These clouds have been hanging over Berlin for most of the week. Dark, menacing clouds that have occasionally opened up and released some fairly heavy rains.  Oh, I know Spring rain is good for the plants and quite possibly good for the soul as well, but when you have things to do and were so happy so finally be wearing cute ballet flats again, after months of boot wearing, it does put you a little out of sorts.  

To encourage the sun to come back again I've been playing around with a few photos I took over the weekend when the sun was out and everything felt very early-summer dreamy. The photo below reminds me a little of what you might see if you'd just opened your eyes after having a quick little cat-nap on your picnic rug. Everything is just a little bit blurry, the sun is warm and your not quite sure whether you should close your eyes again or keep reading your book.  

Wishing you all a lovely weekend which is hopefully full of sleepy picnic rugs and not too many clouds!

On my way to work

We're in the midst of Blossom season here and it's making me so happy.  Not sure if there is anything more lovely than seeing flowers appearing on the trees after a long winter hiatus. I've been walking past my favourite "blossom spots" from last year, stalking the trees and quietly waiting for them to flower. I always used to say I was an Autumn person - I love 'swishing' through piles of leaves which have fallen - but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps I'm a Spring person after all.  What about you?

Seven things and Six Coasters

The lovely SJ from Cracks in the Pavement tagged me the other day with a list of 7 things. In a spot of lovely coincidence, when I got home from work I discovered a package from SJ in my mailbox ! It was almost as if the Postie knew I was going to be tagged by her in cyberspace!  Such a happy coincidence. Anyway, SJ's lovely little package was six very cool, handmade coasters. The backstory is that I had a bit of green-eyed envy when I spied the coasters that she made for herself using a Frankie tutorial back in January and in a spot of blogger-love she offered to make me some. They are perfect for our Berlin apartment and are now dotted around the place ready to protect wooden surfaces from hot mugs and wine glasses.  Even Matthias thinks they're "okay", which is high praise for someone who previously had an irrational hatred of anything coaster-like. Thank you so much SJ!

And now onto seven things about me:

My due date is 15th July 2011. Twenty-seven weeks and counting. I'm both extremely excited and a little bit scared that we are still a long way off being ready. Nursery? Pram? Peadiatrician? Citizenship?!? In some kind of illogical logic I've started knitting the Bean lots of little cardigans, hats and blankets. If nothing else, this baby will be kitted out in cute knits.

I have a love affair with maps. I will study a map for hours if given the chance.  Ironically I have the worst sense of direction, don't know my left from my right and probably won't be able to tell you where we are on the map. But I love studying them. Especially the old ones.

Currently I work as a Pharmacoepidemiologist. Try telling someone that at a dinner party -  even amongst a group of medical-researchy type people it's a little like saying your a Tax Accountant.

I collect old bananas in the freezer. Sometimes I delude myself into thinking that I'm going to make them into Banana Bread or Muffins but really I know that they'll get thrown out the next time I defrost the freezer.

I got my first grey-hair when I was 21. I have no idea how grey my hair is now but I guess it's pretty grey. My hairdresser (who I love) is refusing to dye my hair while I'm pregnant. In protest I'm not getting it cut either. This is back-firing badly as I've ended up with a grown out hairstyle and badly home-dyed hair. Incidentally the association between maternal hair-dye and childhood diseases is weak with only one study showing a small increased relative risk of chidlhood neuroblastoma in a subset of women who used hair-dye in the two months surrounding conception. This "evidence" is not sufficient for me and I think the results are more likely to have occurred by chance than anything else. (That bit about being a Pharmacoepidemiologist? Sometimes it comes in handy... one of my secret skills is the ability to read and interpret medical studies. Yippee!)

I'm a fantastic sleeper. Any time, any where, any place. I've fallen asleep standing up in a crowd and on several occasions mid-sentence. This skill isn't always desirable.

I've visited all the continents except Antarctica and South America.  I'm not so keen to go to Antarctica, but I'd love to pack up a suitcase and travel through South and Central America for six months.I have a feeling that my footloose and fancy-free travel time is almost up, but a girl can still dream.

And now, over to you, I tag these three lovely European ladies:

Kristina from Le Fabuleux destin de... tales of travel and photography

Li + Belle from Li + Belle

Siobhan from Hello, Flower!

Lackenalm

A few more photos from my week away in the Austrian Alps.  On one of the days I managed to convince Matthias not to ski and he joined me and his mum on a walk through the high Alpine plaines.  This was my first time in the "proper" mountains (Australian high country not with-standing) and it was really incredibly beautiful.  I kept having those 'oh this is just like in the movies' moments.

An alm is apparently a small lake which provides water to cattle grazing on the high pasture during the summer. Too early for the cows, but we had a lovely walk listening to the birds busily preparing their spring nests and the water melting into rushing streams. At the end of the valley was this cute little Jausenstation serving small refreshments.  Jausenstations traditionally only serve cold meat and cheese, but this little one had homemade Tirol dumpling (Tirolerknoedel) and Sauerkraut - perfect, hearty alpine food to warm us up before the walk back to the Valley.

BYO Couch

I'm posting about my weekend at the wrong end of hte week, but it's taken me a little while to get back into the swing of things post-holidays.  Thursday already. Ooops, the week seems to have escaped me.

Mauerpark on the first 'hot' day of the year; twenty degrees and it seemed every man, dog, BBQ and couch (!) was out enjoying the sunshine. We wandered down to enjoy the Karaoke which has become a bit of a Berlin Sunday institution. A couple of years ago a man decided to set-up a small amplifier and a Karaoke kit and invite people to join him in singing a couple of well known tunes.  He came back every Sunday and slowly the handful for cuious onlookers became a couple of thousand.  People now arrive hours before the "official" start time just to reserve a spot. It functions like almost any other Karaoke I've been to with an official 'list' where people who want to sing write their name and their song of choice. If you're good enough the crowd will get behind you and sing along too. Somewhat surprisingly the police or city council or nay-sayers that usually get involved in things like this are yet to materialise and the whole thing functions happily without permits, tickets, licences or governmental control. It's things like this that really make me love this city of mine.

Four Seasons and a Belly

The last taste of winter

Early Spring on the high plains

Summer in the Valley

Evening Autumn light... and one pregnant Belly!

Just a little taste, more to come tomorrow.

Blog Break #3

"Autumn Picnic" by Andi Watkins 

Etsy Shop: AndiWatkins4Sale

"Wine Maker's Bicycle" by photoamato

Etsy Shop: Photoamato

 "A Picnic of Peaches" by ADK Mama

Etsy Shop: adkmama

 

This is what I'm looking forward to come July. Hot weather and a lovely big glass of red wine - something big and bold which lingers on the palate and smells like blueberries and chocolate. And if it takes my fancy, I might have a second glass just to make sure it's okay for everyone else to sample too.  I'm not greedy, I'm more than happy to share, but only after I've checked that the bottle isn't corked.  Perhaps we can pack a picnic or ride our bikes down to the park. We'll watch the sunset, eat roast beef sandwiches and generally have a grand old time.  Sounds like you kind of thing? I'll meet you there. My shout.