Windy Week

It was very windy most of last week, and luckily we had some rain. The weekend was hot and humid, so much so that being out for walks really wasn't the best idea.

On Monday (14 July), my trains back from Offenburg were on time and I arrived just as a sprinkle of rain began. It was rather hot and humid, especially during the afternoon when the steam rose from the morning's rain. Still, I went on my standard walk to Benningen after work and enjoyed that, in spite of it being somewhat sweaty.

High Summer in my part of the world

Leftover pizza, fresh bell pepper with basil and avocado with salt and pepper was my evening meal that night.

Tuesday (15 July) wasn't muggy, just a pleasant sunny day with a good breeze - it almost felt a bit like being close to the seaside. After having spent all day at my desk working from home, a walk to Pattonville and back was a good distance to stretch my legs and clear my head.

I worked at the office in Weilimdorf on Wednesday (16 July), and the thunderstorm and short, but heavy rainfall that had been threatening all afternoon finally came down just as I was changing trains in Zuffenhausen. I did have a brolly, but it was no use - the wind was so strong that the rain came sideways, and on the platform, everybody huddled behind the large advertising boards. You can imagine what a crowded train full of people after a long day at work or school, all of them more or less wet from the rain, feels and smells like...!

Anyway, I was in for a nice evening, meeting my Mum and my sister in town. We tried out a recently opened restaurant offering modern Vietnamese cuisine. The food was execellent and the service friendly. 

Afterwards, we moved across the market square to "my" Irish pub; it had stopped raining almost as soon as we'd arrived at the restaurant, and so by the time we reached the pub, beautiful evening sun lit up the market square, and we each had a drink, sitting at a table outside before my sister and I accompanied our Mum to the bus stop and waited until she was safely on the bus.

Thursday (17 July) felt almost like early autumn; it was a windy, much chillier day with fast moving clouds and sun. The evening was warm enough, though, and it kept dry, which was important, since my Mum and I went to a Dîner en blanc.

Are you familiar with this particular type of event? If not, you can learn about it by clicking here - the link will take you to the wikipedia entry.

Many years ago, a Dîner en blanc was held annually in our town, and my Mum and I went a few times. We enjoyed it, although strictly speaking, due to its commercial part (local gastronomy of course wanted to do business), it wasn't adhering to all the "rules".

The person who organised it moved away, I think, and the pandemic would have put an end to it anyway. So for several years, we had not been to a Dîner en blanc.

A month or so ago, on one of my evening walks, I looked at the announcements and information outside the church in our neighbourhood, and found a Dîner en blanc scheduled for the 17th of July, organised by and for the community. The rules were simple - come dressed in white, bring some food; tables, chairs, plates etc. as well as drinks are provided for, to be paid as donations.

Therefore, on that Thursday evening, we arrived a little after 7:30 pm in the courtyard adjacent to the church, where a long dining table was set up, beautifully decorated with fresh flowers and white tablecloths. There was white bunting hung over the buffet tables at the side, and a few people dressed in white were already there.

We found seats, added our contributions to the buffet table and I fetched drinks.

What followed was a beautiful evening with lovely food, chilled drinks and pleasant conversation. There was nothing "churchy" about it, just an introductory speech by the lady who was the main organiser. My Mum and I knew a few of the visitors, but talked to others, too, as was the idea - to get to know neighbours and other members of the community, people you may not meet otherwise.

The evening sky provided soft light, swifts were darting about overhead, French chansons were playing in the background but not too loud; in short, it really was all quite wonderful, and we will definitely go again next year.

Friday (18 July) was a bit warmer, but all week it had cooled off nicely over night so that I could let fresh morning air into the flat, throwing open all windows. The day was spent same as most Fridays, working and then doing the washing and cleaning.

O.K. arrived a little before 10:00 pm, which meant we had our evening meal later than usual, finishing with fresh fig from my neighbour's tree (he's been sharing his harvest with everyone in our two semis for years) and goats cheese.

It was hot on Saturday (19 July), building up to a thunderstorm that didn't fully materialise over us, but we got a little rain and a rainbow in the evening.

For breakfast, we went into town to one of our favourite cafés where my sister joined us. We got a few things from the farmer's market and had an iced espresso. My sister went home after that, while O.K. and I had a stroll in the palace grounds.

You can tell from the state of the grass that we have not had much rain lately.

A rest at home followed. I wanted icecream then, and so we returned into town for that. The icecream was good but I was wary of the many wasps buzzing about - I will never understand why they think they have to buzz around my face and head when what they really want is the sugary stuff from the cup in my hands.

Back home, we had salad and bruschetta for our evening meal - and a rainbow, which of course looked much better in real life than caught on my mobile phone's camera:

Sunday (20 July) was just as hot and muggy as the day before. O.K. and I spent the hours after our late-ish breakfast by looking at places to stay during our September holiday - in fact, we looked at so many different places in the region of our choice that I kept forgetting which ones we'd already looked at and why we had discarded this or that one. We finally settled on one, even though they have room for us only for the second half of our holiday. Phew!

At 3:00 pm, we met at my Mum's (my sister, too) for coffee and cake. Mum is very good at keeping her flat cool even on hot days; it would have been impossibly hot on her balcony, but was good to be indoors and enjoy her freshly baked cake.

A pre-dinner walk afterwards would have been nice, but it started to rain and so we cut that short. By the time we finished our meal and O.K. packed his bags and started the long drive home, it had not really begun to rain properly, and so I thought I'd walk just a little more; but again, big heavy drops were falling, making me turn back after less than half an hour. 

A rather spectacular sunset, as seen from my Third Room/study; again, the colours were much more luminous and intense than what you see in the photo.

The rain arrived properly later that evening, and gusts of high winds were blowing things about outside, banging doors and windows. I kept my windows shut until the wind subsided, and the rain falling on the big leaves of the mulberry tree outside my bedroom window was the last thing I heard.