Catching up.

Ahhh. There is so much going on in the city. By "so much going on" I mean that there are just so many reasons to hang out outside. I can't keep up with this blog. Plus I've been spending a lot of my time at home either getting projects finished around the house or sitting in a park somewhere (i.e., planting window boxes, sewing, cooking, cleaning etc...). The weather is just too beautiful to be on the computer.

I've been doing a lot of sewing and have resolved to sew all of my new summer clothes. I have been stockpiling fabric here for the past couple of years and ended up bringing a bunch back from my stash in Canada. I'v already made a tank top from this free pattern that I heard about through make something. I'm working on a pair of pants now, from a pattern I found in a Burda magazine.

If you're in Berlin right now, Based in Berlin is on all over the city. We ended up going to KW last week for a glimpse of what's going on. This week I'm going to try and check out what's going on at Hamburger Bahnhof and Berlinische Galerie. This great thing about this exhibition is that everything is free!

Yesterday we had brunch with a friend at Felix Austria. I can't tell you how much I love this place. Being able to sit outside and enjoy all of the activity on the streets is a plus. Afterwards we moseyed over to a sweet organic farmers market on Chamisoplatz and bought some fruit, flowers and plants! I've been obsessed with buying fresh cut flowers lately!

Happy Sunday.

The day-to-day.

We've been hanging around the house a lot since being back in Berlin. I've been into fixing up things that have long been waiting, making a new summer table cloth, sewing buttons on clothes, mending etc. We've also been getting a fresh organic food box every week from a farm just outside of Berlin.

The stairwells in our building are being renovated and I love this in-between stage. They've pulled up the ratty linoleum flooring exposing the old hardwood. It's exciting to see what the finished product is going to look like. M. is hoping that they paint the floors while I'm hoping that they'll install jute runners.

Last night we went to my favourite Ethiopian restaurant in Berlin, Blue Nile, with some friends. And we've been taking a few too many trips to the best ice cream joint in the city, Vanille & Marille. If you're in the city it's worth a trip to our corner of Kreuzberg. There is always a line-up outside, but it goes fast.

Happy Friday!

Water.

One of my favourite things about summer is being by the water. I'm not much of a swimmer though. I love to sit by the water, enjoy it from the banks. Here are some digital and 35mm film shots of a trip that we took to Hamburg last fall. We took an interesting harbour cruise, with a Captain frustrated about the wealth in the city and changes affecting the harbour. I'm in love with freighters and stacks of colourful shipping containers. It's all so romantic in a horrifying way. Gentle giants.

There is an abundance of freshwater in and around Berlin, which makes it such a great city to spend the summer in. Here are just a few spots that I'd suggest visiting while in Berlin...

Krumme Lanke

Plötzensee

Teufelsee (Grunewald)

Plänterwald near Rummelsburger See

and there are lots of nice places to sit along the Landwehr Canal in Kreuzberg; close to Tiergarten on Garten Ufer, in front of the Urban Hospital (Krankenhaus), and the basin where Landwehr Canal turns to go up to the Spree, near the east end of Reichenbergerstr.

Have a great Thursday!