A Mild Week

We experienced unusually (but not unheard of) high temperatures last week, with Tuesday being the warmest day at 14C/57F, warmer than what we often get on a day in March, April or sometimes even as late as May.

It was often sunny, too, and whenever I could, I arranged my day so that I could go for a walk in the good weather. The weekend was rather eventful.

Monday (8 December) was a busy day working from home, interrupted mid-afternoon by my almost weekly back & shoulders massage.

My bedroom window on Monday morning.

In the evening, I met with my pub quiz team at the Christmas market for a good evening of catching up over our food and drink. One of them had only two days previously returned from two months away on a diving and hiking trip in Southeast Asia, and of course he had a lot to tell.

The sun shone brightly from sunrise to sunset on Tuesday (9 December), and because I started work very early (easy to do when I'm working from home), I was able to leave at 3:00 pm and walk to Benningen, where I'd not been in a while. It was very muddy in parts, and my shoes looked accordingly, but  stretching my legs, airing my head and enjoying the spring-like sunny weather was very good.

Sunrise on Tuesday, as seen from my kitchen

On the fields between Ludwigsburg and Freiberg

On the fields between Freiberg and Benningen

Sunset in Benningen

My regular day at the office followed on Wednesday (10 December). After work, I met my Mum and my sister for our first and only visit of the Christmas market together (all three of us, I mean) this year. Again, the mild temperature made for a pleasant time; cold enough to appreciate a hot drink but not so cold as wanting to go home after half an hour.

On Thursday (11 December), I worked at the office for the second time that week. It was nearly a non-stop series of meetings, but all went well; I was just glad not to have anything planned for the evening.

Friday (12 December) was the start of another weekend spent not with O.K., due to appointments and engagements that would have made visiting one another very hectic and impractical.

Finishing work around lunch time on another mild and sunny day, I decided to postpone the customary afternoon cleaning to Saturday morning and go for a good long walk instead. It wasn't difficult to choose where to: I took the train to Marbach and from there walked to Steinheim on what used to be my Mum and my favourite walk, often featured on my blog. 

Leaving Marbach at 10 past 1:00 pm

Crossing the village, I climbed the hill on the other side, walked to where my parents used to have their allotment and then on towards the woods. Unlike during my last visit on the 6th of September, I had "my" grassy path all to myself.

The village of Lehrhof

"My" grassy path

I looped back to Steinheim along the rim of the woods, where I encountered another woman walking on her own. She remarked on the muddiness of some of the paths, and we exchanged a few friendly words about the right footwear and how good it was to be out on a day like this.

Bench where I stopped for my sandwich and some water.

The same view from the beginning, almost exactly 3 hours later, arriving at the outskirts of Marbach again.

After about 17.5 km, I reached Marbach station and didn't have long to wait for a train back to Ludwigsburg. 

A young woman took the seat opposite me. We politely smiled at each other, then I looked out of the window and she pulled out her mobile phone. A while later, she took her earplugs out, leant forward and said: "Excuse me, may I say something?" When she started to speak I thought her "excuse me" was going to be followed by some question about a train connection or our next stop. Instead, she complimented me on my earrings, saying they were wonderful and looked very good on me! 

This was totally unexpected, and after I had said a surprised "thank you", we briefly talked about how I have the same ones in several different colours and like to match them with what I wear. The train stopped, and she left after we wished each other a nice evening, with me still a bit puzzled but pleased at the same time - these earrings are by no means unusual or particularly eye-catching, but obviously the young woman had liked them.

Spending another quiet evening at home alone, I developed a headache. Thinking that it was caused by me not having drunk enough water during the afternoon (I did have a sandwich and my flask filled with tap water with me, but didn't drink the whole flask), I made an effort to re-hydrate and went to bed relatively early, hoping I'd wake up the next morning feeling fine again.

However, I spent a rather uncomfortable night, and the headache was still there on Saturday (13 December) morning. I had plans for the day and although no fan of medication unless really necessary, I ended up taking a paracetamol, and over the next couple of hours did my cleaning and felt 80 % back to normal again.

At 11:00 am, my sister and I met in town and walked to the palace to visit an exhibition about Barbie, focusing on how the fashion for the doll evolved since her first appearance in 1959, and how it was all connected to fashion and image (and a mirror of society, of course) in the real world during those decades.

We really enjoyed the exhibition, last but not least because the display with Barbies from mainly the 1970s - which was when we were of Barbie-playing age - was like meeting old friends and acquaintances: So many familiar dolls and outfits were gathered there! 

Hagrid, Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron - Hagrid's size does not match the children's; he should be towering over them.

Lucille Ball and Audrey Hepburn; Marylin Monroe in a box in the background

Rhett and Scarlett :-D

Two American icons combined - Coca Cola and Barbie!

See the Hawaii Barbie wearing the lei? I had bought her partly with my own pocket money and was extremely fond of her. She came with a surfing board, an orange plastic ukulele and even a straw skirt! (None of those accessories were in the exhibition.)

Many of the 1960s dolls and dresses were still around in my childhood.

These were the 1970s dolls, furniture and outfits we knew best.

The early 80s brought some particularly flashy outfits, "Dynasty"-style.

Familiar because we or our friends had them when we were young, and we often played Barbie together. Other items we recognised from having admired them at the toy shop or come across them in the toy catalogue published every year around Christmas - we loved that catalogue and often wished for specific things (not always getting them, of course).

It was late lunch time when we left the palace and crossed the road to a nice café-bar where we had slices of quiche and cold drinks. Back home by mid-afternoon, I slept for nearly an hour - the remnants of my headache had made me really tired.

The rest of Saturday was quietly spent doing a few household things, some Christmas-related stuff and later watching TV, reading and talking to O.K. on the phone.

Unfortunately, the headache was back on Sunday (14 December) morning. It didn't go away after a mug of coffee, nor after a shower, and not after a bowl of muesli with fresh banana, either. So, once again I resorted to paracetamol, because once again I had plans.

It was still sunny, a little colder than during the previous days, but I did not feel like a walk, conserving my energy instead.

Shortly after 3:00 pm, I left the house to meet my mum at a bus stop in town. From there, we walked to the concert hall where the annual "Singalong" Advent Concert was held - a firm favourite of ours.

The curtain is still closed...

...and then reveals several different choirs, while the orchestra is ready, too.

The red and green lights looked particularly nice.

Even Santa made an appearance!

We enjoyed it greatly, even though this year there were less songs for the audience to sing along and more performed by the choirs only. 

I was going home with my Mum for a meal together, and waiting for the bus, my Mum sat on a bench. A younger woman with a little girl sat next to her. The bus came, we got on and found seats. The woman and girl remained, waiting for their bus. 

Less than a minute into our journey, my Mum realised that she had left her handbag on the bench!! Everything was in there, her wallet with ID and bank cards, her house key... only her mobile phone was with her, because her bus ticket is on it and she had shown it to the driver. We were both shocked, and at the next bus stop (still on the same main road but at its other end), I jumped off and ran back, while Mum rode home; we knew she was going to be able to get in, because her friend who lives in the same house has a key to her flat.

To my immense relief and gratitude, the woman with the little girl was still there, and while the girl was firmly holding my Mum's handbag, her mother had just been on the phone to the police, arranging to take the handbag there. She recognised me immediately, gave me the bag and said she was going to ring the police again to tell them that I had returned to claim the bag and there was no need for any further action.

I thanked both the girl and her mother for their kindness and honesty; their bus arrived, they got on, while I started on an adrenaline-fueled 20-minute walk to my Mum's.

Only later did I remember that I should have given the woman some money, but I was so overwhelmed by the entire incident that I had not thought of it at that moment.

We have since then posted the story on a local neighbourhood platform, hoping that the friendly young woman will read it, or maybe someone who knows her and whom she'd told of the incident. Also, I have emailed the local police station but have had no reply yet. (I still wonder why she called the police instead of simply looking at the contents of the bag, where she would have found my Mum's address on more than one card in her wallet.)

We still want to thank the woman for rescuing Mum's handbag and hope that, one way or another, she'll get in touch.

In any case, from now on Mum will always make sure to wear her handbag with the cross-body strap and not place it on the seat next to her when waiting for the bus!

Three candles were lit that day.

Read in 2025 - 31: The House on the Borderland

The House on the Borderland

William Hope Hodgson

(The cover is not mine.)

What a strange book this free ebook from Amazon's Kindle shop was!

Originally published in 1908, it is a horror novel that was just short enough to keep me reading to the end even though I was more than once tempted to break off.

I'd not had any idea what to expect when I started it, and can't remember why I downloaded it in the first place (certainly would not have done so, had it been offered as a horror story). 

I can't recommend it, even though - according to its wikipedia article, which is here - it has been highly praised by other writers, Terry Pratchett (of Discworld fame) even calling it the "Big Bang" in his private universe as a reader and writer of fantasy and science fiction.

The story is quickly told: Two young men go on a hiking and fishing holiday in a remote area in Ireland. During a long hike they come across the ruins of a house in the middle of a large overgrown garden which gives them a creepy feeling. Within the ruins, they find a hand-written account of the last person to inhabit the house.

They take the badly damaged manuscript back to their camp site and read it together, learning of strange and terrible goings-on at the spot that made them feel so uneasy.

We read the manuscript along with them, and the book ends with the young men deciding never to set foot again in the strange garden and ruins of the house, although they do not say aloud that they believe that what the former inhabitant has described really happened.

For the reader, nothing is explained, everything is merely described. There is no "solution", no big revelation at the end; we are left to our own devices as to whether we want to believe the account as a faithful description of true happenings or of hallucinations of a lonely man.

Of course, I read what wikipedia had to say about the book and its author, who was completely unknown to me. A very handsome man and prolific writer, he married at the age of 35 and died at the age of 40, fighting in WWI. His widow worked to keep his books in print and even had some of his works published posthumously for the first time. When she died decades later, her sister took over.

Learning about the author's short life was more interesting than the book itself, I must say.

First of December and Second Advent

It's the Third Advent tomorrow, and I have not even blogged about the week leading up to the Second yet... Well, here goes:

My train from Offenburg to Stuttgart on Monday (1st of December) was on time. I worked from home and afterwards met an old school friend at the Christmas market, where we enjoyed something to eat, a drink and most of all catching up with the goings-on in our lives. We've known each other since we were ten years old and still live in the same town, but manage to meet only a precious few times a year.

I liked the neatness of the month starting on a Monday; when I was little, I believed it should be so with every month, or at least with every year, and was quite puzzled when I first learned that the days of the week just continue no matter what.

Tuesday (2nd of December) was as sunny as Monday had been. The morning was frosty, but during the day it was as mild as 12C/53F - more than we often get in spring! I made up for the recent lack of walks and went on TWO walks: One pre-work walk, the customary hour with my friend which we try to fit in once a week (but often fail), and then I finished work early so that I was able to walk to Benningen without having to stumble across the fields in the dark. Sunset was at around 4:30 pm that day, and I timed my walk perfectly. 

It wasn't pure bliss, though; there is so much work going on along the lanes where I usually walk that I came against barriers twice and ended up NOT walking to Benningen, but taking a stroll in the deer park instead, which was actually very nice with the late afternoon sun filtering through the mostly bare trees. No deer were to be seen, but some wild sheep grazing relatively close to the path.

Of the equally sunny and mild Wednesday (3 December) I could not really take advantage, as it was dark by the time I left the office. My sister joined me at my kitchen table for a session of writing Christmas cards, most of them to our family and friends in England, but also to Switzerland and within Germany. It was a nice way of doing this, having mugs of tea while we were scribbling away.

Working from home made sense on Thursday (4 December), as I had online meetings scheduled from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm with only 25 minutes for a bite to eat - no need to travel to the office for that. After work, my sister and I met at our Mum's.

Friday (5 December) saw the annual highlight in the calendar of my group of girl friends: The "Rubbish Secret Santa"! It is something we have been doing in this particular group of friends for 17 years or so, and at least 15 of them at my place. I have mentioned it on my blog every year, I think; for instance the 2019 post is here (I still had brown hair then!).

Getting the table ready for a glass of sparkling wine to get us started.

I put up a few more Christmassy bits in the afternoon.

This year, I was almost ready to cancel or postpone the event, since only two of the group could make it. Thankfully, my sister agreed to join us (she's never been, since she's not keen on such games) so that there would be four of us around the table. And guess what - in spite of the smallest Schrottwichteln I have ever hosted, it was good fun! (And I ended up with the biggest rubbish gift I have ever received at this event!)

Look at the size of it!!

Oh my... what's this?!

You can tell how happy I was with my rubbish gift... but I am pleased to report that the three "snowmen" (?) have found a good home - just not with me :-D

One of my friends brought silly things to put on our heads.

O.K. deliberately arrived long after the actual game had finished, joining us for a drink and chat. 

On Saturday (6 December), against our habit we only had a quick breakfast before heading into town. Rain was forecast, and we wanted to make use of the hours before that. A stroll in town with a few errands and purchases was followed by food and a drink at the Christmas market around lunch time. 

I made a new friend at a fashion store.

Back home by 3:00 pm, we rested for a while before having coffee and heading back into town for another errand, something O.K. had meant to get in the morning but had forgotten about. Since we were already there, we had another turn at the Christmas market, which of course has a different atmosphere in the evening with all the lights, and many more visitors than earlier in the day.

We then retreated to my flat for good, and I made a kind of Shepherd's Pie for us.

Sign spotted at the Christmas market - "Women, think of your men!" The stall behind the sign sells all sorts of salami, speck, dry meats and things which apparently make perfect gifts for men (unless they are vegetarians or vegans).

A sweet and pretty Advent calendar I got from my Mum. It's got foxes, too!

The 2nd Advent Sunday (7 December) was here! We went for a walk after breakfast and had coffee and Christmas cookies at home later before briefly popping in at my Mum's for an errand (more on that in a later post). 

Pre-breakfast coffee with Christmas cookies

Two candles to light already!

At a little after 5:00 pm, we walked into town; the Christmas market was of course in full swing, but that was not what we had come for: My Mum had given us tickets for a concert in church! There were seven of us altogether, and we had the best seats up on the gallery. 

The organ was behind us, but not part of the concert.

A wonderful choir, an equally wonderful orchestra and great solo singers were performing Johann Sebastian Bach's "Magnificat" - a beautiful, very moving piece of music. His son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote his own version of the "Magnificat", and this was the second half of the concert. It was very interesting to hear how father and son had composed on the same theme, with a distance of some 20-odd years between the two works. I greatly enjoyed both but was touched more deeply by the older one.

The choir and orchestra getting ready. I love to watch the preparations, and from the gallery we had the best view of course.

Everyone in place. Shush! Mobiles off!

It was a great early Christmas present from my Mum, and a very appropriate thing to do on an Advent Sunday.

Click here for the wikipedia entry about the "Magnificat" (in English) - and if you have time and feel like it, find it on youtube; it's about 27 minutes long.

When we came out of the church, it was raining; we didn't want to eat at the Christmas market with water dripping from every stall but went to the pub instead, just across the market square. Food and drink was enjoyed, and then O.K. had to leave - he still had a 150 km drive ahead in order to get home.