cloudy mornings give way to clear evenings

i know it can't be always so, but i like the thought. we've had our fair share of clouds here recently.

what brightens up a grey day

meeting s and s in a café for tea and a croissant
drawing all kinds of things in a little book
having a little helper when taking out and putting in a roll of film
waiting for the roll to be processed after s pressed 'the button' (twice!)

my plans for the upcoming weeks before the holiday

loads of work, and to ease the pain
sewing a skirt or two
making more jam
having coffee other places than home
go with the flow

p.s.: thanks ever so much for your reading recommendations! and - totally unrelated: i went to apply for an allotment yesterday in the pouring rain, only to learn that they don't even take down names on the waiting list until next year. so disappointed. i might have to look at other options.

photo credit:
second and third image by my little friend s. (3) - i really can't take any credit for these beautiful frames.

where i stand

i can feel change is in the air. i'm looking forward to it.

"it's been in between the things i've thought i was doing, that the real work has happened."
-william kentridge

p.s.: events like the ones in norway make me turn inward. i don't think i've got anything wise or clever to say, so i won't.

slow down, you are moving too fast

i wish. the next four weeks will be anything but slow. but then: a two-week break. this weekend, my niece is coming to stay. that's a little break, and i couldn't look forward to it anymore than i do.

(how are you doing? holidays, staycation? and would you have any reading recommendations for me? i'd like to find something that really draws me in.)

p.s.: when it's really quiet around here, i'm often still managing to pin something here.)

cheer me up

since march, i haven't had a single work-free weekend. and i'm at my desk, it will be a long night. there's no way round the fact that i have an important deadline tomorrow. can you please cheer me up?

green hummus

coming home from the garden with greens i've never prepared or eaten before is something that happened quite often since early june.

nigel slater's green 'hummus' was one of the things i tried, it took its time but was the happiest green ever and tasted fantastic.

get those broad beans out of their pods
give them a quick rinse
boil them with a little salt (10 mins for big ones, smaller ones perhaps as little as 3-4 mins)
drain into a colander, briefly rinse with cold water
if they're very thick-skinned, slide the skin off
put into food processor with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs
(i used basil and fresh mint)
process, add more olive oil, lemon juice or seasoning until you have the consistency/taste you like

eat with flat bread or similar

yum!

p.s.: i was given some lovely delphiniums by my 3-year-old friend s yesterday. aren't i lucky?!

garden & something else

these days, when i find time to go to the garden, a long row of sunflowers is greeting me. i'm not usually a fan of that particular flower - so big, so bright, so not subtle - but here it makes perfect sense. it's beautiful. i also love the patches of mixed wild flowers. i think they can happily stand up to all the vegetable bounty. not to be eaten, not to be used in any way, just there to make us smile.

oh, and i must not forget to ask you:

anyone interested in staying in berlin for a week in august? friends of mine are renting out their rather beautiful, split-level apartment in the middle of prenzlauer berg. the apartment is free from august 4 to august 10 (wed-wed). if you prefer, you could also arrive as early as tuesday, 3 aug and get a day for free, so to speak.

if you're interested, please email me (twinklestar at gmx dot net) for more info. the sooner the better!

i might also know of a place in berlin later in august, so please do get in touch if you're interested.

oh, and a very happy 14 juillet to all my friends in france!

garden

lush times.

sugar snaps (come and gone already)
kohlrabi
dill
lettuce
mint
lemon melissa
parsley
fennel
cauliflower
swiss chard
broad beans
green beans
oh, and potatoes

still waiting for the tomatoes.

i'm such a city girl, just can't believe all this goodness.

the day of the potato

well hooray! yesterday i harvested my very first potatoes in the garden. last night, i had new potatoes with butter, today potato salad for lunch. now, i'll have a little potato break - but how good this felt! like digging for gold, pardon the clichée.

i also ran into a garden neighbour whom i hadn't seen in a while, and we both said that we had gone for the garden project to find out whether it was for us. and guess what--. i will definitely have an allotment, or a little garden outside the city as soon as i can make it happen. and until then, i'll stick to garden schemes like this one, pre-planted or not.

i sometimes think that we know much better what is for us than we think we do. i don't know about you, but i tend to agonise over decisions. just think how much time i could have saved in the past by listening to what i know in my heart of hearts. i need more courage to trust my instincts.

p.s.: this photo was taken on a weekend by the sea last year. in an old garden, with lots of old apple trees.

and another thought: sylee reminded me of this post, which i had completely forgotten about. i couldn't help but thinking, gosh, my writing has gone rather downhill in the past months. it's what too much work and utilitarian thinking does to you, i guess. but i do know, there'll be other times ahead.

agfa synchro box

the other day, it was raining and i was walking in the drizzle, trying to find a café for a quick stop. i had my agfa synchro box with me, a very basic box camera from the late forties/early fifties, with the first roll of film in it. my mother had found the little box at a fleamarket, got it for me and posted it to berlin. for me the first time i used a 120 rollfilm.

when i picked up the processed roll, there were seven out of eight frames with recognisable subject matter on them (score!). i've got no idea what happened to that one frame in the middle, which was blank. probably skipped it when winding the film?

anyhow, what i can tell from looking at that first roll, is that i need a tripod, or intentionally play with the motion blur. also, i think i may prefer b/w with this kind of basic analogue camera. and i'd like to take less urban scenes with it. perhaps landscapes.

i just thought i'd document the ho-hum first shots and my ideas, after all, this is a diary of sorts, and you can't always get the desired result with the first try, right?

happy weekend!

on richard long and some other things

thank you for all your suggestions and well wishes, i'm trying to take your advice and hope that things will ease up a little soon.

what makes me really calm, is being in that big main hall of the hamburger bahnhof, the museum of contemporary art in berlin, and to look at richard long's berlin circle, and his monumental mural, the mud circle he painted with his hands. there's still time to see it, until the end of july. all of the above taken just there.

also, i'm really thankful for the kindness of friends, their emails, letters, and phone calls. and for danica's playlists on 8track and barbara-rose's glorious finds, both of which often give me a lift.

did i tell you i'll go on holiday at the end of august? i so can't wait!

p.s.: a click on the images will take you to my flickr site, where you can also view the photos in different sizes, or on black.