texture on the spandau canal

A walk along the Spandau at lunch today and a small study on texture.  Glistening water on the canal, fresh buds on the trees, bricks and more bricks.

the satin dress by dorothy parker

 Image from Google

The Satin Dress

by Dorothy Parker

Needle, needle, dip and dart,
Thrusting up and down,
Where's the man could ease a heart
Like a satin gown?

See the stitches curve and crawl
Round the cunning seams-
Patterns thin and sweet and small
As a lady's dreams.

Wantons go in bright brocade;
Brides in organdie;
Gingham's for the plighted maid;
Satin's for the free!

Wool's to line a miser's chest;
Crepe's to calm the old;
Velvet hides an empty breast
Satin's for the bold!

Lawn is for a bishop's yoke;
Linen's for a nun;
Satin is for wiser folk-
Would the dress were done!

Satin glows in candlelight-
Satin's for the proud!
They will say who watch at night,
"What a fine shroud!"

Friedrichshain Volkspark

A walk in Friedrichshain Volkspark over the weekend 

 

- just before it started to snow...

picnik

I've been playing with Picnik over the last few days and thinking about getting involved in this.  Picnik is seriously fun to muck about with.  Most of the photos that end up on my blog are relatively untouched, save for a bit of cropping here and there, but it was fun to play about with the focus and special effects.  Here's a few samples with the picture above

Watercolour

Poster

Movie Story Board

Fun, fun, fun!

international women's day

Today is International Women's Day.  A day to focus on the respect, appreciation and love towards women and to celebrate women's economic, political and social achievements (according to Wiki).  

Over the weekend I went to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and at interval while sipping on Champagne and munching on a Pretzel we talked about how wonderful it was to be able to do this and how our lives were pretty great.  How lucky we were to be born into the right families, in the right countries, at the right time.  This seems even more pertinent today.  I was born into a family of strong women.  My grandmother's both travelled independently and worked.  They expected their daughters to be educated and their daughters (in-turn) expected their girls to also receive excellent educations, attend university and become independent and equal members of society.  I went to a school which regularly encouraged us (girls) to become "the first female prime-minister of Australia" (a feat not yet achieved).  I can vote.  I am financially independent.  When I was 21 I backpacked around Europe, mostly alone, without worrying about needing a chaperone.  If I have children I will probably deliver in a clean hospital ward with access to doctors, nurses and drugs.  

Most women in the world today don't, can't, won't have access to any of this.

• 1 in 16 women in Africa die of complications of childbirth.  (If you're interested in seeing one side of the "why", this blog tells some great first-hand anecdotes)
• Only 40% of women in India have basic literacy skills
• In Saudi Arabia women still do not have the right to vote
• 13% of white women (38% of Latinas) in the US do not have access to healthcare

So today I am thankful and hopeful.  I am thankful that I had the good fortune to be born in Australia in 1980, and not Africa or India in 2010.  I am thankful for the political, economic and social freedoms that I enjoy - thanks mostly to the hard work of my mother's and grandmother's generations.  And I am hopeful that our generation will chip away at the inequalities that still exist for millions of women living in developing countries today.

Barnett Family, 2009

rudolf stingel at the neue kunst museum

This is what we found when we went to the Neue Museum on Sunday.  A big room, with a carpet and a chandelier.  It's an instalation by Rudolf Stingel.  The Art is the carpet - and the process he went through to design it is actually quite interesting - he studied his Turkish Carpet, digitalised the image, enlarged it,  made it black and white and then had it made into an enormous rug that fitted the Neue Gallery space.

Probably more interesting was watching how people related to the art - most people chose to have a sit, relax and have a chat.  Downstairs, Rudolf Stingel also had a couple of paintings, so we did get to see some "proper" art after all.

the spring shoe

As I was taking pictures this morning of my wonderful spring shoes, Matthias said, "More on the shoe?"  He still has much to learn about my love affair with shoes... although he has heard and seen me show it to almost everyone I've skyped with in the last week, so perhaps it was a fair statement.  But here it is;

Clearly I'm no shoe photographer yet, but you get the idea.  It not what I envisaged, but I love it and once I've softened the leather it will be a wonderful, get around Berlin in Spring shoe.  

And in a rather blond moment, I got completely confused as I was paying when the shopkeeper asked me to give him my phone number, to which I repiled "My number? What for?" and then "But I'm not thirsty", until the penny dropped and I realised the the poor man was trying to ask me out for a drink.  And I was embarrassed and he was embarrassed and we both were awkward.  These things never happen to me (the asking of the number, not to complete failure to understand what was going on - that happens frequently) and I wondered how the rest of the world coped with these moments of teenage embarrassment. It was definitely a cringe worthy, fall-into-a-pit-that-has-just-opened-up-and-disappear kind of moment.  And funny.  And a nice compliment.  But none-the-less embarrassing.