A Typical April Week

Germany is not the only country where April is seen as a month of extremely varied weather - sometimes having everything from snow to sunshine to hail to thunder and back to sunshine within a couple of hours. We have a rhyme "April, April, der macht was er will", meaning April does as April wants. Last week was a typical example of that.

After the summerly weekend with highs of 25C/77F, Monday (15 April) was much cooler at 12C/53F. It was also very windy, if not to say stormy, making for rapidly changing light and a quick succession of showers and sun. After a quiet day working from home, I went for only about an hour's walk to the Old Cemetery and back; it was just a little too windy to make being outside a pleasure.

I passed through this part of town often on my way to the hospital in autum 2022.

Tuesday (16 April) was more or less the same in terms of weather and temperature, but I was lucky: After my quarterly eye examination in Stuttgart, the sun was out and the wind not too strong, allowing me to walk the first part of my trip home, getting on the local train at the third instead of the first station from the surgery. 

Like most big cities, Stuttgart has several parks and other green spaces. Starting from the Schlossgarten (palace grounds) in the middle of the city, one can walk through parkland for miles without having to battle the constant flow of cars; foot bridges (also used by cyclists) cross the big roads that cut through the parks at some spots.

In my teens, I often had a special ticket for our local trains available to students during school holidays. Sometimes I would use that ticket to take a train into Stuttgart and then walk through the park(s) until getting on a train back home at another station. 

I'd not done this particular walk in many, many years, and with it being such a beautiful day and no pressing obligations for the rest of the afternoon, I decided to walk.

The map - courtesy of Google maps - shows two red circles added by me. The one in the bottom left corner shows the train station where I usually get on and off for appointments with my eye doctor. The one at the top shows the station where I boarded a train back to Ludwigsburg, after having walked for about 1 1/2 hours through the parks you can see on the map, starting with Schlossgarten.

Here are the pictures I took along the way:

Wednesday (17 April) was spent at the office. At 4C/39F, it was cold enough in the morning to wear my padded winter coat and a warm scarf again. Once more, there was a mix of wind, rain and sun, with the odd clattering of hail against the window. But it remained dry almost until the end of my walk home from Kornwestheim.

A second day was spent at the office this week on Thursday (18 April), and the evening at my Mum's where the three of us enjoyed another delicious meal cooked by our Mum. In line with the wintry weather, she made a classic: mashed spuds, Sauerkraut and "Schäufele" (a dish of meat popular in my and O.K.'s regions).

It rained most of the day on Friday (19 April), and at 3C/37F, time to put the heating back on except for when I did my cleaning round in the afternoon. O.K. arrived shortly after 9:00 pm.

Saturday (20 April) was going to be a mix of rain and very little sun, according to the forecast. We still ventured into town after a leisurely breakfast, visiting some shops in view of O.K.'s upcoming birthday, and did not need our hoods or an umbrella (which would have been useless with the strong wind anyway).

I'd ordered food at the Indian restaurant in our neighbourhood, and at 6:30 pm O.K. and I went to pick it up and take it to my Mum's where the four of us (my sister was there, too) tucked into our delicious spicy food.

After I'd been struggling with a headache (coming from my neck/shoulder area) for most of the day, shortly after the meal I really couldn't keep going, and we went home unusually early. At 9:15 pm, I was in bed, knowing that only sleep would really make a difference.

And so it was; waking up on Sunday (21 April), I was right as rain again. 2C/35F was cold, but we just wrapped up well and went for a good long walk on the fields in the afternoon. 

Snow, maybe icy rain and slippery roads were threatening, and therefore O.K. drove home about 1 1/2 hours earlier than usual on a Sunday night. 

We ate early; I made green asparagus tarte on a base of puff pastry. The pastry was bought ready, everything else was by me after a recipe I'd taken out from a magazine many years ago and had always wanted to try. It turned out really nice, I think - a dry white wine would have been perfect with it, but of course O.K. had to drive and so we stuck to water.

My week ended with an early retreat to bed with my current read - the fourth installment of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series (brilliant!).

A (Mostly) Sunny Week

+ + + Update: I added something to the Thursday of that week. + + +

Last week was mostly sunny and really warm, with not a single drop of rain (a total contrast to this week). I had the chance for some good walks, making the most of the spring that felt more like early summer.

My trains from Offenburg to Ludwigsburg were on time on Monday (8 April). After an already mild morning, 25C/77F in the afternoon meant I went out in short sleeves and 3/4 length jeans to meet a friend for coffee and cake. It was very good to catch up with her - we'd not seen each other since last autumn.

A back & shoulders massage followed; after that, I met up with my sister for a walk in the palace grounds with the tulips and other spring flowers at their most beautiful, as you can see from the pictures.

Tuesday (9 April) was much chillier at a high of 11C/51F, but at least the forecast rain did not materialise for us. I only worked until lunch time, then my sister picked me up for the drive to a small town not that far away but hard to get to by public transport. 

We were there for the funeral service of our friend RJ's Dad - he was the fourth person in my circle of family and friends to have died in the first three months of this year, only three days after O.K.'s Dad. I hope there won't be another funeral for me to attend for a long time.

I had a brief rest at home before setting off to the pub where my team and I were booked for the quiz. It was good fun even though this time we did not walk home with a prize - we ended up with 22 out of 26 points, coming fourth.

A chilly 7C/44F warmed up to 14C/57F on Wednesday (10 April), my usual office day. After an unremarkable but productive working day, I walked home from Zuffenhausen across the fields in beautiful late afternoon sunshine, enjoying every moment of the just under two hours it took me.

I started Thursday (11 April) working from home, glad not having to be out on that sunny but very cold morning at 3C/37F. By lunch time, it was much warmer, and it was good to be on a train to Marbach, where I had a meeting at the Literature Archive. 

Afterwards, it was 14C/57F again, and in the beautiful sunshine I walked along the river until I reached the bottom of Ludwigsburg (actually, the suburb of Hoheneck). From there, I took a bus up into town and walked the remaining 10 minutes to my house. The roughly 8 km were a beautiful walk, but my work laptop is large and heavy, which was one reason why I opted for the bus for that final bit through town.

Schiller National Museum in Marbach (part of the complex of buildings connected with the Literature Archive, and therefore occasionally my work place)

 View of the museum from across the river

One of the many vineyards turned into orchards and allotments

Another ex vineyard, with a shed high up at the top of the steep slope

Nobody has been working this very steep vineyard in a long time.

I did not stay home that evening; actually, I merely dropped off my heavy work laptop and was off again to my Mum's where my sister and I were to enjoy once more our Mum's great cooking. This time, she made green and white asparagus with slices of ham and savoury pancakes - a seasonal dish that suited the evening very well.

Friday (12 April) saw the usual succession of work, groceries shopping and cleaning, changing the bed sheets and so on, with a rare addition: I cleaned my windows :-D They really were very dirty, and knowing that I was going to have visitors on Saturday added extra motivation for tackling my least favourite household task.

When O.K. arrived shortly after 9:00 pm, I served green asparagus with slices of ham, a salad of baby spinach leaves, yellow pepper and feta cheese, ciabatta and a crisp dry white to go with it. Even if I say so myself, a delicious and fitting meal for a beautiful spring evening.

Since I had postponed my little birthday party to Saturday (13 April), in the morning O.K. and I went to a large supermarket nearby for the drinks and crushed ice. After that, we picked up the party Brezel I had ordered from my local baker - made of 1 kg of dough and prepared with four different kinds of cheese and three types of ham, as well as slices of egg, radishes and lettuce.

There were only going to be eight of us, and with the drinks bought and part of the food ready, we had enough time to go for an ice cream in the afternoon. It was beautiful and warm at 25C/77F or more, and accordingly, very busy in town. But the long-ish queue at the ice cream counter moved swiftly, so that we were soon holding our takeaway cups. We found empty chairs on the market square (a small miracle on a day like that) and enjoyed our ice creams before crossing the road for a short stroll in the palace grounds.

Soon, it was time to get back and prepare the rest of the food, bring up the extra chairs from the cellar, set out glasses for the drinks and so on.

A close-up of the big party Brezel :-)

It was nearly as big as my kitchen table!

From 7:00 pm onwards, my guests started to arrive, some of which I had not seen in quite a while. As it was meant to be my birthday party (originally planned for the day after my birthday three weeks ago), they brought presents and cards as well.

It was a lovely, fun evening with my friends and family (of course my Mum and sister were there, too), and I was glad and grateful for everything and everyone.

After the guests had left, clearing up didn't take long, and I was in bed before 2:00 am, the dishwasher quietly humming in the kitchen.

Sunday (April 14) was another warm day of wall-to-wall sunshine. After a leisurely brunch, O.K. and I walked to the lake, then further on to the casle on the hill (Asperg) where we had a shandy before completing our walk of about 13.5 km.

Field of rapeseed on our way to the lake

One of the paths around the lake

Up on Hohenasperg, the castle hill above the town of Asperg

Looking west across Asperg

Looking east across Asperg towards Ludwigsburg in the distance

The beer garden where we had our shandies

Back home at 5 pm, we had coffee and strawberry cake; later, I made another salad of baby spinach leaves and yellow pepper, this time with slices of avocado, and heated the rest of the party food. 

O.K. left shortly after 8:00 pm and was home less than two hours later.

That Sunday would have been my Grandma's (Mum's mum) 110th birthday.