Today was a lovely day we spent hanging out with my sister. Michael had to work all day, unfortunately, but the three of us had a lovely outing that lasted almost the entire day. We woke up early to a quiet, foggy morning that boded well for a sunny day (like they always did in Northern California), and by the time we had breakfast, it was warm enough to have breakfast on Judith’s and Michael’s rooftop balcony.
We started out after breakfast by driving back to the vicinity of Neumünster that also has a trailhead for a moor called the Dosenmoor. It was gorgeous with all the wetland vegetation, some interesting (if tiny) critters, and the heather just beginning to bloom. In late August, the heath will be covered in purple. Such a peaceful walk–apart from some very pesky horseflies that tried to bite us for part of the 4-mile trail, we were almost always the only ones walking.
After our walk, which partly led across boardwalks, since the moor is the real, classic type of wetland where some stretches of soil and peat are just swimming on top of pools of water and you can really and truly drown, we also briefly checked out the nearby lake (also very peaceful, even though it is on a busy highway) and drove into Neumünster to have lunch, walk around its little downtown (cute but nothing special; also currently some construction), and then tour the “Museum für Tuch und Technik,” a museum dedicated to the history of the textile industry, which was prominent here in the late 19th and early 20th century. There were 9 major textile mills and another 7 shoe factories, which actually ended up employing far more people than the textile mills by the early 20th century because textile production was more easily automated. The museum had a contemporary quilt exhibit which did not rock my boat (it was curated for uniformity, and I know from the quilt museum in Lincoln how wildly different quilts can be), but its permanent exhibit was fascinating. It covered the history of weaving and clothmaking, beginning in prehistoric times (there was even a preserved piece of intricately woven cloth found in a nearby moor!), going through the first looms, then a Jacquard loom, which had what was basically the forerunner of a computer punch card to create the thread patterns, and then eventually the increasingly automated spinning and weaving machines that were in the factories here a hundred years ago, and even still fifty years ago.
After our museum visit, we drove back home to Judith’s and had coffee, and then drove to a nearby lake for a quick swim (Mark just looked on); we chatted with a family from Kassel vacationing in the area (very popular because still very close to the Baltic coast but a bit less crowded and less expensive). Then we went home and Judith fixed us lovely oven-roasted vegetables with a quark-based dip and we had ice cream for dessert (of course!) as we watched a LOVELY sunset to wrap up the wonderful day with Judith.
