A Mostly Sunny Week

[Updated 27.02.2025 about the phenomenon we observed on the Friday]

Last week was often sunny but very cold until Thursday afternoon, when the weather began to feel very spring-like. I managed some good walks and spent Sunday volunteering at one of the 59 polling stations in my hometown, helping with the German-wide general election.

I returned from Offenburg on Monday (17 February) morning and started work as usual. My lunch time was spent having my customary back & shoulders massage at the nearby day spa. 

My sister and I had agreed to go on a guided tour after work, at a huge construction site at our old school. Only when she arrived a bit before we had to leave and I offered her coffee did I realise that half of my flat was without electricity! My study was fine, otherwise I would have noticed immediately that something was wrong; it was full daylight so that I had not needed the lights on in any of the rooms, and I had not been cooking and only drank tap water.

Kitchen, bathroom and bedroom had no power, which meant my fridge was not cooling, and the freezer compartment had completely defrosted - something I'd meant to do for ages but I rather imagined it would happen in a planned way, not like this! Unfortunately, I had to throw out two or three items from the freezer, something I hate - it's food, after all, and I am very unhappy about food waste.

Anyway, my sister gave me the number of the electrician who had recently sorted out something at our Mum's place, and he agreed to come the very next day.

We went to the guided tour as planned, and learned many interesting things about what it means to pull an old complex of school buildings down and building a new one, all step by step without the school having to close for the work - a HUGE challenge.

I suppose you can guess when the school was built! It hasn‘t changed much since then.

The spacious foyer, still smelling exactly the same - not surprising, as the ugly carpet is still the same, too!!

How many hours of my life were spent staring at a ceiling like this while a teacher was doing his or her best to impart some knowledge?

We quite like the concept of the new school buildings, and enjoyed the trip down memory lane when we spent the second half of the tour inside the old building that we knew so well from when we were about 10 years old until our late teens.

Tuesday (18 February) was sunny but so cold at -6C/21F that I didn't mind not having time for a walk. I was working from home, and the electrician appeared as promised. It took him all of 10 minutes to sort things out, but I know that sooner or later a bigger job is on the cards - I still have all the original wiring from when the house was built in 1950s, and the ceramic-head fuses which should by rights be in a museum.

sunrise from my kitchen on Tuesday

The evening was spent with my sister again, this time at our Mum's, for a nice meal and chat.

The weather was the same on Wednesday (19 February), my regular day at the office and busy but unremarkable.

Thursday (20 February) saw the start of the spring-like weather: After a cold morning just above freezing, the afternoon was much milder at 10C/50 F. There was a mix of sun and clouds, but it remained dry, and I was very happy to be able to walk to Benningen after work, even though by then there was little left of the earlier sunshine.

Lunch was different from my usual cheese sandwich, eaten in my yellow armchair while reading: My sister, my Mum and Mum's friend met at the Vesperkirche, an annual charity project my Mum used to be involved with and wrote a guest post about here. It was packed, which is good - the more people come, the more donations come in (I hope). We enjoyed our meal but both my sister and I were pressed for time since we only had our lunch break.

On Friday (21 February), the warmest day of the week saw the thermometer climb to 17C/62F, which is unusual but not impossible in our area this time of year. After work, my sister and I walked to our neighbouring town of Kornwestheim, where we revisited a few places our family has ties to, and were out for about 3 hours.

sunrise again

yellow and blue - my favourite colours

An unusual phenomenon in the sky (no trick or reflection, but really what we saw)

More unusual cloud formations above Kornwestheim‘s old church.

Statue of a mother with children of various ages in Kornwestheim‘s Stadtgarten (town garden, a public park we‘ve known all our lives)

Italianate living quarter built in the late 1980s. Back then, I found it somewhat ridiculous and pretentious, but looking at it now I have come to like it.

Witz means joke in German, but here it was simply the name of the shop owners, long gone and the shop closed for decades.

The photographer being photographed 😊
It was the first time in months that I felt comfortable outside without a jacket or coat.

Update 27.02.2025: My sister reminded me of the name for the phenomenon we observed in the sky, it was a circumhorizontal arc and has its own wikipedia entry here. (In our case, it didn't look like an arc, but that's what it was.)

Saturday (22 February) was a complete "day off" for me, with no appointments with anyone and no work - I could just do what I wanted, and I wanted a walk to Steinheim. You may remember that the route across the fields from Marbach to Steinheim, where my parents had their allotment until my Dad became too unwell to look after it, used to be my Mum and my favourite walk for some years. I still love that walk, even though my Mum is not physically able to do come along anymore. The last time I was there was in September last year, as seen here.

I boarded the local train to Marbach at lunch time, then walked to Steinheim, up the hill to the allotments, on into the woods and back to Steinheim in a wide loop, then back to Marbach across the fields - a total of about 18 km, which felt really good. I had a sandwich and my water bottle in my bag and took a 10-minute rest on a bench, enjoying the mild spring air (15C/59F). Arriving at Marbach station with 15 minutes to spare until the train home was good timing without having planned it that way.

a crocus field

a familiar view, but never quite the same

The river Murr flows through Steinheim

The village of Lehrhof looks much better from afar than up close (trust me)

Germany held a federal election on Sunday (23 February), and both my sister and I were once again volunteering at one of the polling stations. I really like this kind of volunteer work; it makes me feel that I am doing my bit for democracy (apart from voting, of course), and I hardly mind getting up awfully early for that on a Sunday. (I must admit I wouldn‘t want to do that evey week, or once a month or so.)

Our shift was from 7:30 am until 1:00 pm, and we were back by 5:45 pm to help close the polling station at 6:00 pm and then do the counting.

There were seven of us for the counting, and so we were finished a little before 8:00 pm. I am not going to turn this post into a political one; let it suffice to say that the outcome wasn't a surprise. It could have been "better", but it could have also been "worse", in my opinion.

Read in 2025 - 4: Whispered Bones

Whispered Bones (A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller Book 2)

by N.C. Lewis

Unusual for a freebie from the Kindle shop, this one was not the 1st, but 2nd in a series. Not knowing the 1st book wasn't a problem, though, since all that the reader needs to understand for this story is explained.

Fenella Sallow is an Inspector living and working in the coastal area of Cumbria, so the sound of waves and the sight of the sky above the beach are frequent features. She and her husband share a house with her mother; her five grown-up children are sometimes mentioned but never seen in this book.

Years ago, Fenella's sister disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and this underlying storyline probably spans the whole series.

The current case starts with a grizzly murder on a footbridge across the beck that, according to legend, centuries ago washed the bones of King Arthur into the Sea, making the beck and its immediate surroundings cursed. (The story has nothing supernatural, but the legend is brought up a few times from locals during questioning.)

Everyone in the village seems to have something to hide, except for the village gossip who is a willing witness - but how much of what she says can the investigating team trust to be true?

A serial killer Fenella helped to put behind bars has escaped, and he appears to be behind the murder - which doesn't remain the only death in the course of the story. But is he really? And how many more people have to die before Fenella and her team find the murderer?

From my short description, it sounds more gruesome than it is; of course the murders are horrible, but the book does not go into all the gory detail. The overall feeling at the end for me was sadness more than anything.

I liked the setting and some of the characters, but many of them were so nasty with each other that I wanted to shout at them. Some "dark" secrets are revealed as perfectly good explanations of people's behaviour, and I quite liked that. I also liked Fenella's home life and how she treated her team.

Not a series I am going to buy, but a book that kept me guessing and entertained. 

The author was unknown to me, and his website does not give much information about him, but you can also find him on facebook and on the usual platforms such as Goodreads.com.

An (Almost) Walkless Week

Very unlike me, last week I had only one proper walk. It was either too cold or too wet (or both), or I was busy until after dark, when a walk didn't hold much appeal.

Arriving home from Offenburg on time on Monday (10 February) morning, my election documents were in the mailbox. Some of you will know that Germany is holding a general election next Sunday; originally, it was intended for September as per the regular legislative period. But in November our government came crashing down. The endless bickering between the coalition parties was finally at an end, but it meant that the election could not wait until September. Instead, it was all rescheduled, and everything had to happen in a big hurry - organising the voting stations, having all the documents printed, the logistics of getting those documents to all potential voters on time, and so on.

My sister and I are once again helping at one of the polling stations in our town, but it is not the station where I am registered to cast my vote, and therefore I have requested to vote by mail. With only two weeks left before the election, the envelope had arrived, and I didn't hesitate in making my two crosses, signing the voting slip and sealing it in its envelope. Instead of trusting our mail services, after work I walked into town and handed it over personally at the city's office set up for the election. 

Before I went back home, I stopped at a shop that specialises in all things photography. They also offer an instant service to have biometric pictures taken, as required for all current ID cards and passports. My national ID card ("Personalausweis" in German, not the same as my passport, which is a little burgundy booklet) will become invalid by the end of March, and for a new one, I needed the photo.

One more stop before home was the pharmacy where I usually buy my eye drops (I need to take two for medical reasons and a third type to keep the eyes moist, which is not easy when you stare at computer screens all day).

I felt quite good about having gotten all these things done in a short space of time, but when I arrived home, the morning's rain had returned, and so I stayed in and did not go for an evening walk.

Oh, and before I forget, I had also been to my customary 25 minutes of back and shoulders massage around lunch time.

It rained all day on Tuesday (11 February) but was relatively mild at 8C/46F. I worked from home and afterwards went to my Mum's, where my sister, my Mum and I had a very nice meal.

Wednesday (12 February) was my usual office day, and again a day of constant rain.

By Thursday (13 February), the temperature had dropped enough for the rain to come down as snow, and it remained on the ground, too.

View from my kitchen at 9:19 on Thursday morning…

…and the same view at 11:30 at night. The snow-filled clouds made for an unusually bright night.

I spent my lunch break having a mammogram. Women of my age are cordially invited every two years to have that examination, at no cost to them other than their time. The radiology surgery where I go is organised very efficiently, and so it really doesn't take long from checking in to saying good-bye for another two years (depending on the result, which I will learn in one or two weeks).

The snow kept falling and was rather wet, so that once again I didn't go for a walk after work.

Friday (14 February) was cold and grey-white with more snow. I had to interrupt work in the morning for an appointment at the city hall, where I took the new photo I had made on Monday. This kind of service operates by appointment only, and I had booked mine online for 9:15. I arrived a bit earlier, as is my habit, and was called in almost right away. The friendly, competent young lady took the photo, verified that my address and everything else is still the same, I paid 67 euros, and left the building at 9:16!

My neighbourhood, as seen from my living room at 7:00 on Friday morning…

…and again the kitchen view half an hour later.

The mulberry tree in front of my bedroom…

…and the khaki tree next to it.

On the way home, I stopped at the hairdresser's round the corner from my house and asked if anyone was going to be available early next week. My neighbour who runs the salon asked whether I wanted to fill in the same day at 11:00 for a customer who'd had to cancel, and so less than two hours later, I found myself getting my hair cut quicker than expected - another thing done!

Between work, appointments, cleaning the flat and catching the trains to Offenburg, of course there was no time for a walk, either. It wasn't quite dark yet during the first part of the journey, and I enjoyed watching the monochrome world outside from my seat by the window. The light was of a pearly quality, and I only took out my book after Karlsruhe when it was dark and I couldn't see much outside anymore.

Saturday (15 February) was sunny but very cold. O.K. still has plenty to do around the house and garden of his parents; with his Dad being gone for almost a year now and his Mum (who will be 85 in August) not physically capable of doing all the work she used to do, over the past months he has forever been cutting hedges, removing shrubs, cleaning up overgrown corners and so on.

Coffee and something sweet to get some strength for the day‘s physical work

Fennel and red pepper frying in olive oil

On Saturday, he tackled the climbers covering part of two of the walls. One is ivy, the other one we don't know the name of. It all looks nice and green in the summer, and the sparrows and other birds love it for nesting, but both climbers have grown completely out of hand and are slowly destroying the facade. 

A lot of cutting was done that day, with me holding the ladder. Not that I would be of much use should O.K. have slipped and fallen - I can not catch a grown-up man, of course. But the ground around the house isn't even on all sides, and it is better to have someone stabilise the ladder on the ground, especially when going really high.

Since I wasn't moving and both my hands and legs were in almost constant contact with the icy cold aluminium ladder, I got very cold after a while, no matter that I was wearing two pairs of VERY warm socks, winter boots, warm trousers, two padded winter coats one on top of the other, two pairs of gloves and a woolly hat.

Around lunch time I volunteered to go inside and prepare something to eat, which was my chance to warm up - O.K. wasn't quite as cold as I, because a) he was up on the ladder and in the sun most of the time, and b) he was of course moving up and down the ladder, and doing all the cutting. 

I fried fennel and red bell peppers in olive oil and boiled half a packet of spaghetti, which was a quick and easy meal, warm and filling.

After cleaning up, I braced the cold once more. Just when I thought I really had to break off and go inside, O.K. finished cutting, and now that I was able to help bundling up the cuttings and sweeping around the house, I didn't feel cold anymore.

O.K. made our evening meal while I retreated to the settee, wrapped in a blanket and waiting for food to be served :-D

It was good to sleep in on Sunday (16 February), and we were looking forward to a walk. The early morning sun was gone by the time we were ready to go out, but it remained dry, and we gladly walked for a couple of hours. Part of the route was the same I'd taken the previous Saturday, but now the snowdrops were out, and in some front gardens we spotted the first crocus. 

A visit with O.K.'s Mum followed, and Sunday evening was spent quietly with a nice meal and early bedtime.

Read in 2025 - 3: A Year Unfolding

A Year Unfolding - A Printmaker's View

Angela Harding

Some of you will be familiar with Angela Harding's distinctive artwork, for instance on the book cover of The Salt Path (which I have not read but seen in bookshops and read reviews on blogs).

Last summer, when my sister and I visited Fountains Abbey and, as always, paid a visit to the National Trust shop in the visitor centre, I saw this book and immediately wanted it. But... it's relatively big and a hardcover, and so I decided against buying it there and then, keeping in mind that I would have to drag my luggage across several train stations and foot bridges on the way home.

Instead, I took a photo of the book cover with my mobile phone. When some time in late autumn O.K. asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I sent him the photo, and then happily unwrapped this beautiful book on Christmas Day.

It's the kind of book you can read from cover to cover, but also just pick up every now and then, look at some of the wonderful pictures and maybe read a paragraph or two.

There six chapters; not just the usual four seasons, but one extra chapter each for early spring and early summer, since the author feels that these seasons are so rich and important in their own way that they deserve their own chapters.

Of course, I especially loved the pictures that had a fox in them, and the ones of places I know, such as Newby Hall, Richmond and Whitby.

Many pictures have an explanation of what the artist was trying to convey, what the picture is based on etc. Chapters are introduced with a poem, followed by a one-page description of what this particular season means to her. 

On a few pages at the beginning, the book contains an introduction to Angela Harding and her work, with photos of her studio and the views from it and the equipment she uses.

Of course there is loads about her on the internet; wikipedia has an entry about her, and on youtube you can find short and long videos, including this one which is ca. 3 1/2 minutes about this book.

I have greatly enjoyed the book, neatly dividing the time I spent with it when I wanted some cosy downtime after work in my yellow armchair, wrapped in my "Annie" throw (another find at the National Trust shop which O.K. kindly ordered for me as a present some years ago), a cup of tea and maybe some biscuits.

It was nice to arrive at the chapter about winter just when we had another snow fall. I am certainly going to return to this book every now and then, to set the mood for each season as the year unfolds.

First Week of February

The first full week of February was cold, as you'd expect this time of year in these parts. There were sunny days but also clouds and some rain and sleet. I managed several walks, went to the pub quiz and attended a concert - definitely my highlight.

Monday (3 February) started dull and grey, but it didn't bother me, since I was working anyway. When the sun came out early afternoon, I resolved to wrap up work as early as possible and then go for a walk, and I did exactly that.

The ruined castle high above the river, on the outskirts of Ludwigsburg's much older suburb Hoheneck, was my aim. If you look at the pictures, you can see its particular attraction that day.

What's on these branches?

Catkins!! The first I have spotted this season.

I love this picturesque vineyard house. It is the club house of the local association of winemakers.

View from near the castle across the river and towards Neckarweihingen, another one of Ludwigsburg's suburbs that is hundreds of years older than the town itself.

One reason for me wanting to go there was that I had been thinking of my Uncle Rainer a lot since I had learned of his death the previous Thursday. I remember many of our conversations, and years ago he told me that at one point he had seriously considered buying the ruins, making them somehow habitable and live there. The idea never came to fruition, but the conversation stuck with me, and it was my small, personal way of honouring my late uncle (apart from it being a really nice walk on a sunny winter afternoon with early signs of spring).

Tuesday (4 February) was another cold and sunny day. I was working from home and spent the evening at "my" Irish pub for the quiz. Of the original team, three who had said they would be there had to cancel last minute, and so I was really, really glad that my sister had agreed to come (of course she is always welcome! But had there only been three of us, our results would have been meagre indeed). The four of us had a fun evening, no matter that this time we did not walk home with a prize (but still beat our eternal rival, a team by the name Lone Star!).

Let's test your skills as potential members of our team: 

1) What is the name of the scale used to measure wind speed?

2) How many cards are there to a deck of Tarot?

Answers on a postcard :-D

As usual, I worked at the office in Weilimdorf on Wednesday (5 February). The morning was frosty at -6C/21F, and I was grateful that one of my colleagues had remembered to turn up the heating in my room, which was empty since last Wednesday and therefore would have been VERY cold otherwise.

By the time I was home, I wasn't up to anything much, and it was too dark and cold for me to want a walk. But I got my old skipping rope out and did a bit of skipping at least.

Sleety rain fell on Thursday (6 February) morning, making me glad to be working from home. The day remained grey but the rain/snow/rain stopped late morning, and I went for a short-ish walk after work across the fields to Eglosheim and back, just to stretch my legs and clear my head after staring at computer screens all day.

Friday (7 February) saw a mix of clouds and sun; cold at a max of 4C/39F but not frosty. I finished all my work-related tasks by lunch time and therefore was able to go for a more substantial walk in the afternoon, to Benningen (and back by local train).

Just before 7:30 pm, my sister and I met our Mum at the bus stop opposite the palace grounds. From there, we walked the short distance to the "Forum", a venue for concerts, theatre and other events in our home town. The reason: Our Mum had bought tickets for the three of us for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

Have you heard of them, maybe watched a video or two on youtube, or even attended a live performance? If you have, I am sure you'll agree with me that these guys are BRILLIANT!! Not only are they fantastic musicians and good singers, they are also super entertainers, all seven of them.

Please don't think that it's all just comedy and silliness. Yes, there are some deliberately silly bits. But their level of virtuosity is truly waaay up there with the very best (they ARE the very best, I think!), and everything they play just sounds great. Please go to their youtube channel for videos, and I guarantee they'll cheer you up (and can't we all do with a bit of cheer these days?).

Some of you will remember our dear late fellow blogger Pat, aka The Weaver of Grass. She learned to play the ukulele late in life and performed with a group of people visiting homes for the elderly and for patients with dementia. I always admired her for that (among other things), and it was originally because of her that I came across this band.

Anyway, I'd be hard pressed to name a favourite of the fantastic concert we attended on Friday, but if I had to, I guess I'd have to decide between "You Make Me Feel" and "Raw Hide". Thank you, Mum!!! This really was a super present.

I did my usual cleaning round on Saturday (8 February), and late afternoon made my way to the station and boarded the first of two trains to Offenburg. I arrived at 7:00 pm on the dot - why can't it always be like that? O.K. picked me up, and we drove a short distance to a German-Hungarian restaurant where he had booked a table for us. We enjoyed a very good meal before driving to the village.

Sunday (9 February) started sunny, but by the time we were up and ready to leave, clouds had come up. We still enjoyed a good walk, partly in the woods on the hill behind the village, through orchards and vineyards, before returning to the cottage for coffee and cake.

A visit across the road with O.K.'s Mum followed, and we ended the evening (and the weekend) with what more often than not is our standard Friday night fare: salad, bread and cheese, accompanied by a well chilled rosé wine.