Monday, the 25th of September, saw both of us back at work. I was working from home and through a series of meetings plus dealing with a little more than 150 emails in the various inboxes I regularly look after, before I called it a day and went for my standard after-work walk to Benningen. That was so pleasant, and although it had been a VERY busy day, it wasn't really stressful overall.
I worked on-site at the office on Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 26 and 27). Both were beautiful days, and my colleague and I went for a short walk during lunch break. Local trains were as chaotic as ever, with some added "special effects" such as making everybody dash up the long flight of steps at Zuffenhausen station, only to announce that the train which had been said to depart from up there was now going to depart from a platform at the bottom of the stairs... and all that rushing up and down in business clothes. Phew!
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| Sunrise from my kitchen window just before 7:00 on that Wednesday |
Thursday (28th of September) was more relaxed in that I did not need public transport of any kind, working from home. At 5:00 pm, my sister and I walked down to the lake for the very last "Wine After Work" event of this year. As you can see, it was warm enough to still be wearing shorts and t-shirts, but we had sensibly brought jumpers and cardigans for the way home.
The atmosphere by the lake was beautiful, everybody was in a relaxed and good mood, tinged with a bit of nostalgia as it felt like the offical "good-bye to summer".
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| Me and Holly, the friendly Australian Shepherd of a lady we've been meeting a few times by the lake. You wouldn't know Holly is 14 already! |
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| View from my kitchen window shortly before 9:00 pm that night |
For good part of the day on Friday (Sept. 29), I hosted a large-ish online meeting for the association of Data Protection Officers of which I am a member . All went well in spite of the usual technical issues with such meetings.
Cleaning and groceries shopping came next, and when O.K. arrived at about 1/4 to 10 in the evening, we sat down to eat the oven-roasted carrots I had prepared, washing them down with well chilled white wine - fittingly for the summerly evening.
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| Sunrise that Friday morning, as seen from my kitchen. |
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| oven-roasted carrots and spring onions (I know - it's not spring, but they were on offer at Aldi's organic section.) |
Saturday, the last day of September, was a little cooler at "only" 22C/71F, but still sunny apart from a few clouds later in the day.
O.K. and I had a nice leisurely breakfast before strolling into town, where among other things we went to the regular farmer's market on the beautiful market square. Back home early afternoon, we rested for a short while before setting off for a walk on the fields.
In the evening, we were invited at my Mum's good friend R, who lives on the ground floor in the same house as my Mum. She celebrated her birthday and had prepared delicious food after refreshing drinks for starters. A very nice evening.
We went for an easy run (only 5k - I don't feel like doing more than that just yet, when we've only just begun to go running again after a VERY long break) on Sunday morning, the 1st of October.
Breakfast was at midday (not unusual for us), and by 2:00 pm we were out again, walking across the fields to Asperg and the castle on the hill, where we'd not been in quite a while.
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| on the fields at the outskirts of Ludwigsburg |
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| Castle Hohenasperg on the hill above the small town of Asperg |
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| View from the castle towards Ludwigsburg |
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| View of Hohenasperg from near the beer garden |
And just after 8:00 pm, O.K. got into the car... and I and my little red suitcase with him :-)
For a change, he did not have to drive the 150 km to his place all alone. The next day, Monday, was going to be a day off for both of us, since Tuesday (3rd of October) was a public holiday for Germany.
Gosh, what a lovely weekend, Meike! The skies look so wonderful in your photos. Glad you got to enjoy a long weekend with your Monday and Tuesday holidays!
ReplyDeleteIt seems odd to have a day off so soon after our two weeks off, and just one working week, but we really enjoyed it, as you will see in one of my next posts :-)
DeleteWe had blue sky like that (the last photos) today - but considerably colder temperature (frosty night, around 10'C in the afternoon)...
ReplyDeleteIt's much colder here now, too, but only really dropped on Sunday. Monday morning was the first frosty morning!
DeleteIt is as if the summer got stretched. Nice pictures. I especially like the little green and white building on the outskirts of Ludwigsburg.
ReplyDeleteYes; the summer that didn't want to go finally had to say good-bye last weekend. But it has already warmed up a bit, and we are getting some very welcome rain.
DeleteThe little building is just someone's shed on their allotment. I like its neat and yet not "overdone" look, and the sunshine that day put it in good contrast to the field and trees.
As you've probably worked out, I'm catching up on my friends' blog posts in reverse order, and I was surprised at what a "Septemberish" feeling your post gave me. Despite our recent rainstorms, October here has had some warm sunny days - but even though it has stayed green for longer than usual, everything has a completely different feeling to how it was in September. I guess it takes me a while to accept that summer has really gone!
ReplyDeleteFor me, it is mainly the much shorter daylight hours that make this season feel so different from summer. One morning when it was very cold, the air had a distinct autumn smell, not just because of the temperature. Altogether, it has been the warmest October on record here - way too warm, meteorologists say, and it's going to stay that way at least for the first week of November.
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