Saturday, 17th of May, 02.00 pm

After three weeks of rain and cold temperatures, early summer is back in North Germany. After a quick trip to the local supermarket to get some things for the barbecue, I started working in the garden.

There is a rule in Germany, called “Mittagsruhe”, meaning that between 01.00 and 03.00 pm you are not allowed to make a lot of noise. Mowing  the lawn  or cutting off branches with a motor saw during that time is out of the question here in the countryside (nobody cares in the cities). Funnily enough nobody minds when people start using loud machines as early as 06.30 on a Saturday morning, waking up people like me.

I think that rule dates back to the time when people came home for lunch, as my father did when I was small. He worked from 08.00 am til 12.00, came home to eat, had a snooze and left again at 02.00 pm, working from 02.30 til 07.00 pm.

Most Germans have their big warm meal sometime between 12.00 and 01.00 pm and have “Abendbrot”, bread with different cold cuts, ham,  sausage and cheese, in the evening.

I myself don’t like to have a heavy meal in the middle of the day. And on Saturday, sometime around 02.00 pm I served “Quark” (a curd cheese) with blueberries and strawberries on the terrace. A perfect meal on a hot day, and a well deserved break after two hours of gardening with the grass still to be cut.

http://nwframeofmind.com/2014/05/18/1-day-1-world-project-200-pm-300-pm/