To Germany!

Clive is at last due to leave the Lymphedema Clinic in Germany where he’s been for 11 weeks.

I travelled there on Monday 14th with the Italian Croce Bianca (White Cross), leaving just before 10.00 am and arriving at about 7.00 pm.

We went the fastest route, which is notorious for a very long stretch of badly pot-holed road.

There was snow on the peaks in Switzerland, and smooth green meadows and dreamy blue lakes lower down.

Dreamy blue lake in Switzerland

I tried to phone Clive just before our arrival but I couldn’t get a proper signal so he had quite a surprise!

White-capped mountain

Snow on Monte Subasio on Easter Monday

It must have gone on snowing higher up in the mountains yesterday after it had stopped here.

This morning there was a white cap on Mount Subasio.

So we have spring anemones, flowering rosemary and a peach tree in full leaf in the foreground, and snow on the mountain in the background.

Italy is nothing if not a land of contrasts.

I hope the plants won’t have suffered too much from the unseasonal weather, though.

Snow on Easter Day?

Clive was just telling me how it was snowing in the Black Forest where he is, and I looked out of the window and saw that it was snowing here as well!

Great soggy flakes!

The view out of the window - the white streaks are snow

The ground’s too wet from the recent rain for the snow to stick just here, but the high ground has white patches all over it.

When Easter’s in March, I suppose you can just about swallow it, but when it’s in April?

Violets

Violets

Violets are possibly my favourite flower. I never realised before how much evidence there is for this:

• I gave the name Violet to the doll I played with most (although I didn’t like dolls much)
• Violet is the name of the heroine in my novel ‘Queen Anne’s Lace’
• I used to draw stylised violets all the time
• I secretly carved a violet into a piece of old floorboard
• My mother put violets on my birthday cake and my grandmother ate them
• I still have the tiny bottle of violet perfume I bought at Lulworth Cove many years ago
• I bought a cake of violet soap to give as a present but used it myself
• I used to look for violets in the woods wherever we went in Spring
• I thought the white violets in our orchard were literally magical

The violets in the photo were under some bark mulch and survived the snow while others perished.

Lymphedema Clinic

At 1:00 am the Croce Bianca (White Cross) arrived to pick us up in what they call a ‘pullman’ – the Italian word for coach, but it’s in fact a sort of minibus.

The vehicle we travelled in

This transport is provided to patients who are being treated under the Italian Health System (in our case through Clive’s E112) who would have difficulty going by other means.

We drove through the night, drowsing uneasily, and by the time morning came we were in the mountains.

Snow-covered mountains

By lunchtime we’d reached Sankt Blasien which is where the clinic is – an attractive town, very neat and clean. It was obvious it had snowed a lot; there were great heaps where it had been cleared back. I later heard they’d had 60 cm.

Clive was examined straight away by a doctor, and I stayed on well into the evening.

The evening meal was served at the unhelpfully early hour of 5:30 pm. The patients arrived in dribs and drabs from all directions, up the stairs and down the stairs, limping and staggering. It reminded us so much of a scene from ‘The Walking Dead’ that we got the giggles.

The hotel was a breeze to find – for everyone except me. It was very dark and the streets were practically deserted. Fortunately I came across a charming lad sweeping snow in front of his house. He spoke very good English (he told me he was top of his class) and he conducted me via a shortcut right to the door of the hotel.