First Full Week in November

Last week was the first full week in November. I worked, walked (surprise, surprise!), was with family and friends on various occasions, and witnessed some very beautiful sunrises.

Monday, the 6th of November, was rather mild at 12C/53F. There was some rain, and it was quite windy. Now that sunset is before 5:00 pm, I need to time my walks a bit differently. On that day, I did not have meetings scheduled for early afternoon, and so I extended my lunch break and walked to Benningen.

sunrise last Monday

outskirts of Ludwigsburg

barn between Freiberg and Benningen

It is November - and still some sunflowers are in bloom!

I worked at the Weilimdorf office on Tuesday (7 November), and since no rain was forecast for the afternoon, I left as early as 4:00 pm, got off the train one stop before mine and walked the rest (about 45-50 minutes) home.

sunrise on Tuesday

The day started sunny on Wednesday (8 November). 

sunrise on Wednesday...

...changing rapidly

It clouded over during the afternoon but remained dry, and so my Mum and I met at the bus stop in front of the palace grounds at 5:30 pm for a visit of the "Luminous Dream Paths", a relatively new event. You can find pictures of last year and the year before on my blog.

Maybe you remember that we had intended to go there last week but then went to the pub instead, because the palace grounds were totally overcrowded. This time, there were people around but it was nowhere near as packed, and we spent a pleasant couple of hours in the palace grounds.

Emichsburg, a folly in the palace grounds, from afar

north facade of Ludwigsburg palace

view across the north garden

Here is a short video (under 2 minutes); hopefully you can view it:

 Emichsburg again, from a different angle

Temperatures dropped in the course of the evening, and for the first time this season, it was cold enough for us to see our breath. I was ready to spend the rest of the evening on my settee with a warm blanket wrapped around me :-)

Thursday, the 9th of November, was unremarkable unless you count a spectacular sunset in the morning and me buying a new fridge in the evening, to be delivered (and the old one removed) next week Friday. Walking into town (where I bought/ordered the fridge) and back was my only "walk" that day.

sunrise on Thursday

In reality, it was truly spectacular, much more brilliant and luminous than my photo!

It was a blustery day of high winds on Friday (10 November) with a fast-changing mix of sun, clouds and rain. Around lunch time, it looked stable enough for me to venture out. After less than 500 m of walking, all of a sudden and virtually out of the blue, it started to rain. It stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and I had just about enough time to take pictures of the rainbow over Ludwigsburg before it disappeared.

For the rest of my lunchtime walk, it remained dry in spite of the threatening clouds racing along in the south. Many birds were about; I counted seven herons in one field.

on the fields south-west of Ludwigsburg

back in town

November sun in my living room...

...and my bedroom.

view from my kitchen window mid-afternoon

On Saturday, the 11th of November, the last of my three trains was nearly half an hour late. I arrived in Offenburg at 1:00 pm. After a quick snack at the cottage, we did a few jobs around his parents' house to get things ready for winter and finished just as rain started to fall.

Later, we met with a friend at an Italian restaurant in town and had a pleasant evening.

The rain that had been falling most of the night stopped long enough on Sunday (10 November) to allow for a couple of hours worth walking. It was the coldest day of the week at a maximum of 4C/39F. Back at the cottage, a hot lunch followed by coffee and cake was most welcome. The afternoon was cosy with the sound of rain on the rooftop windows providing the background to our resting, reading and/or watching TV.

O.K. prepared a delicious ratatouille and couscous for our evening meal.

Sunday morning coffee with goose-shaped biscuits, made by O.K.'s Mum

Looking at the beautiful colours -especially the yellow foliage (my favourite colour!), is it any wonder I think November does not deserve the bad reputation it generally seems to have!