Ein Polar Tief bringt kalter Luft zu uns. Winter's back, in other words. Icy north wind and bursts of stinging rain. Trying to warm up by looking at pictures of Genova.

My talk on Friday went ok. In Germany, instead of clapping, you bang your knuckles on the table at the end of a talk to masochistically signal appreciation. Very strange.

The Schloss gardens has red squirrels. I want to take a picture of one, but they seem to know whether I've brought my camera or not. When I bring it along, there are none to be seen, but when, like this morning, I forget it, they are all over the place jumping around and posing on birdtables a bit like that old advert for crunchy nut bars.

There are also lots of mountains molehills in the Schloss gardens today, that weren't there yesterday. It must be mole season.