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What is better, to lift the sill in the hen house and gather two warm eggs, to crack them later into a tiny cast iron skillet and eat them with fresh brown bread, to gather rocket and mustard for the evening's salad, or to open the hen house door at dawn and watch the chickens rush out for their morning meal? Certainly it's the last that I go on dreaming of, now far from Devon.
For my few beloved devoted readers: I am off to Devon for a week and will write again on my return.
This is quite profoundly neither here nor there, but the sleek style of this little office offering opportunities for Germans to work in and emigrate to Norway was too much to be overlooked. What looks like a white box on the wall - my camera is not so good - is a backlit, heroic map of Norway.
PersonalArena, Sredzkistr.18 (map)
On spotting the 'SchokoBar' sign flapping in the wind, I immediately crossed the street. The area around Linienstrasse is the land of the little shop, and I do love exploring it. I noted the extensive range of Erich Hamann chocolates (made in Wilmersdorf) and the bevy of hot chocolates to order at the little bar, and cheerfully tried a couple of samples sitting out in white ramekins. I don't really need any chocolate, I thought, and left, smiling at the friendly salesman as I did, but the smoothness of the last truffle stayed with me, and after walking almost to Alte Schönhauser I skipped back across the street again to buy a cellophane cone. 2.90 EUR for about twenty truffles: 'Guyaux' the man spelled out for me.
SchokoLaden, Linienstr. 45 (map)
Open Mon-Fri noon to 7 pm, Sat 1 pm to 6 pm
Tel. 49 30 818 599 77
It's usual, on the walk from Rosenthaler Platz to Hackescher Markt, to be arrested by the new, and so I was unsurprised but still pleased to see fresh display windows near the corner of Rosenthaler and Linienstrasse. s.wert design offers architectural motifs from Berlin reenvisioned as pillows, lamps, wrapping paper, and postcards, with a focus on now-demolished postwar façades; I think the freshness of their colours contrasts nicely with their subjects. One wall boasts samples of Daniel Ginelli's Dump Art: droll pairings of a photo with a deadpan German product.
s.wert design, Rosenthaler Str. 71 (map)Brunnenstraße 191 (map)
Open Mon-Sat noon to 8 pm M-F 11am-7pm, Sat 11am-6pm
Tel: + 49 30 400 56 65 5
