A Week of Colourful Walks

If you've had quite enough of looking at pictures of gorgeous autumn foliage, you better skip this post, as it is quite full of them. But that's what it is like here in my corner of the world this time of year, and I have been making the most of it last week. Thankfully, the weather was playing along most of the time, too.

On Monday (13 October) I was working from home as usual, and also as usual was able to spend part of my lunch break by having a massage for my ever grateful back and shoulders.

After work, I went walking for a couple of hours. Taking a leaf (!) out of Monica's book, I chose the park-like cemetery which was looking particularly beautiful that afternoon; the rather dull sky made the colours appear luminous on their own.

The monument below, which I find most unusual for a cemetery, has featured on my blog once before, in the spring of 2018. If you want to see what it looked like then, and read what the statue is, click here.

Leaving the cemetery at the other end, I followed a path down a steep slope and was glad to see that the footbridge at the bottom, which was closed for a long time, is now open again. It spans a very busy road, and climbing a long set of stairs on the other side, one reaches a nice residential area where I sometimes like to walk.

At home in Autumn

I worked at the office on Tuesday (14 October). On the train home, I didn't get off at "my" station but stayed on until the next stop close to the deer park, and from there walked to Benningen, which I greatly enjoyed in the beautiful golden early evening light.

A shady figure can be seen lurking :-)

There's the shady figure again!

Wednesday (15 October) was my regular day at the office. It was beautiful and sunny, but I felt very tired after a series of meetings and didn't go anywhere but home.

On my way to work, I walk past this garden. It is at its most beautiful this time of year.

Working from home on Thursday (16 October) allowed me to let the man in who came for the regular maintenance on our heating/hot water system. Everything was fine; he was very thorough and if all goes well I'll only see him again next year.

After work, I went to see my Mum and to pick up the crockery I had painted the previous Friday. My sister had kindly suggested she pick up all our things (there had been five of us at the painting afternoon), and so I was able to see everyone's finished results. They were all good, and the one my Mum's friend made was more than good, it was truly great and wouldn't have been out of place at a crafts exhibition or pottery market. 

I am happy enough with what I made to offer it to O.K. as a Christmas present - whether he'll like it remains to be seen! In any case I won't show a picture of my "art work" here before Christmas, as I want it to be a surprise for him. (And don't worry - O.K. isn't one to fake enthusiams when he doesn't like something! If that should be the case, I shall simply keep it myself.)

Amazingly, on Friday (17 October) my trains to Offenburg were on time, and we enjoyed our customary meal of salad, bread and cheese with wine to ring in the weekend.

Saturday (18 October) was "Golden Autumn" like straight from a picture book - wall to wall sunshine and relatively mild temperatures. The morning was spent doing some jobs around the house and garden, but in the afternoon we set off to the nearby small town/village of Ortenberg with its picturesque castle on a hill overlooking the houses. You've seen that castle many times before on my blog, for instance here.

We walked along the paths through the vineyards and bits of woodland, soaking up the sun and enjoying the beautiful colours and fresh air. 

The rosehips on this bush were big - almost half the size of my thumb!

If the Addams Family had a vineyard, I imagine it would look like this :-D (Does it show I have been watching the second season of "Wednesday" recently?)

11.5 km later we were back at the car, but not without having caught the sunset from the castle hill.

Ortenberg castle

View towards the Vosges mountains (France)

In O.K.'s village a restaurant has recently changed hands, and we wanted to see what it is like now. The new people are from Georgia (not as in Georgia, the state of the U.S. where my blogging friend Kay hails from, but as in the country in the Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea).

Neither of us had never had Georgian food before, and so we chose a different main course each and sampled each other's food. O.K.'s was pieces of crispy roast chicken in a creamy white garlic sauce plus fried balls of maze, which were very nice. Mine looked a bit like a pizza bread but wasn't really pizza. Between the top and the bottom of the flat round piece of dough was a layer of cottage cheese; it was nice and VERY filling (needless to say, I didn't manage to eat the whole thing).

Service was very friendly, and we both agreed that we liked our food even though it would have benefited from a bit more spice. Of course there was salt & pepper on the table. Next time we go there we'll try the typical German standards of Schnitzel with chips/fries or spud salad, which they also have on the menue.

It was time for the traditional Gallus-Fest on Sunday (19 October). Of all the traditions in the village, this one is my favourite (I say that every year, I know!), and this year it was even nicer with more people attending.

The village band were getting ready and then, as mass finished and the church doors opened, started to play on the square between the church and the vicarage. I have included a short video but am not sure whether you can play it; please let me know.

Every year, this fest is held to honour the village's patron saint, St. Gallus, who was an Irish monk (Saint Gall - click here for his wikipedia article) and may or may not have originally come from the region where O.K.'s village is, near the border between what today are France and Germany.

What I like so much about this particular event is that it's in autumn (and in the nearly ten years I've been coming to the village, the weather has always been favourable), that it's small and doesn't last for days and consequently does not take a huge amount of work before and after, and that it's so unpretentious - no bright blinking lights, no screaming from various "amusements", no cheap plastic toys or overpriced snacks. Just a village community coming together on a Sunday around lunch time, enjoying the music and chat while having a drink and snack, all cared for by volunteers and paid for by donations.

Afterwards, we had a bit of a rest at home and then coffee. Next was a visit across the road with O.K.'s Mum, and then we went for a walk around the village, a standard of ours which is about 7.5 km long. 

Back at the cottage, O.K. prepared a large bowl of salad to go with our bread and cheese, and as usual on a Sunday night, bedtime came early in view of Monday's early start at around 5:20.