Not a single drop of rain fell all of last week. In fact, the last time it rained here was on the 24th of February. Nights and mornings are still cold to the point of frost, but the days have been warming up nicely, most days reaching about 14 to 15C (57-59F) with Saturday being the warmest at 18C/64F.
On Monday (2nd of March), I went exploring: My usual walk to Benningen can be done on different paths, and I felt like trying one that I had not followed before. Quite unexpectedly, I came across a small hollow that looked like it might have been a quarry at one time, but it is possible that it is a natural feature. That was quite a treat for me.
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| A new path! |
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| Not been here before - it's just on the other side of the rail tracks where I walk about once a week. |
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| Man-made or natural? The pond is of course man-made, but I am not sure about the rocky walls. |
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| It was very quiet there with only birdsong to hear, and of course the occasional train. |
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| On more familiar ground again, with Benningen on the horizon. |
I worked at the office in Weilimdorf both Tuesday and Wednesday (3rd and 4th of March). On the Tuesday, I got off the train in Kornwestheim and walked the rest; on Wednesday, my sister and I met at our Mum's for a chat, a meal and helping with a few things (mainly stow away the very last of her Christmas things).
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| On the fields between Kornwestheim and Ludwigsburg on Tuesday late afternoon. |
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| Sunset, just before I reached Ludwigsburg on the Tuesday. |
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| What you see here is not the sun, but the moon rising a bit before 8:00 pm on Wednesday. |
Thursday (5th of March) I took part at an all day online course for work. Originally, it was meant to take place in Ulm; I already had my hotel room and train ticket booked, but the week before, it was announced that the course was now exclusively online with no possibility to attend "in person". That was a shame, but I was able to cancel both the room and the train ticket.
The course was interesting and helpful for some questions I have to deal with at work, but oh my was it intense! There were only five of us plus the trainer. One of the participants was the type who love hearing themselves speak, and apart from asking some valuable questions the answers to which were interesting to all of us, he commented everything else at length... and when I say "at length", I mean it! He kept explaining what they did in his company back in 2013 (not at all relevant to what we were learning now!), and just wouldn't stop talking... I was a little disappointed that the trainer didn't stop him. Instead, she rushed through the last two items on the agenda, and one of these was of particular interest to me.
When we finished about 20 minutes later than scheduled, I shut my computer, grabbed my shoes and jacket and practically fled the scene - I HAD to get out, preferably before sunset! I managed my Asperg-Eglosheim round, walking off some of the tension, but mentally feeling really exhausted.
It was my turn to host an online meeting that lasted until lunch time on Friday (6th of March). Apart from a few technical hiccups (we are all used to them by now, but that doesn't make them any better), it went very well.
I did most of my cleaning in the afternoon, and early evening walked into town. We have many clothes shops but very few left that you could call "house of fashion", where you get good quality items and the staff is qualified to advise you and often goes the extra length for you. They have been around for decades and still enjoy very good standing in my town.
A couple of times a year they host a fashion show, and my Mum, her friend and I love attending. This time, I went with my upcoming wedding in mind. The show was good, and we had a lot of fun; however, none of the outfits presented by the models was what I could see myself wearing to the registry office. But after the show (the shop was closed to the general public by then), we were allowed to browse, try on - and of course buy - until 10:00 pm, and I ended up buying a pretty dress which will serve me well not only on the 8th of May. At about 9:00 pm, the three of us left, tired but happy.
Some more household stuff needed doing on Saturday (7th of March), but at about 1:00 pm, I left for the train station and took a train to Marbach. I walked my usual Steinheim walk; the previous time was in December and you can see the pictures of that beautiful day here.
Early March looks and feels different to December, and I was happy to spot the first anemonae in the woods, among other things. This time, I did a wider loop and walked almost 19 km altogether. I had brought a sandwich and my water flask, and stopped for short breaks on sunny benches when I felt like it, making it a very enjoyable afternoon.
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| First anemonae! |
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| The pictures have loaded in the wrong order, I'm afraid - this is actually the start of the walk, looking back just after leaving Marbach. |
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| The river Murr |
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| Historic house in Steinheim |
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| Church spire in Steinheim |
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| Abandoned vineyard |
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| This was a perfect spot for my (late) lunch - it was 2:00 pm. |
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| The village of Lehrhof |
On Sunday (8th of March), my federal state of Germany (Baden-Württemberg) held a General Election. For a few years now, my sister and I have been volunteering at one of the polling stations in our town; the last time was in February 2025. This time, we were at a different location, at an elementary school closer to home - it takes only about ten minutes to walk there from where I live.
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| Don't I look all serious and official? |
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| Two regular booths for voters to make their crosses on the list, and the lower one on the teacher's desk at the right height for wheelchairs. |
That way, we knew quite a few of the people who came voting, including our Mum and her friend. We worked the morning shift, starting at 7:15 and leaving at about 12:45 for a few hours to rest and do other things (I spoke to O.K. on the phone as well as to Mary, my mother-in-law in Yorkshire, who turned 92 that day) before returning at 5:45 pm.
The election officially ended at 6:00 pm, and that's when the job of counting the votes began. It wasn't overly complicated this time but still took our team of seven about two hours - everything is done VERY carefully and double-checked to make sure no mistakes are made and nothing happens that should not happen. We all signed at the end to confirm that we were reporting the correct numbers of votes, then we put the class room back in order, and at 9:00 pm I was home.
My sister and I find this good work, and we enjoy it - doing our bit for democracy in our country. The right to vote is important and not to be taken for granted, and to live in a country where you can go to a polling station and cast your vote without fear of pressure or violence is something to be grateful for.
I'm sure Mary told you how much rain they have had in Yorkshire and wishes she could send you some! What lovely walks it makes though, all that great sunshine! You must research that rocky wall, it looks man-made to my eyes but very old You said "yes" to the dress! (We have TV show here of brides choosing their dress. Do you have that?) I had to zoom in on the photo of your sandwich, the bread! It looks so good. x
ReplyDeleteWe have such TV shows here, too, but I don't watch them - too much drama of too little relevance to me :-D
DeleteYes, Mary said that she has hardly been able to get into her garden because of the weather.
That bread is sunflower seeds from the bakery down the road here, very nice!
x
Your walks look so lovely and I love it when I spot your shadow in the photo. Did we already know that your wedding will be on May 8th or did you just sneak that news in to this post?! Oh, I see you mentioned in a comment reply in the last post! Exciting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing your civic duty and helping at the election. I'm actually going to vote this morning in my city and am always so thankful for the people who volunteer. Hoping to save our democracy!
Sometimes I am annoyed when I can't get a picture without my shadow in it, sometimes I do it deliberately, as in this case :-)
DeleteThe people who come to the polling station are interesting to watch, too. Some families bring their children along and then Mum and Dad explain what they are doing, what is happening here - very good of them, I think.
Interesting that you counted the votes at the polling station. On our election days, after the vote closes at 10pm, they all get shipped to a central location (maybe a big gym or hall) where they get counted. The polling station volunteers go off duty at 10pm (it's still a long day for them!) and new teams take over at the count. It's such a vital thing in a democracy. It will be 'interesting' to see what happens in the US when the mid-terms come around. There seems every likelihood that they will be interfered with in some way...
ReplyDeleteIt's "always" like that here; we count right at the polling station and then have to phone in the results to the town's central election office who in turn have to report to the central election office in Stuttgart, I assume.
DeleteHere in Germany, we carefully observe what happens in the US. After all, we still have a relatively strong US military presence in this country.
I feel that the volunteers who do all the overseeing and organisation at events like local elections never receive the recognition and thanks they should. It's quite an undertaking to organise and reorganise a room, especially a classroom or school hall. long before and long after voting is over. So, well done to you and your sister.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Janice! In the course of the morning, twice it happened that someone who came to cast their vote brought us chocolates to show their appreciation for our volunteering - that was very nice of them, and really welcome. And quite a few people said thank you to us when they left.
DeleteI hope we put everything back alright and the teacher and students found everything as it should be when they arrived at school this morning! One of the ladies in our team took photos with her mobile before we started to shift desks and chairs around, so that we knew how to put them back.
You are so lucky not to have had any rain. I did a foodbank shift out in the open on Friday and got thoroughly soaked, so my trousers were sticking to my legs - as if someone was emptying buckets of water from the sky. There is always someone to ruin a group discussion (that man on your online course). Your trainer should have stepped in and told him to let others speak.
ReplyDeleteAddy, is that you?
DeleteWell, no rain at all isn't very good for the gardens, fields and woods, either, but we are to expect a change today or tomorrow, with cooler daytime temperatures, some rain and generally a bit more unsettled weather.
The shift at the foodbank sounds unpleasant, "great" for catching a cold - I hope you didn't!
You guessed right! In my eagerness to respond, I keep forgetting to check how I have signed in.
DeleteMarch runs away like a child at play. Or like the Kurt Weil song, Speak Low.
ReplyDelete*The curtain descends. Everything ends. Too soon, too soon.*
As Lotte Lenya sang so long ago in a cafe in pre-war Berlin.
You are so young in the photo, and not at all serious.
Rather as I imagine a beautiful mathematician.
*Mathematics Existed Before Humans (And That Should Terrify You).
Roger Penrose on Platonism. YouTube.
Not terrifying. Mysterium Tremendum.
Ein Hagelsturm. In March.
I was exactly a fortnight short of my 58th birthday on Sunday, when my sister took that picture of me. Believe me, that IS my serious look!
DeleteNumbers, mathematics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology - I find all Natural Science utterly fascinating and sometimes wish I would have paid more attention at school, so that I could have gone to uni and studied one of those fasinating subjects. But at that time, I couldn't have cared less. As a little girl, I loved all things Nature (animals, trees, dinosaurs, history, buildings the older the better) thanks to our parents who instilled in us a wide range of interests. But apart from languages, art and history, I developed a heartfelt disinterest in most classes as puberty hit, and to be honest some of our teachers back then just didn't know how to deal with teenagers.
I wish I was 58 again !
DeleteTime Regained as Proust put it.
* Carpe Diem Regained - The Vanishing Art of Seizing the Day *.
A book by Roman Krznaric I picked up in Oxfam.
* I wonder what has become of my childhood ? * you wrote.
* Maybe it is still somewhere in my Mum's attic. *
Lost childhood is all around us. The new path you took.
Birdsong. The River Murr's gurgle. The tree where you had lunch.
Yesterday walking down Byres Road the sky darkened.
Like an RL Stevenson story. Was I in Glasgow or Edinburgh ?
Carpe Diem !
Dark skies bring the shiver of winter past.
Delete48 HOURS INSIDE SCOTLAND'S SMALLEST CITY. Ruth Aisling. YouTube.
Snow falling on Stirling Castle reminds me of the film, Tunes of Glory.
My Japanese-American sister-in-law, who lives like a recluse in Bel Air,
was obsessed by this film
Yet she never got to see Stirling Castle where the last scene was filmed.
Jack, I am puzzled by what you wrote here:
Delete"* I wonder what has become of my childhood ? * you wrote.
* Maybe it is still somewhere in my Mum's attic. *"
Where and when did I write that? I can not remember.
You posted these words recently on Neil's blog.
DeleteI was haunted by the thought. It explains my interest in your writing.
How did atoms produce we humans as Francis Schaeffer asked so long ago ?
Childhood's one answer to the riddle. The inner life of a child could be a clue.
For most of history babies and children died. So who ARE we ?
Francis August Schaeffer influenced me in my 20s.
I've been rereading *An Authentic Life* his biography by Colin Duriez.
Schaeffer is admired by Bishop Robert Barron and Os Guinness (YouTube).
Dr Schaeffer and his wife Edith had a community called L'Abri in Switzerland.
When he was in London he worshipped at Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones's church.
I had to go back all the way to Feb. 24th on Neil's blog, and I'm afraid you have mis-quoted me a little there, and ouf of context... Neil's post was about the globe he bought for his granddaughers, and my comment referred to both the (real) world of my childhood and the globe my parents had:
Delete"I wonder what has become of the world of my childhood. Maybe it is still somewhere in my Mum's attic. It had a cable and switch to light up like a lamp, and my sister and I loved it. My parents made the world theirs in the 1960s when they got married and started a family."
I'm sorry if took abbreviated your words and quoted them out of context.
DeleteI knew you were talking about the globe. And the world of your childhood.
I liked what you said about your parents. It made me think of my own.
Actually, the more I think about it, the better your interpretation fits.
DeleteAn image I have is of we children playing out on summer nights till dusk.
DeleteIt doesn't happen now in Scotland. It did in the 1950s.
Children have the secret to something. Jean Piaget studied their cognition.
Children are scientists who construct the world ( globe ! ) through play.
If anything Piaget underestimated their competence.
*Jean Balukas - I've Got a Secret.* YouTube. reflecteddetcelfer.
*Jean Balukas interview.* YouTube. azbtv.
Extraordinary little girl who became a charming young woman.
The trainer on the 5th March failed her students when she was umable to control the one student who wanted to say too much which was not relevant. I judge a good tutor/trainer as one who can handle this type of situation with a swift acknowledgement and move on. I have seen both good and bad over the years.
ReplyDeleteI see we have a special date of the 8th May for the new dress. You will be pleased to have found the dress and one less thing to worry about.
Yes, I was disappointed with her way of handling - or rather NOT handling - the man who kept making lengthy comments even when no comments were required, and found it quite unlike her; it wasn't my first course with that particular trainer, and she is usually very good. I wonder whether she was unwell, which might have been the reason for the course to be shifted to online attendance instead of at the academy in Ulm.
DeleteNow that I have the dress, of course I need to think (but not worry) about matching shoes, handbag and maybe something to wear on my head (certainly not a hat, let alone a veil! I'm not that kind of bride...).
We always took our children along when we voted and talked about how important a responsibility it is and then went out for a hot drink. We vote early now (old folks) but I still feel a bit hard done by if I don't get a nice hot drink after voting, must ask the kids if they feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ceci
Ceci, it is good to give election days the importance they deserve, and make a kind of family tradition of them. My grandparents and parents usually went to cast their vote at a time that would allow for a Sunday lunch at a restaurant afterwards. People still do that to an extent, but maybe not as much as before; some went to church first, then to vote, and then to eat, all the time dressed in their Sunday best!
DeleteI thought I had already commented here but it seems not. (Probably read the post on my tablet the first time, and sometimes I have problems commenting from there.) We have elections coming up here in September this year, both national and local. In later years I've often chosen to vote in advance - feeling less sure now if health etc will be allowing me to go on the election day. (There are usually a few different places in town where you can vote 1-2 weeks in advance, and the votes are then sent on to the right district to be counted there after the election closes on the main day.) I admire you and your sister for volunteering (and all other volunteers too, of course)!
ReplyDeleteWe always have the choice to vote by mail (Briefwahl) but need to ask for the forms which are then sent to a person‘s mail address of their choice. This allows people who know they will be away on election day or those who have no means to get to a polling station or those who want to vote but simply can‘t be bothered to go in person to still participate in the election, sometimes several weeks ahead of the actual election day. I have made use of Briefwahl most times in the past years, mainly because I have been volunteering at a different station than where I was registered as a voter, and one year because I was at O.K.‘s that weekend. This time, I passed „my“ polling station on the way home from my morning shift anyway, and so I voted in person - admittedly, also out of curiosity to see how the team there had set up things and how they were doing.
DeleteI think we can vote by mail here too, and even citizens living abroad can do that, but I'm not sure about the exact procedure. In later years when I've voted in advance there have been local places I could go to.
Delete