Winterlinge 2009

On the first day of March we decided to hike up to see the Winterlinge, which Jeremi missed last year while I went with Anna. Rather than biking up, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to walk. It's a bit of a hike from our place, but nothing impossibly far. And the weather really was great. Here you can see us in T-shirts, enjoying the sun shining through the still-bare trees, while all the Germans are wearing winter coats.

There were even bees out, also enjoying the flowers. It was that warm.
From there we headed through Isserstedt and across the fields to Cospeda, partly to check if our friends Calin and Susanne were home, and partly because we were planning on walking home that way anyhow. On the way we saw some other lovely spring blossoms...
...which helpfully came with an interpretive sign to tell us what they were:
When we got to Cospeda, they were unfortunately not at home, but we headed to the local pub for a drink and a snack anyhow. On the way back across the field we saw that their patio door was open, so we dropped by to say hello. They'd just gotten back from somewhere where they were out enjoying the nice weather, and we hung out for a bit. At this point I was really exhausted from all the walking, and my hip was starting to hurt, so Calin (very kindly) ended up driving us home.

The next day my hip hurt even worse, but I thought it was just like my usual bursitis flare-ups, which I've had since I was a kid, which are usually fixed by wearing different shoes for a few days. (Something about changing the alignment of the joint which lets the swelling go down.) But it didn't help this time, and after going to work on Monday and Tuesday, I was unable to walk well enough even to take the bus on Wednesday. By Thursday I couldn't get up by myself, and Jeremi was getting pretty worried, so I ended up going to the doctor Friday morning. One of the doctors in our practice specializes in sports medicine, and he managed to inject some magical substance into my hip within three minutes of entering his office. (It wasn't cortisone, which isn't considered 100% safe during pregnancy, but some other drug that he assured me was fine while pregnant. He told me the name, but I was so overwhelmed by the pain of my hip and the nastiness of getting the shot that I completely forgot by the time I got home.) The shot was really uncomfortable, but within a day I could walk again, and by Monday I was at least 95% better. Thank god - I was worried that I was going to be that crippled until the damn baby was born, but it worked out okay in the end. (Though I still have more hip trouble than usual when I walk for too long, it somehow gets back into alignment if I ride my bike for a bit. Strange, I know, but even now, when I'm 9+ months pregnant, I find it easier to ride my bike for an hour than to walk for an hour. Not to mention that it's way faster...)