POSTCARDS FROM BERLIN

Last weekend I was super excted to be travel to Berlin for work with my blogging pal Fritha, and if you follow me on IG you would certainly have seen a few snapshots of us as we explored the city and filled our bellies with delicious bites. Our job was to find the best the city had to offer and review cool eats for LovinBerlin, 16 places over 3 days, which is a lot of eating!  

We stayed over at the wonderful Linnen Hotel and Apartments (anthother post on that to come) and I can't wait to come back and stay, with a park on almost every corner I couldn't help thinking how much F would love it here, plus Paul would love the food.

Apart from my love of street art and urban landscapes, one of my main reasons for wanting to visit was to see the Berlin Wall. On the evening of November 9th 1989, my dad woke me from my sleep and lead me into the lounge to watch the evening news. My nine year old self sat in front of the TV crossed legged, watching strangers desperately reaching through a concrete wall with tears of happiness while people celebrated in the street. I remember sitting on the floor with my teddy and crying, it was so overwhelming and I didn't really understand it at the time, but I knew it was a poignant moment that my dad had wanted me to witness, and it's a memory that stuck with me through adulthood.

So as I approached the Berlin Wall Memorial and felt the cold concrete under my hands as I looked through the gap, it was no surprise that 25 years on nostalgia ran high and the emotional flood gates opened.

I loved exploring Berlin, getting used to the U-bhan and feeling like a native city dweller. There is street art and graffiti on every corner, puncuated with green patches and cool coffee shops which spill out onto the street. People watching here is amazing with so many styles to take in, and the creative buzz feels like electricity in the air.

We stayed in East Berlin which gives me a perfect excuse to return so I can explore the rest of the city and see what else it has to offer, and as I wandered down Graefestrabbe in Kreuzberg I think the city stole a bit of my heart.

So here are a few snapshots of our work weekend, I can't wait to share our cool bolthole with you too.

LOST BEACH DAYS

Lost beach days and endless hours of youth. How the sparkle of the sea and glint of the sun, kissed my hair and set it off in a fiery glow against this towering limestone cage. A younger self played with exposed knees, tainted blue with the impressions of curiosity and courage, as I climbed amongst the rocks, steadying myself, sometimes tumbling. My adventurous appetite untamed as I reached ahead to touch unexplored stones. The whitewash slowly pushed between those toes which gripped fast to the shore, the cold biting while the pulse raced. These simple days where laughter was the soundtrack to summer and the only concearns were collecting glass stones, once jagged but now smooth from the constant touch of sand and sea, swirling to erase the offensive edges, as it creates the perfect discarded jewel.

OH MY BABY DAYS

Image by Sam Gibson Photography

Normally I don't do #flashbackfriday, but as January draws to a close I am feeling nostalgic for those baby days. This weekend I am managing a stall at a nearly new sale – for those who don't know, it's a stall to sell off your baby goods to new expectant mamas – so in preparation we spent a good few hours going through all the things we've kept over the last few years, and boy what a lot of stuff. I didn't quite realise how much I'd been hoarding, partly incase we'd had a another child and partly because I didn't want to let go of F's baby days.

But a baby he is not. In fact I'm struggling to call him a toddler as he bounds so quickly into boyhood. Those moments where I catch his thoughtful expressions or taking it upon himself to set the table are the ones that cause a lump in my throat. So small, yet oh so big. I can see him growing before my eyes, ever changing, for these are glimpses of the man he will become and it makes me ache for this small boy. So let me cherish his embraces, as I know they'll not be so freely given in years to come.

ONCE LOST AND LOVED // WEEK ONE

I've wanted to start a little series for a while now. I was particularly struck by some words from Tuesday's Good Book, If we disappear and nobody notices, then we don't actually disappear. Because for someone to disappear, they have to be missed.  This got me thinking about things loved, lost and found. And what if those things once loved had been lost and forgotten, do they then cease to be missing but in fact are now at home in their new surroundings, just waiting, just being.

Way back in 2000, while I was still fresh faced and entering my second year of university, I travelled  for a week to Brussels. I mooched about, drank a lot and generally took in the sights. One morning, leaving the youth hostel early, I travelled to a local flea market and stumbled upon one of my now most treasured belongings. Two boxes full of slides, an entire family's life encaptured in tiny windows; a flirtatious couple, the birth of their two sons through to their old age.

These slides are probably long forgotten, as the young boys now fully grown are heading into their later years of life. So once loved and treasured, maybe not missed but found, they are held dear by a stranger.

I have selected a few from my collection to share with you each week. A memory from a forgotten time, a golden age. I am showing them as found, not restored or colour corrected but the original image as seen from another's eye.

A BLACKBERRY HARVEST

As a child there was nothing I loved more than foraging for fruits on Cleadon Hills or unearthing vegetables from my Grandad's vegetable patch in the back garden. Rhubarb and blackberries were my favourite as there was always a pie to bake or jam to be made. As September rolled into October and the leaves started to turn we would spend an active afternoon, pot in hand, collecting wild blackberries off the bramble bushes that grew rampantly near their house.

This weekend I was excited to give F a taste of my childhood. We took a small tub and headed to Clifton Village where I had found an abundance of brambles on one of our walks. At first F was a bit hesitant but I got stuck in trying to reach the ripest berries without squishing them on contact. He watched on inquisitively and soon we were all weaving through bushes, avoiding the sharp thorns, so dearly protecting its fruit. After 40 minutes and a few scratched arms, we filled our box and headed happily to the park with our bumper harvest and purple stained hands.

I'm a total novice when it comes to making jam, as a child I would get distracted with drawing or playing rather than witness the whole process, so I can't wait to make some jam with F and show him how to enjoy the fruits of the wild.

PARK LIFE

A long week has certainly been made sweeter with the blazing rays of summer shining down on us. Sometimes I take for granted this time I have with F, and it's all too easy through the fog of tiredness to be short tempered and to forget what it is he is doing. 

He is growing and fast. 

As we hang out at the park most people are replying to office emails or engaged in work meetings, ploughing through those eight hours before they get to head home. He laughs as I wriggle my toes in the sand and I am reminded that I have the best job in the world. 

This time that stretches before me is in fact short and not endless as some days feel. It will be all too soon before he is heading off to school where he will spend the majority of his time with friends and teachers and I will return to the real world of work. So for now I will watch him play, laugh, fall and hold his hand and be thankful for this park life.  

SUPER GLIDERS ARE SUPER FUN

On the way to lunch we strolled past a new charity shop that has opened in Clifton Village and decided to take a quick peek inside for any 50p toy treasures for F. I was so excited to find a box of Super Gliders tucked away on a shelf. Stirring nostalgic feelings of childhood, I promptly snapped up a few to take with us on our picnic adventure tomorrow (I'm assured that the sun will be making an appearance).

I can't wait to see F's eyes light up with these. Super gliders are super fun.