From My Mental Library: Summer Week

Last week felt very summerly. (Or summery? I never quite know which one is correct.) Not a single drop of rain fell, and max temperatures ranged from 25C/77F to 34C/93F.

My trains back to Ludwigsburg from Offenburg on Monday (16 June) were on time and not too crowded, which is always worth mentioning. Mid-afternoon, I interrupted work for just under an hour and spoke to Mary, my mother-in-law who lives in Ripon. She turned 91 in March, and of course my sister and I are going to see her several times during our Yorkshire holiday at the end of July/beginning of August.

The early starts on such Mondays often mean that I am not up to much after work; that day, I only felt like a short-ish walk to the lake and back, taking about 1 1/2 hours.

The small palace by the lake, "Monrepos"

It was a beautiful day, but very windy.

On Tuesday (17 June) I was working from home and didn't have time for a walk in spite of it being sunny at a very pleasant 25C/77F. But we were booked for the pub quiz that evening, and it was the last quiz before the summer break - no way was I going to miss it or be late.

Our team of six unfortunately missed a few points; we ended up at 24 while the winning team had 27 (no team had a full score), meaning there was no prize for us that evening. Never mind - as always, it was good to see my friends.

Wednesday (18 June) was my regular day at the office in Weilimdorf. It was busy but not stressful. When I left there at 6:00 pm, it was still very warm at 28C/82F, and there really was no need for the cardigan I had thought a good idea in the morning. I took the local train into Stuttgart and walked approx. 25 minutes to a restaurant were a small group of Data Protection Officers from this area were meeting for a sociable evening. It was nice but I was rather tired and left after two hours. The walk back to Stuttgart main station did me good after all that sitting.

For my part of Germany, Thursday (19 June) was another public holiday - the period from Easter to Ascension sees quite a few days off. It's nice, but for many of us it means having to do the same tasks as in a regular week but in shorter time. I am not complaining, just pointing out that there are two sides to the medal, as with so many things in life.

O.K. and I were both working on Friday, and he was involved with the village band on the holiday; therefore, we spent the day off separately.

I had a leisurely morning and met my sister and my Mum at lunch time. We walked the short distance from our Mum's to the local gardening club; they were hosting a summer fête in their beautiful, large garden, well tended and well organised. There was music from the village band, food and drink, and we found a table in the shade of a large old cherry tree - perfect!

The three of us then walked to the cemetery which borders the gardening club's plot and visited our Dad's and friend R's bird markers.

Afterwards, we had coffee and cake at our Mum's.

A brief rest at home followed, and later, my sister and I met up once more for an evening walk through the deer park and the palace grounds.

We ended this beautiful day with a visit to a beer garden in the centre of town, where we had home-made hibiscus lemonade; a bit on the sweet side, but very refreshing nonetheless.

On Friday (20 June), I adapted my schedule to the warm weather, doing my cleaning and shopping etc. first before it became too warm, and work later. My study faces north and is the coolest room in my flat, making it easier to cope with hot days.

Once O.K. arrived, we had Romana lettuce with Feta cheese, accompanied by bread topped with my Mum's home-made pesto, slices of Avocado and hard-boiled egg.

We both felt like stretching our legs afterwards and took a short walk into town before turning in at around midnight.

Because of a succession of noisy birds, neighbours and builders, we didn't get a chance to sleep in properly on Saturday (21 June). I felt slightly grumpy and rather tired for good part of the day. But we made the best of it and once we'd had breakfast went into town, then to the palace grounds, from there through the deer park and on down to the lake where we stopped for a shandy.

The Lapidarium* (part of the palace) is always attractive, especially on a hot day, because it is nice and chilly there. And of course, its occupants walk around at night - I'm sure of that.

In the palace grounds, we found a bench in the shade and spent a pleasant time people-watching.

Next was Asperg. By the time we arrived at the top of the hill and the (surprisingly uncrowded) beer garden, we were hungry and had a large plate of salad each.

Walking back to Ludwigsburg didn't take very long, and we managed to reach one of the icecream parlours just in time to be served before they shut for the evening.

I didn't last long once we were home, and went to bed at 10:00 pm. O.K.'s smart watch had recorded him walking well over 17 km in the course of the day, and since we'd been together all day, that applied to me, too.

On Sunday (22 June) we had bacon and fried eggs on toast for breakfast. In the afternoon, we met again at my Mum's, and my sister drove the four of us to our neighbouring town Kornwestheim.

What do you do on a really hot day? You go somewhere cool - and for us, that meant going to the museum.

We saw two exhibitions, but we had come here for the second one: "Clear Lines - Commercial Graphics in the 1950s and 60s". Three exemplary artists were featured; in those two decades, all three worked extensively for prominent companies in our area. My Mum was born in 1944, and so she had first-hand memories of almost all of the things shown in the exhibition, which was really well put together and beautifully presented.

I found some of the works at the first exhibition somewhat disturbing.

Sometimes I needed a closer look :-D

My Mum at the 2nd exhibition, watching an original 1960s commercial

After we had looked thoroughly at everything, we were all ready for some refreshments. My sister drove us to the farm shop/café just outside Ludwigsburg, where we sat in the shade on the terrace and enjoyed home-made lemonade and cake.

Back at my flat, O.K. and I had a rest before I prepared our quick evening meal of tabouleh, falafel and aubergine paste. For dessert, we had iced coffee with vanilla ice, and then it was time for O.K. to get into the car and start the long drive home.