on the bridge crossing the river Murr to take this picture:
By then, it was close to sunset, and the white blossoms on the trees had a pink hue:
I reached Marbach station with almost half an hour to spare before the next train to Ludwigsburg, and was back home after dark.
Another very enjoyable walk, so good to end a busy week.
Gosh, that is so pretty, Meike. Spring certainly knows how to delight us! I had a blue and green walk yesterday as I hiked through some woods filled with bluebells blooming. Fills me with such joy when I take that hike each year! Enjoy your holiday!
ReplyDeleteOne day I hope to walk in the woods at bluebell time! So far, my Yorkshire holidays have been either too late or too early for that.
DeleteI was with you every step of the way/
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anonymous.
DeleteWhat beautiful pictures you have taken! I love that you still take the special walk that you used to take with your Mum. That trail should be named after you and your Mum!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Bonnie! Also, I should have memorial plaques attached to those benches where we usually took a rest.
DeleteBonny skies, buttercup meadows, cherry blossom everywhere !
ReplyDeletePerfect post for the start of May which will run away into June before we know it.
Bonnie's idea of a trail named Meike is a good one, so too a memorial bench.
*Hunter's Year on Hampstead Heath marks his 101st book.*
Hampstead Highgate Express 2021 online.
*Hunter on Hampstead Heath - Hunter Davies.* The Oldie.
Mr Davies wrote the first biography of the Beatles.
He has lived in Kentish Town, London for many decades and walks on Hampstead Heath daily.
There is a memorial bench dedicated to both he and his late wife, Margaret Forster who wrote many novels including Georgie Girl.
Georgie Girl, the song from the film was recorded by The Seekers in 1966 (YouTube).
The walk took actually place on the 22nd of April - making me precisely 54 years and one month old at the time.
DeleteBut I agree, it was very May-ish.
Margaret Forster rings a bell. I shall look her up on wikipedia and see whether I have read any of her works.
You must be more careful when you type.
DeleteOn April 22 you celebrated your 45th birthday and you look 34 !
Margaret Forster made a delicious lunch when I interviewed Hunter at his home in Kentish Town, but she didn't join us.
Hunter had a dream job writing features for The Sunday Times edited then by the late great Harold Evans.
Hunter collected his profiles together in a book, Hunting People.
One of the first people he interviewed was the Edwardian poet John Masefield who wrote the best novel from my childhood, Dead Ned.
Hunter wrote a lovely book about Hadrian's Wall in the North of England - he and Margaret grew up in Carlisle and went out when they were at school.
Of Margaret's books you might enjoy The Memory Box, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Hidden Lives: A Family Memoir and her biography of Daphne du Maurier.
Her husband said she could look out the window, notice an elderly woman walk by on the pavement outside, and sit down and write a novel about her.
Keep walking + blogging. Enjoy your well deserved break.
I have just looked at the list of Margaret Forster‘s books. Some titles sound familiar enough, but I am still not sure whether I have read any of them. During my years at the library, so many books were in my hands so many times that it felt almost as if I‘d absorbed them by touch.
DeleteMany years ago (about 40 or more) I read "Mother Can You Hear Me" from M. Forster. I was quite impressed by her philosophie.
DeleteSorry, I didn't want to be Anonymus, it's me, Meike's Mum.
DeleteYour walk seems perfect in every way, even ending with a lovely sunset!
ReplyDeleteIt was very nice and just what I needed after a week‘s worth of desk work under my belt.
DeleteOh how magical! I would love to walk in a meadow like that!
ReplyDeleteIt was like something I remember from my childhood, when meadows were left to grow as they pleased. It is good that many farmers and landowners are reverting back to some of that now, not killing everything off with pesticides and herbicides.
Delete