Today is May 5th. This year, in Germany, it is also Christihimmelfahrt, which translates to, roughly, Christ’s trip to heaven – aka Ascension Day. It is also Vatertag, a very secular tradition in which men load up carts of booze and head to the woods, or the mountains, or the river, or the ocean, and drink themselves into a stupor. For this reason, even though the day is a National Holiday, the Caustic One isn’t keen on taking a nice bike ride on a beautiful day – it’s just exhausting to deal with the overload of folks hanging out in what would normally be quiet places of beauty.
So it’s just been a bit of a lazy day, although there is a “gegen Burschis” party in the Marktplatz, with great drumming from some of the African community, and a lot of the hippy-white-folk-in-dreds hanging out with their kids and dancing and hula-hooping. Lots of folks passing through on bikes, in groups; lots of people taking walks. It’s a beautiful day around 16 C, full sun.
So after washing all the dishes (this way CO has a sense of accomplishment), and playing with some crochet (Winky and Goldi need new clothes…)the CO took some time to walk over to the Markt, see the sights (read: watch the protest people play), buy a piece of cake or ice cream. Well, it was interesting but some days, a person doesn’t want to sit down by themselves in a crowd and watch. So instead, it seemed logical to visit the black swan and the new ducklings. One of the newest residents is a female duck with a very pale color. On the river, where the white swans live, there is a white duck with a splash of black on her head. The lake/pond duck is not quite white but more cream. The ducklings are pale like chicken chicks, for the most part, with a few light brown with dark brown markings. Today the ducklings were zooming around the pond as Ms Caustic approached.
They are so quick! The little ones zoomed over to the Black Swan, and then back to the corner where the Mama ducks were watching from the grass embankment on the pond side of the fence. The fence bars are wide enough for the ducks to slide through but not anything bigger; the swan would have to fly over if he wanted to leave the area. Dogs are too big (bigger dogs) but smaller dogs or cats could get through. Anyway, it was such a beautiful day. The little ducklings have a little chirp-chirp that intensifies at times. At one point, the mama ducks and one male stood up and started to cluck. The babies swam over to the embankment cement area and climbed up at the one spot which was conducive to little creatures getting to the grass from the embankment. They all ran up to the adults, and then past them, and out onto the path through the fence. The adults followed them, encouraging them in Ducksprache. Except — one. As the Caustic One looked back over towards the far end of the pond, the Black Swan swam over to her. One remaining baby duckling, a pretty yellow fluffball, came with. It was twitting quite loudly… looking over, it became evident that all the other ducklings and ducks had crossed the path and were already under a tree on the other side of the path. Oh, no! What will happen to the little one? They have left him/her behind! She chirped more loudly, and zipped past the corner, up the wall, over the grass, through the wall, over the path, and up the knoll, meeting her group as they slowly headed away from the pond. A sigh of relief from the Caustic One, but then – reflection. She obviously was able to catch up – was this because the rest of the family was waiting? No one came back to get her, they just expected she would get to where she needed on her own time, and it would be in time.
Maybe humans could learn from ducks.
Sadly, none of this was captured on film (or bits) because, as is always the case, no recording equipment was brought along for this outing.
After watching this, the Caustic One bade farewell to the Black Swan, and took a less traveled route back to the apartment. There is a little path behind the Old Chapel, and one of the ladies from Kantorei was sitting in the back yard, enjoying the sunny warm weather, and waved. CO waved back in response, smiling out of reflex. What a nice thing a wave and a smile can be! The birds were singing as the path led alongside the small river in town. Another pair of ducks lazily relaxed in the shade of a large tree whose roots sank into the river bank and into the river itself.
Caustic found herself thinking about homesickness, and friendship, and how, even though Witz has been “home” for almost three years, three years is not much time for a person such as CO to make real friends. While there are certainly lovely people in her life, on a national holiday when people are out and about, not one person emailed or called to coordinate a meeting. That led to a bit of homesickness, but the reality of it is, that the Heimweh is not for a real place, but an idea. A thought of being somewhere with loved ones, good friends, enjoying the day, some tea, music, cake, dinner – what have you. While it is certain that “home” will reassert itself once things are settled again after the Long Move Back, right now that concept is not a reality. This, of course, led to the realization that perhaps the reason the CO has spent much more time on social media than usual (and necessary), the faint touch of folks that are important to her, that speak the same language, that can (and will) discuss things in that language, is, at this time in the process of this thing called “finishing a PhD”, extraordinarily important.
As the flat neared, a glint from the sky caught CO’s attention. There, up in the sky, a bird… a plane… no! a glider! Gliders frequently fly over Witz; the Witz airport is actually a glider field, but today, although warm, was not a very cumulo-kind of day. The glider was lower than CO had ever seen one get; if field glasses had been available, the registration number would have been discernible. Something about watching a glider nose up to what seems an impossible angle is addictive. Finding a spot against an old stone building out of the sun, Caustic watched the glider cross to the other side of the horizon, wondering if it would make it back to Witz airport or land on the hill across from the Werra….