Today is Monday the 6th of June and like many days in Germany it is a holiday. I am enjoying two weeks of vacation from teaching as the students are off till the 17th of June for what is called „Pfingstferien“ Pfingsten being the German word for Pentecost or Whitsunday. It is one of the holidays in Germany which has two days like Easter and Christmas. So today it was up at 7:30 to take the dog out and jog. Meggy the dog had a stroke last August and is per Vet‘s advice not to go with me on my morning run. Recently she has decided to wake me up starting as early as 5:30 AM by barking and howling a phenomenon that is new for her. When she was younger (now 14) I never heard her bark and luckily she is a dog that stays at home when no one is there without making a fuss. I was getting up with her at first thinking she had to go out but reading a bit online and observing her actions, I realized she wanted me to simply get up. The advice is to let her carry on and not give in. I hope the neighbors will be ok as her barking is quite loud. The little dog in the one of the upstairs apartment barks ( not powerfully) the whole day long till her mistress comes back from work. I end this report with a picture of my „Pfingstrose“ from my garden a type of peony which blooms at this time around Pentecost giving its name.