Birthday Week

Another week full of activities, including my birthday on the Friday; there were warm sunny days but there was also some April-like weather with cold rain and hail.

On Monday, 18 March, I arrived home in time to start work mid-morning. Part of my lunch break was spent dashing to the office near the train station where my volunteer group met for the cleanup the previous Saturday; one from the group forgot his backpack there, and since I live closest and have the key, I picked it up. My after-work walk that day was used to take the backpack to his house in a different part of town.

The magnolia trees in my street were in full bloom; there are two of them, one next to the other in front of two identical blocks of flats:

Sunset on my way back from returning the backpack to its owner.

Tuesday, 19 March, was a wonderful day - sunny and warm at 16C/60F. I worked from home and of course simply HAD to go for a good long walk afterwards. Hardly surprising, I chose my standard route to Benningen.

There are often herons on the fields that time of day (between 6 and 7 pm), but storks are rare here (it's the other way round where O.K. lives). I spotted the stork first, and one by one the grey herons emerged - I ended up counting six or eight of them, when at first I thought there were only two.

What the afternoon looked like near O.K.'s.

It was my Office Day as usual on Wednesday, 20 March, but with a difference: My department had its annual outing, and ten or eleven of us took a train into Stuttgart after work. 

We were booked for a meal and a guided tour after dark. The tour took in several historic buildings and places in the old city centre of Stuttgart, with our guide telling us a mix of historic facts and legends, some of which were about ghostly appearances and gruesome events. It wasn't excactly a ghost tour, but well done and really interesting.

Statue of "Stuttgardia" on a wall of the townhall

Shopping district

Our guide in his dramatic cloak

Stuttgart by night

Stuttgart Opera House

Just like Wednesday, Thursday, 21 March was even warmer at 18C/64F and sunny, a perfect spring day - very appropriate in view of the date. I spent all day at a meeting for Privacy Officers and visited my Mum in the evening.

The attic flat above mine stood empty for 10 months since the former tenants moved to a larger flat. A new family with two small children moved in that day. The current tenant is the City of Ludwigsburg, who assigns the flat to people in need, mainly refugees. I didn't have a chance to speak to them that day, but was determined to welcome them as soon as possible.

Sunrise from my kitchen window

The neighbour's garden shows a carpet of primroses.

The magnificent magnolia tree again - even more beautiful than on Monday!

Friday, 22 March, was my 56th birthday. I worked all morning, and with the recent sad events felt not at all birthday-ish. Still, it was a beautiful day, and it was lovely to receive phone calls, emails and cards with good wishes and kind words.

O.K. arrived late afternoon, and soon after we'd had coffee, we were on our way into town, walking through the town centre and towards the palace grounds - but the grounds were not our actual destination today: We were to ride the giant ferris wheel!

Maybe you remember that I did the same on my birthday in 2022, with my Mum, Dad and Mum's friend R. And maybe you remember that I blogged about the wheel being set up, and finally finished; you can see the pictures from back then here.

Approaching the wheel:

Model (meaning, not full-size) hot air balloons were in the grounds near the wheel; a festival "Balloons in Bloom" was being held:

Sunset over the palace grounds...

...and over Ludwigsburg:

Looking up at the wheel before getting on:

And finally, up in the air:

View of the palace and the hot air balloons (some of them, at least - there were more than 80!):

Looking across the city centre towards the part where I live:

A venue for concerts and all sorts of events, built in the shape of a grand piano:

Back on the ground, looking at the wheel with its changing colours:

We then went to my place, where just the four of us (Mum, my sister, O.K. and myself) had pizza and drinks. Understandably, I did not feel like a big "do", but it mattered to me to have my loved ones with me, and by now it did feel like my birthday.

Here is the atlas my sister and I used in school - we are talking late 1970s and early 1980s here. It has a special meaning for us, and my sister got hold of a copy and gave it to me for my birthday, among other things :-)

My presents and cards.

We had nothing planned for Saturday, 23 March. It was much colder than the day before and very windy, with sprinkles of rain in between. After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a walk to the lake and back through the deer park, about 10 km altogether.

In the evening, we watched "Love & Friendship" on TV, a costume drama after a Jane Austen novel - just the right kind of escapism we find helpful these days.

Monrepos palace close up

Lady by the lake

Monrepos palace seen across the lake

part of the buildings housing the winery and offices next to the lake

Favorite palace in the deer park from the back...

...and front.

On Sunday, 24 March, we set off to O.K.'s at lunch time. The motorways were really busy, and driving was also made difficult by all sorts of weather: in quick succession, we went from sun to rain to sun to hail to rain, and it was very windy.

We met at O.K.'s Mum's with his sister and her husband in the afternoon; not only does it help to spend time together, there was (and is) of course still a lot for the family to discuss, decide and organise in connection with O.K.'s Dad's death.

It definitely was a very mixed week, and not just weather-wise.