The Changing Seasons – Spring Edition

First of all: I want to apologize to all of you for staying away from blogging without even announcing or explaining it for so long.

I had – what I now know in hindsight – what you might call a digital burnout. All of a sudden I felt I had to pull my digital plug in order to take care of my mental health.

I did so by deleting all social media apps on my smartphone one night, and the relief I felt just after I did it, was almost comical. Especially when you consider that I was almost scared to do it in the first place.

I’m going to write a seperate and more detailed post about it soon, but felt I had to explain what happened before I delve into this Changing Seasons post.

So here comes, what I’ve been up to in the last 3 months! Be warned: as you might expect, it’s somewhat longish. So feel free to quickly sneak into the kitchen to get a beverage of your choice, some snacks, and maybe a short visit to the loo before you get started. 😉 And also to ask questions about any drawings you’d like to know more about – I know that they sometimes don’t make much sense to anyone who isn’t me. 😉

March

I’d love to say that I did some amazing and stunning stuff during my social media break – but no. It was rather the same as usual with a few exceptions out of the ordinary.

I’ve been trying to keep fit and healthy during lockdown by doing various exercises, lots of yoga and eating plenty of vegetables and fruits. I even started – and no, these days it’s actually no cliché anymore since Germans tend to buy the stuff at the supermarket – to make my very own Sauerkraut(!). I’ve heard from a friend that it wasn’t all that difficult to make, so I thought why not? All you need is cabbage (any will do but I took the classic green cabbage), salt and time – and and a bit of muscle power too.

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As you can see in my doodle calendar, my little social media breakdown happened exactly on the day before, on the 17th to be precise. Part of my social media break was to stop taking pictures just for the sake of share them on my various social media accounts. So I’m afraid there are no pics of my Sauerkraut-making, or of much else during that time, and I’ll have to rely on my doodle calender as a reference.

Rest assured though that the fermentation magic did indeed happen and the final result was delicious! If you ever get the chance to try raw sauerkraut, or kimchi, which is the Korean alternative, take it! Thanks to the fermentation process it’s brimful with good things like prebiotics that will boost your immune system. If you’re interested in how to make your own raw sauerkraut, just google it or have look here.

The other remarkable thing that happened in March was that I got my first COVID-vaccine shot. I had a bit of a fever a couple of days afterwards and generally felt ill but also very thankful too.

Here in Germany the vaccination process started quite late, thanks to our government making a couple of mistakes ordering the vaccines. It’s still hobbling along but all in all people start to see a silver lining on the horizon and we’ve even started opening up a little again, meaning we don’t have to do an antigen quick test everytime we want to go shopping, which is quite a relief.

April

April had lots of bad weather in store for us – it even snowed a couple of times which is very unusual this late in the year. Mind you, May wasn’t much better in that department, being the coldest and wettest May in over 40 years.

This didn’t keep me from sowing seeds and repotting plants however. And even if the weather wouldn’t play along, the first signs of spring/summer awaited me in the supermarket: asparagus and strawberries! YUM!

One of my highlights was when I finally and successfully tackled “downward dog” during my yoga sessions!!

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May

May started with the usual demonstrations on May 1st around here: most of them peacefully demanding lower rents, and things, but many people also use the occassion to riot in the streets, especially at night. No matter the weather, I usually stay indoors on that day in order to avoid getting caught up by the events.

Apart from that I broke my own book reading record during this months and almost doubled my usual count (10 instead of 5 books), and had my first appointment at the dentist’s in two years – fortunately everything was fine, I just needed a new night guard. 😀

I even got back to working on a canvas painting I started last year – my own version of “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”by Hokusai. I planned on finishing it this month, but alas, there’s still lots of work to do.

There also was a rather unpleasant surprise visit from my downstairs neighbour on Whitsun Monday however – apparently water was dripping down the ceiling in her bathroom! A quick look under my bathtub confirmed that the drain had come off completely and the floor right underneath it was soaking wet. The bath mat had stopped the water from reaching my feet or I would have noticed it earlier!

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Because sanitary fittings seem to change size every couple of decades – for unknown reasons – I had to wait and hunt for the right replacement. I just managed to repair it yesterday – and what glory and joy that first shower was, I tell you!

And this was it! Didn’t I tell you it was rather boring and unspectacular? 😉

Better let me know what you have been up to all these months! Did you find ways to remain fit? Started or finished new projects? No worries, I will catch up with your blogs soon, but would love a little news about you just the same, if you don’t mind. 😀

Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday!

If you’re interested in the Changing Seasons, here’s some information about the challenge:

About The Changing Seasons

The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently — though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken during the month.

For many of us, looking back over these photos provides the structure and narrative of our post, so each month is different.

Others focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.

But in the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you.

There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.

Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them.

Create a ping-back to Su’s post, so that she can update it with links to all of yours.