Today it occurred to me that summer is soon coming to an end. Only one more week of August and then we will be moving into September. Fall may be slow to start, but start it will. Winter, alas, is also inevitable. I hate winter.....If I skiied or if the sun shined on occasion here between the months of November and March it would be ok, but I don't and it rarely does. Sigh....Still, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. And there were some great moments this summer. Here are some of them, paired together.
°°°At a jazz concert today on the lawn of the Jewish museum. Callused bare feet. Everyday intimacy on a cheap blanket laid out on the grass. These are the things of summer°°
°°°These puddles in the street because it rained so freaking much this summer but this picture of green because that's what all the waters brought us°°
°°°People on boots and people sunbathing and me taking pictures of them because, really, I am just a brazen peeping tom°°
°°°This picture of Bird with a goat because it always makes me smile and of Baby Li on the lawn because she's getting so big it's hard to believe°°
°°°A good photograph of Jasper is hard to come by because he usually prefers to be the man behind the camera, but I love this one. And my self-portraits of late have been so much softer than ever before and I can't say exactly why, but I like it°°
°°°These two pictures because all summer I kept seeing random blossoms on the sidewalk and, for some reason, I took a lot of photographs of water faucets but this one is my favorite°°
A couple of years ago I remember seeing a few people hang out on the Admiralbruecke on nice summer evenings to drink a beer, or maybe listen to a jazz band that had set up there. Now, every night, it is packed with people, probably until near dawn, unless the neighbors kick them off before the clock strikes midnight....
I waited there one evening for Jasper when we were first dating, when things were still shaky. Before Mia was conceived. Below are some self-portraits I took before he arrived. Crazy how different I looked then. So much younger somehow, though it was really only three years ago. A lot has happened since then. Births. A death. A marriage....
A few nights ago, after a great time with an old friend on an old street (Oranienstrasse), I wandered home across the bridge down the canal all by myself. Here are four of the things I liked the most.
1. People in Motion°°°°Everyone going somewhere, no one in a hurry though some of them were fast°°
2. Evening Strolls in Slippers and Gowns
°°°Urban Krankenhaus, a frightening example of architecture gone wrong, is a large hospital right on the water. People hang out and peer over the canal with their i.v.s on wheels and in their robes and slippers. It took me a while before I realized the woman in this picture is one of them.
3. A Spanish Lover's Quarrel
°°°°°°A woman argued passionately in Spanish while people walked and rode on by. Spanish is a wonderfully sexy language even (or especially?) when spoken by someone angry.
4. Finding Beauty in a Baustelle
°°°In such a light everything looks beautiful, even a construction site that has stood there far too long....
One of the hardest things about living in Berlin is that I'm so far away from the ocean. True, the Baltic Sea is only a little over two hours away, but it's closer to a lake than the ocean with its small, gentle waves. What I love is the ocean's roar, how it pulls your feet out from under you, the mist from its waters settling on your face. The funny thing is, the entire 15 years I lived in California I probably only went to the beach a few times a year even though it was less than an hour away. Now when I go back you can hardly keep me away. Ocean Beach, Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, Half Moon Bay...
Last year, a few weeks after our wedding, we rented a house with my family in Point Reyes Station. The day we drove out there a storm came in. It brought down trees in San Francisco and other places in the Bay Area. A few days later we went to the beach at Point Reyes. Though the storm had subsided, the waves were still wild, more crashing and all encompassing than I had ever seen before.
A few days later I read a sad story in the newspaper: A woman had been walking on that same beach when her dog ran into the waves. She went in after him to try and save him and they both were lost.
I used to think I was only really a fan of the pacific, but in August we spent two weeks in Contis Plage, France. There the Atlantic also had a strong pull on my heart and I love the French way of life. I'm sure, one summer, we'll go back.
°°°At a jazz concert today on the lawn of the Jewish museum. Callused bare feet. Everyday intimacy on a cheap blanket laid out on the grass. These are the things of summer°°
°°°These puddles in the street because it rained so freaking much this summer but this picture of green because that's what all the waters brought us°°
°°°People on boots and people sunbathing and me taking pictures of them because, really, I am just a brazen peeping tom°°
°°°This picture of Bird with a goat because it always makes me smile and of Baby Li on the lawn because she's getting so big it's hard to believe°°
°°°A good photograph of Jasper is hard to come by because he usually prefers to be the man behind the camera, but I love this one. And my self-portraits of late have been so much softer than ever before and I can't say exactly why, but I like it°°
°°°These two pictures because all summer I kept seeing random blossoms on the sidewalk and, for some reason, I took a lot of photographs of water faucets but this one is my favorite°°
