Two windows
Valentine's Day fun with a marker; a half-hour at Double Eye with Stadtaspekte, a beautiful, intelligent new magazine about urbanism.
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8 posts from February 2013
Berlin flora #2
Tulips everywhere for a song: pink purple red orange yellow. White this time, for their buttery undersides.
Snowflakes up, snowflakes down
I woke very early to the sound of birds and remembered other mornings elsewhere when faint signs of spring made themselves felt. While they're still up, I remain entranced by the patterns the paper snowflakes cast in the winter sun.
Berlin flora #1
The brown twigs jammed into metal buckets, which Berlin florists sell for a few euros, meant nothing to me for many years: I did not understand what those branches might lead to.
The other day I bought a bundle of unlabelled sticks. "Johanisbeerzweige," the florist replied when I asked. At home, the delicate scent of redcurrant filled the air. Then it faded; they did little else. A slapdash housekeeper, I left them there. One day, buds began to swell.
Bud broke to leaf; then blossoms came. A familiar story, but one that seemed incredible when played out on the window ledge in late January. Two weeks later now and the leaves are still verdant. This, then, an argument in favor of branches.
Lisbon up, Lisbon down
Monochrome, mostly, yet the Lisbon winter absolutely has its own light.
Sledding in Berlin
It still feels magical to live in a city and walk to a park where you can go sledding until everyone's cheeks are crimson and you can hardly feel your hands.
Do you have a favourite slope? Ours is one in Volkspark Wilmersdorf. There is a dell near Kufsteiner Straße where you can build up speed without careering into passers-by, with a delightful bump near the bottom that lifts a small girl into the air for an instant. The slope above is closer to the duck pond and pure rush-hour madness, but look, that makes it perfect for connoisseurs of the wooden sleigh.