A Celestial Umbrella Held Off The Rain.

A bubble of sunshine till lunchtime.

As it rained buckets on Thursday night, I didn't think that I'd be able to walk with my walking partner on Friday morning. Miraculously the blue skies were already showing their might at seven in the morning but did have the odd cloud hovering.

Walking to my walking rendezvous -in the Eisenberg vineyards- usually takes me about 25 minutes and yesterday saw me covered in a long raincoat and my ever present sunglasses. A slight contradiction indeed.

After so many days of incessant rain, a ceasing of it coupled with a blue sky, brought out all and sundry. Even along the forest part of my walk, I met a few villagers. Some only dressed in shorts, some in longs and of course yours truly covered from head to toe.

It was amazing to see the blue sky over Eisenberg while everywhere else a covering of grey and ominous looking clouds were circling. Walking along the forest path had its own dangers. No, not the wildlife but the muddy and rather slippery bits in the middle of the path.

Those muddy bits are very treacherous as you don't use as much caution as when walking alongside icy patches during winter. At least with ice you know to walk like a duck, while mere mud tends to have you perform involuntary half lunges.

When I got to my friend, we decided to walk to the shop and back. A good four and a bit kilometers. She wasn't wearing any sort of raincoat, but cunningly she had chosen the walk along side the main road, safe in the knowledge that we'd be able to flag down someone we know to drive us home in case of rain.

We did get numerous waves and hoots from cars passing us ( yes, just like Cheers, in Eisenberg everyone knows your name ) and had a few conversations with other walkers. Lovely, how the sunshine draws out people in every sense of the word.

Arriving at the village shop on a Friday morning made it a meeting place of the Who's Who of Eisenberg and the deed of shopping become secondary. After the first few months of moving here, I got an inkling that a quick turn at the village shop is near impossible...who needs the gossip magazines, when you can get & and give much more interesting fodder for conversation while picking up milk, bread and a lotto ticket...

Ah, the delightful simpler life...love it.

Biggi