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MAY, the month that is (but perhaps also the person), has not been kind to employers this year. Bavaria has four public holidays this month, three of which are also German holidays and all falling on workdays – 1st May (Day of Work), 10th May (Ascension Day), 21st May (Whitmonday) and 31st May (Corpus Christi).
 
Nor has May (the month) been kind to employees so far this year. The first two holidays were not wonderfully sunny days and notably, these two days are the ones when there is traditionally lots of outdoor activity.
 
However, today has been much kinder and as I drove back from the morning dog walk with Flash, stopped off at the village quarry lakes where the “car park” was already filling up with people who were going to spend the day picnicking and probably BBQ-ing and the brave ones, swimming. The daytime temperatures have been more than hot enough for about 6 weeks but at night it has been almost always in single figures. Our swimming pool would be around 30°C if we covered it at night and so is only around 20-22°C.
 
I still don’t understand what the parish council is doing with the lakes. Apparently, there is a “plan” being worked on. The Blip is just a part of one of them, on the left one can see a high brown wall of earth which was put there a few months ago. I thought it was to become the official carpark to replace the current wild parking in and around a meadow rented by one of the village farmers who has to accept the cars driving on it and the litter.
 
This week, the German Left Wing political party again tried introducing a change in the law so that public holidays falling on a Sunday (not Saturday as this is still considered a working day) are “relocated” to the following Monday, quoting the practice followed in the UK. The last such event was on New Year’s Day 2017, there are none in 2018 and the next is on Epiphany 6th January 2019. And in 2018 only one day falls on a Saturday, so things are actually very good for a while. 2020 looks bad  – four holidays are on a Saturday or Sunday. I think they should revisit the law in December 2019. Perhaps the UK will be back in the EU then and should apply to have Bavarian holidays.


I spent the day trying to repair lawnmowers. Out of one that I salvaged from the scrap heap, I am trying to repair the other two. One was successfully repaired (about 25 years old) and the other needs to be taken to the garden equipment people. I simply can't see how the drive wheel system works and something fell apart on Friday when Angie was mowing. I don't know if we have all the bits. The garden tractor mower is still being repaired in Memmingen under guarantee and taking ages.


But at least the law forbids lawnmowing on public holidays and Sundays so I couldn't have done any even if I had felt so inclined.

(I note on the map that Blip presents to show the location that much of the "blue" is missing. I have marked the location which is directly on the edge of the water but looks to be in a field. I see Google has updated the satellite images for our area but sadly taken late afternoon with very long shadows "spoiling" the detail.