Silvester Celebrations 2011

I know this post is a litte late, but I'm recapping our New Years today.  It fits so perfectly with Lisa's Creative Exchange theme - a camera in one hand and your heart in the other. 

We initially didn't have very big plans for New Years. Work commitments kept us in Berlin and it seemed everyone we knew was leaving for the holidays.  We contemplated a quiet dinner for  two, followed by some drinks at a local bar. And then toward the end of November something strange began happening.  My sister, who is currently working in Geneva, decided to spend Christmas and New Year with us; then Matthias' sister and friend decided to join us in Berlin for the weekend. Our little party of two grew to five.  A few weeks later we were suprised to receive an email from US friends (currently living in Sochi) announcing they would be in Berlin for 'Silverster'.  So two became five and then seven, and then a few weeks later eight.  Two days before New Year our party had grown to eleven.

Eleven!  We borrowed an extra table, some chairs and a few plates.  We planned a meal, divided up the courses, organised champagne and put it all out to chill on the snow covered balcony.  I busied myself with decorating the table and Matthias got industrious roasting a huge piece of Wildschwein (wild pig) for main course. And then we waited.

Soon our apartment filled with the delicious smells of Roast Capscium soup, Wildschwein with Chestnut Risotto and Raspberry Coulis. The wine flowed, conversation moved between German and English and after eating our way through far too much food we descended down to the Berlin streets to watch the fireworks and join in the festivities below.  I didn't take many photos from the night - but I love this one below - quickly taken between courses as I watched the risotto, cleared plates, filled empty glasses... Technically it's far from perfect but it was taken with my heart. Yes, it was exhausting to host eleven people, but I loved every minute of it.  So nice to see our table full and hear the friendly chatter of New Years celebration.

One Little Word - Rhythm

I'm always surpised by how sometimes life provides you with the answers to questions that have only just materialised in your head.  I've never been much of a New Years Resolution person.  On a whim I once decided not to eat chocolate for a year (and succeeded) but that's about it.  Anyway, after reading many blogs on New Years Resolutions I was no more inspired than before to write my list of 20 things I wanted to achieve this year, but after a conversation with Matthias, and after reading Jamie's post here, I may have changed my position on this.  I've decided that my 2011 needs a word, which isn't quite a New Years resolution, but its heading that way which is surprising,. Thankfully the skeptic in me is pre-occupied by conspiracy theories related to Wikileaks and  so my optimistic side is running with the idea. 

 

It's a little over a year since I moved to Berlin. On the surface I feel comfortable here - I have my hairdresser, we know an excellent butcher and I can navigate the BVG with relative ease. If forced I can even have a telephone conversation, which is a far cry from where I was 12 months ago.  But I still don't really feel like I'm settled here.  I haven't quite found my groove.  So, after tossing it around in my head and saying it aloud a few times to see if it fits, I've decided that my word for 2011 is "rhythm" - finding it, embracing it, settling myself  down into daily rituals and practice which have been otherwise missing from my life over the last 12 months.

To keep me on track and to help motivate me towards completing my 365 I've decided to join Jill at Life... As I See It in her One Little Word challenge - a picture a week that documents the "deliberate approach" to incorporating this word and what it means to you into your life.  It's verging on a self-help place where I don't often venture, but if it helps me find my rhythm I'm more than happy to give it a try.  Thank-you also to Kristy of Life-n-Reflection if she hadn't commented on my blog I'd never have skipped over to her blog or found the One Little Word Challenge. If you're interested in joining in to, click here to find out what it's all about.

October Photo Hunt

My submission for the Photo Hunt Challenge. Twenty photos over one month doesn't sound like a lot but it was a challenge in the truest sense.  Many of these photos have been posted here over the month, but I needed to put them all in one post for review.  

Oh... and I'm sure that the old man in the 'Dining photo' is famous, but I have no idea who he is - he's British is the only clue.  Politician, Actor? Am I making it up?  Please help me out!

In Disguise

Crisp

Fall Colours

Jack O'Lantern

a shot from the ground

a landscape

a fall tradition - Oops, forgot about this one.

books

Dining

Child

Faces in Nature : (pulled from the archives). If you squint hard, on the bottom right there's an old woman. I really struggled with this one!

Tilt-Shift Photography

B&W with selective colouring

bokeh

best photo of oct 23rd

from the kitchen

something vintage

something creepy

something golden

a self-portrait

Scavenger Hunt

This was a tricky week.  Couldn't manage to get all the photos for the week.  Its been grey and cloudy here so no Sunsets.  And then the faces in nature - well that required some very creative "dreaming" on my part.

Side Lighting - From the Usedom trip last weekend.

Jack O'Lantern - A rainy day and a Scavenger Hunt challenge, we ended up spending a few hours on Saturday making these Jack O'Lanterns. Great fun!

Faces in Nature - So this was a bit of a stretch and required some 'digital dreaming' on my part.  I took a few photos from my stay in Africa and created some faces in nature.

Sunset - Again, from Africa.  Africa really does have the best sunsets of any where I've visited.

Warm - Lovely warm knitting.  I've almost finished my cowl which will be keeping me warm all winter.

And that's it for this week.  For more Scavenger Hunts (which are hopefully more on track that my selection), visit Ashley Sisk's site.

Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt Sunday, and for the record it is a particularly awesome day today, if your a numbers kind of person, 10-10-10.  And because I'm slightly geeky and secretly like that kind of thing, I'm also posting at 10.10.

1. Pink - Pale pink flowers, the last of the summer blooms here.

2. Books - A snap-shot of our bookshelves.  For Valentine's Day Matthias and I get each other a book.  This year he bought be Doeblin's Berlin, Alexanderplatz and I bought him the A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh series.  This says as much about our differences as anything else - and in case you're wondering Soviet Politics 1917-1991 and Phrasal Verbs is his, Tales of Ginger and Pickles and Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes are mine.

3. Fall Colours - I'm still messing about with capturing sun flare - I'm getting better and it's a lot of fun when it works out, kind of.  And the other picture I've quickly put in from Usedom.

4. Leaf - I know I already posted this here, but I love this photo.  I think it's one of my favourites at the moment and went so well with the theme.

5. Orange - I was aiming at the truck in the background and this little kid came barrelling down the path so quickly that I didn't even realise he was on me until, well, we nearly crashed.  The trike is "a little bit orange" so it kind of passes for this theme, right?

For more, head here.

Scavenger Hunt

This is the first week that I've participated in the Scavenger Hunt over at Ashley's Blog.  I had a bit of time yesterday to potter about and quickly try and take the five photos.  I think I only just managed to scrape in on the 'golden' picture and the 'sport' gets a "Pass" in my book.  But there you have it - five photos all more-or-less on the theme.

1. Golden - I loved the paw prints in the mud and wanted to take a photo of them.  I realised later that they were some golden leaves also in the shot.  Unfortunately they're a little over-exposed as I was exposing for the aiming prints and not the leaves.

2. Smell - Vegemite is my comfort food, but it stinks.  Matthias won't kiss me after I've eaten it.

3. Fruit - Apples are in season

4. Simple - A lone leaf on the bench.  This one was also a contender for 'golden'

5. Sports - Nike tick from my runners.

Hopefully I'll be able to organise myself organised enough to participate next week as well as I really enjoyed thinking about different ways to approach the five photos, even if I did leave it to the last minute! For more entries, head here.

Together

Two hands clasped together.  Waiting.  Quietly watching the world go past from the window of a tram.  Nails clipped to a millimetre of their bed. Coats out.  The rain falls.  Waiting.  There's a calmness and stillness to this photo that draws me in.  Makes me feel like I'm part of it.  A snap-shot in time. 

But I was there, wasn't I? 

Camera down, join the scene.  Take one of those hands in your own.  Together. Waiting.

My response to this week's prompt from "You Capture" - for more head over here.

Autumn Rains

Playing around in the rain this week.  It's rained all week and I've had to push myself to experiment with taking photos in the darkish damp - good preparation for winter I guess.  This picture was a bit of a happy accident, I was holding my handbag, umbrella and camera while trying to adjust the exposure while keeping everything dry.  The umbrella fell at the last minute, the camera refocused on the umbrella (now in the frame) and not the shops  in the background and I ended up with an artsy photo with some lovely bokeh! Plus I even managed to keep everything dry.