A Saturday in October, Part I

Saturday last week was a day that couldn't have been more beautiful - "Golden October" at its best. We went for a walk on Rechberg, which is one of a group of three hills east of Stuttgart called "Kaiserberge", meaning "Emperors' Mounts".
The prefix "Rech" has nothing to do with retching - it is rather a mis-spelled version of "Reh", which means doe. Many centuries ago, when most of the area was woodland, there must have been an abundance of deer living there, inducing the people to name the hill after them.

Today, the ruins of a castle are on one shoulder of the hill, while a small church sits right on its top. I will show you the church in my next post, but here are some pictures of our visit to the castle.

Zoomed in view from where we left the car at the bottom of the hill: 

The curved wall you see to the left is where a café is situated at the entrance to the castle. We had coffee and cake there in the sun:

Inside the castle (or, what's left of it) we had several options where to go first. We chose downstairs to where storage rooms and prison cells once were.

 Back up the stairs, and a walk along the walls:

Inside one of the buildings was this room where receptions are held and weddings can take place:

The gateway on the picture below leads back out of the castle. A last look back before we were going to walk up the rest of the way to the top of the hill and the church.

A bit of history: Building here was started around the year 1200, although the area had settlements long before that time. The surrounding area was subject to much warfare, plundering and bloodshed, but the castle itself was never attacked. Twice in its long history (in 1648 and 1796) it was briefly occupied by French troops. In 1865, lightning struck the castle and caused large partsto burn down. It lay in ruins after that, still belonging to the same family, the Counts of Rechberg, until in 1986 a man from nearby Göppingen, Hans Bader, bought it from them. 

Mr. Bader was a rich leather manufacturer with a keen interest in historical buildings. He wanted to make sure the ruins were being restored where possible and kept accessible to the public. Although he died in 2006, the place is still run by the Hans Bader Foundation. Admission is 2 Euros for adults and 1 Euro for children - really not much, especially considering how much there is to see and explore.

Something About Work

My job does not feature all that often here on my blog, but every now and then, I find it worth mentioning. Since December 2012, I have been working in the area of IT security and data protection, but our customers often ask me to support them with tasks that have little or nothing to do with either, and I enjoy the diversity of projects I've been involved with over the past few years.
So far, the only time I have showed you where I spend most of my working week was here.

This year, our biggest customer (the one who provided us with the room shown in the older post) has made some changes. Someone else moved into our old office, and the three of us were transferred from the 4th to the 1st floor. 

The new room will be a lot less hot in summer - sometimes it was almost unbearably hot up there, with temperatures well over 30 Celsius this summer and no air conditioning, still wearing business outfits of course.

From my place at the window (and very close to the heating, which is what I wanted), I can see the roof of the ground floor part of the building where some large conference rooms, the kitchen and the canteen are located. The roof is planted with lavender and other plants, which is much nicer than just plain concrete.

Everything else is the same - our desks, chairs and computers were moved for us. We like the new room, and not once have I accidentally walked up to the 4th floor out of habit.

What matters most to me in my work environment is that it is tidy, clean and clutter-free. My boss (RJ) and our friend & colleague are, thankfully, the same as I in that respect.

(These pictures were taken at the start of September, right after my holiday, when it was still very warm here - now, I wouldn't dream of wearing a sleeveless dress to work!)

Guest Post By My Mum: Else and the King

In my last comment on this post, I mentioned that there was soon going to be a surprise post about Wilhelm II., last king of Wuerttemberg. And here it is, written by my Mum (and a true story):

Inspired by my daughter's post about our King, I want to tell you a little episode from my mother's life, born 1915. It was such an unforgettable experience for her, that she often told us this little true story:

 

König Wilhelm II von Württemberg used to walk his two beloved little dogs daily himself, around his domicil Marienwahl. They were pretty white German Spitz dogs. He always wore a traditional hunter's suit with matching felt hat, and a walking stick belonged to him as well.

 

Wilhelm II. with one of this Spitz dogs, Rubi or Ali.

 

When my mum was a little girl, she often went (of course on foot) to visit her grandmother, who lived in a suburb of Ludwigsburg, and she had to pass the corner where the King lived. At this time nobody had heard about bodyguards!

 

She often saw him, and once he noticed her, asked her name and patted her hair. So she made a deep courtsey and little Else felt very lucky about this great honour.

 

Little Else - my grandmother - with her mother, at about the age she met the king.

 

Later in her life,  she had a little white Spitz dog herself, called Lore. Maybe it was a hommage to this popular King!

 

- - - End of guest post - - -

 

When I was writing my review to "Der gelernte König", I thought about including my grandma's encounter with the king. But as I was not entirely sure of it and did not want to write anything that wasn't true, I left it out. 

My Mum has a better memory than I, and the episode does deserve its own post, doesn't it?

Read in 2015 - 28: Mary Anerley - A Yorkshire Tale

This book definitely has its lengths, but I found myself minding them less and less, and as I was getting closer to its end, I even wished for it to go on just a little bit more.

As is my habit when writing a review for my blog, I did a bit of research and found that "Mary Anerley - A Yorkshire Tale" by R. D. Blackmore was originally published in a magazine's issues spanning more than a year, from July 1879 to September 1880. That explains the length!

The plot is quickly told: In 1801, when free trade (= smuggling) was as lucrative as it was dangerous, 17-year-old Mary Anerley from Anerley farm comes across a man who runs for his life, with coast guard officers shooting at him in hot pursuit. Mary saves him by showing him a hiding place, and agrees to meet at the same spot again one week later.

You guessed it - this is the start of a love story. But the book is so much more than just the romance of Mary and the smuggler, and how their true love overcomes all obstacles in the end. There are several threads followed in alternating chapters, such as who is the true heir to Scargate Hall; where did the toddler washed ashore and dressed in lace and gold originally come from; why was the Lieutenant shot, and by whom; will Lancelot of Scargate Hall ever beome a decent person; is the General Factor going to be successful in his secret business, and will Dr. Upround find someone else to play chess with? These are just a few examples of the rich tapestry the book weaves of lives crossing each other at various points, and for various reasons.

I loved the often very witty descriptions of the characters and their way of acting (and even thinking); it shows the author's acute observational skill. The setting is the coast of Yorkshire, with all its rough beauty and strong-minded people. Even of the elderly couples who have been together for decades, the author allows the reader glimpses of when they were young and fell in love, and shows the relationship between them now, expressed in their words and actions towards each other.

Of course this was another one of the many free ebooks I keep finding at Amazon's kindle shop. Because of the seaside jargon (and the age of the book), I had to look up several words, but that did not diminuish my pleasure.

About the author I knew nothing at all - not even whether "R. D. Blackmore" was a man or a woman. Wikipedia tells me that Richard Doddridge Blackmore lived from 1825 to 1900 and was "one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the 19th century".

Read in 2015 - 27: Der gelernte König

The title of this book means "The Trained King" and refers to Wilhelm II., last king of Wuerttemberg*. Its author, Anni Willmann, is a journalist usually working for one of Stuttgart's newspapers. In "Der gelernte König", she has put together 160 pages of short stories about Wilhelm.

He was not only the last, but probably also the most popular king of Wuerttemberg. If such a thing as a "democratic monarch" is at all thinkable, then he fits the description. Everything this modest, well educated and conscientiously dutiful man did had one goal: to benefit his country and its people.

Many improvements in the lives of his subjects can be traced back to an initiative of his. He made sure the transition from agricultural to industrial state went as smoothly as possible; his was one of only a few German states where the press really WAS free and no censorship existed; he saw the importance of getting a proper education in the theoretical as well as the practical part of all trades, crafts and professions, sponsored the arts - mainly the theatre - and he loved his country so much that he knew war could never be anything but his worst enemy. When WWI broke out in 1914 and he had to say good-bye to his troops in Stuttgart, he did so with tears in his eyes.

Although Wilhelm's life (1848 - 1921) was free of financial sorrows, it was by no means easy or smooth. His first marriage to pretty Marie - it was love at first sight - sadly ended after only 5 years, when Marie died giving birth to her third baby, a stillborn boy. Two years previously, the couple's second child, little Ulrich, died at the age of five months. Wilhelm found himself a widower and single father to barely 5-year-old Pauline.

This is, by the way, the same Pauline mentioned in this post: The house "Marienwahl" (Marie's Choice) was the very place Wilhelm and his young wife moved to, and where he had, in his own words, the happiest years of his life.

The prince (it was still many years before he would become king) remarried, once again for love and not for politics. With his second wife, Charlotte, he had no children, but the two of them seem to have enjoyed a quietly happy marriage based on mutual respect, deep friendship and love, in spite of Wilhelm never really getting over Marie's early death.

In 1891, Wilhelm's uncle Karl (the one mentioned here) died and he became king at 43.
As mentioned above, he did a lot of good for his country, and was much loved. Still, when WWI ended in 1918, the old order could not be upheld, and he was forced to abdicate.

The last three years of his life were spent in modest surroundings (as he had done already before - he never lived in the palaces of Stuttgart or Ludwigsburg, using them only for representative duty). What he enjoyed most was going for walks with his two dogs, dressed as any elderly gentleman, talking to people who often had no idea who he was.
Many funny and touching little episodes are reported, and the king always showed himself a very kind, generous and understanding man.

This book brings out the official as well as the private person behind the title of "Last King of Wuerttemberg". I enjoyed it very much.

* The title? Well, if in my Swabian dialect you want to pay respect to someone's ability to fill a certain role, you say that he "learned" it, he was thoroughly trained for it. That is what someone once apparently said about Wilhelm, that he was a "trained" king, to indicate how good he was at his "job".

Read in 2015 - 26: Does Anything Eat Wasps?

This book came as a lovely surprise from a friend I have the privilege of knowing as a fellow inhabitant of Blogland. Thank you!

The magazine "New Scientist" is one I've never read myself, but some of my friends are 
regular readers, and occasionally, one of them sends me the link to an article they deem particularly interesting for me (they are always right).

A column in the magazine is called "The Last Word" and it is apparently immensely popular, featuring readers' answers to readers' questions about puzzling everyday questions such as "What affects the different shadings of earwax?" or "Why should one never eat the green areas on a potato?", or even "Does being beheaded hurt?".

This book is a fascinating collection of over 100 such questions - and their answers. I enjoyed it a lot, and am sure that some of what I have learned from it will come in helpful... at the next pub quiz or, indeed, in everyday life. 
It comes with a useful index, and the blurb on the back is right when it reads "sparkling with intelligence, knowledge and scientific curiosity".

So, if anyone ever wants to know why and how fabric conditioners reduce static electricity in clothes, why bruises go through a range of colours before the fade, or how the bubbles in aero chocolate are made to stay there, simply ask me!

PS. The answer to the title question is: Yes, of course - quite a few animals, mainly birds (but also a number of other wasps) eat wasps (something I actually knew before having read it in this book).

Hello, October!

The 2nd day of a new month, already October... So far, there is no notable difference to the last few days of September. But soon, it will get darker earlier and earlier, and I will really have to wear gloves on my way to work, and turn the heating on a bit more.

The following pictures were actually taken while it was still September, but the place (you recognized it, of course, as I've shown you round Ludwigsburg's palace grounds so often) does not look much different now:

Yesterday, the 1st of October, was gloriously golden. The sunshine meant we had about 20 Celsius in the afternoon, but the morning was rather cold at 6 Celsius. Leaving the office, I wished I had my camera with me, because there are some trees and shrubs around the building that look very beautiful right now in their autumn colours.

The last picture is from the annual pumpkins exhibition.