Making the most of the sunshine

Sunny days are so few and far between right now, that it pays to make the most of them when they arrive! After weeks of rain, cold and grey skies, the sun came out on Sunday, so I persuaded Jan to come out for an afternoon walk with me. A few signs of autumn are showing up now, but mostly we’re still at that in between stage where most of the trees are still green with only a few traces of yellow or orange. It was a lovely day for a walk though, and I actually managed to get some photos of Karlsruhe with blue skies (unlike all the ones in my Neighbourhoods around the world post…).

Konzerthaus (the concert hall)

This tree in the Nymphengarten has decided to embrace the colours of autumn (unlike all the ones around it)…

A nice old building squished in between two less nice buildings on Kaiserstrasse, the main shopping street

It was Stadtfest on that day and also Verkaufsoffener Sonntag (a Sunday on which shops are open for business) so a lot of places were giving out balloons. This tree next to a tram stop was doing an excellent job at catching those that s,all children inevitably let go of…

Balloon tree

I’ve posted a photo of this old entrance to a swim baths before (the modern entrance is round the corner, and much less impressive). That time there was snow on the ground and the trees were much more bare.

The Vierordtbad in Autumn

And finally, a photo taken by Jan…

Me and the Vierordtbad

He said he likes the way my hair looks with the sun shining on it.

Yesterday we woke up to rain again and the forecast seems to be indicating more precipitation for the rest of the week, so it’s a good job we got out in the sunshine while we had the chance!

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What season is this again?

It’s hard to believe that a mere two weeks ago the temperatures were still in the high 20s (degrees celsius, that is). The day we went to the wine festival was the last nice day we had here. Since then, it’s been raining… and cold. So cold, in fact, that last night I took my trusty blanket (the one that got me through the first few days of post-wisdom tooth removal pain) to bed with me. Curled up under both that and the quilt I was actually able to warm up enough to sleep!

This is what autumn is supposed to look like…

I know it’s September, and therefore an autumn month (although not officially until Sunday), but is a temperature drop of more than 10 degrees really necessary? Right now, it feels more like the beginning of winter than the first weeks of autumn (which makes me wonder how I’m going to cope when winter actually does arrive!). Early autumn is supposed to be about brightly coloured trees and piles of crunchy brown leaves that are just perfect for stomping on. How are the leaves supposed to get crunchy when they’re wet all the time? Temperatures are supposed to be mild… well, cool mornings and nights are to be expected, but during the day I should be able to get by with just a cardigan or light-weight jacket. A cardigan, my raincoat and a scarf is not autumn attire! And on the way home from work last night, I even found myself wishing I had some gloves with me. I cannot remember a September this cold in my entire six years in Germany! Here’s hoping the sun comes back for at least a day or two before winter kicks in!

And on an entirely unrelated note… I managed to sleep without a painkiller last night and swallowing seems to be much easier today. My stitches come out tomorrow, so hopefully it will be all up hill from there!