The snow has all but melted in Stuttgart. It was well above 10 degrees Celsius this afternoon. It was actually what you might call mild. Coffee drinkers were sitting outside the cafés. Others were sitting on the sun-warmed steps of the opera house.

Meanwhile, on the surface of the pool in front of the opera house, the ducks pecked away at the ice floe near their nests.

On this pond exactly one month ago, it also looked as if spring had sprung as the ice began to crack.

The gulls still pretended they were Jesus and walked across the pool as if they had been doing it all their lives.

Now that the lovers' season seems to be nearly upon us, we can look back with nostalgic fondness at the snow we swept, the salt we strew and the ice we slipped upon.