Postcards from Berlin 6 - Over the Wall

We started day three with a little shopping as I wanted to visit a stationary shop recommended by a website that the gorgeous Stephanie Levy ,a Berlin based artist, alerted me to. The area this shop was in had other interesting shops. bakeries and restaurants, and we returned there in the evening for a lovely meal at Mr Vuong which took us right back to our trip to Vietnam last year.

I loved the flowers painted on this wall

and the sparkly paper tied on to this fence

and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this guy - he looked so cool!

An antiques store had some interesting bits and bobs including these cut out figures for if you can't afford your own staff!

After lunch at the Barn (recommended ) the weather closed in and the brollies came out. Highly suitable for a trip to Starsi HQ. When we got out of the underground at our destination the buildings were grimmer than any others we had seen in Berlin, grey blocks of concrete. The site covered by the EastGerman secret police HQ was huge and when we went in we could see exactly why they needed so much space.

The museum documents the extreme nature of the police state in the GDR. Something like 1 in 3 citizens were under surveillance via pot plant, watering can and other ingenious methodologies for secreting cameras in the most unlikely places. there were huge numbers of police informants. The Stasi seemed to have been much more thorough than their colleagues in the KGB, perhaps because the population was more contained.

There were propaganda posters aplenty which reminded me of the ones we saw in Vietnam last year - there was clearly a communist vernacular in poster art!

Bringing all this to life is the office of Erich Mielke head of the Stasi from 1957 to 1989. His dress uniform still hangs in the cupboard and it seems eerily ready for use, as does the boardroom

In all it was a very sobering experience and made me realise how much we take our democratic freedoms for granted.

Take care and see you next time!

The Last Party

This week has been all about preparing for our son's 21st party. We are very lucky in that we have a garden that is well suited to summer parties, of which we have had many over the years. When we moved to this house over thirty years ago we used to have a big party every summer and invite everyone we knew. Although we always provided food, in those days we used to rely on our guests to bring their favourite tipple with them, and often close friends would bring a salad or a pudding. In addition to that a gang of close friends used to turn up early to help set up.

We had different themes for the food every year including curries and a number of different types of BBQ. One year for example, we went with a Mediterranean theme - there always seemed to be plenty of people to do the cooking - though I do remember that one year Brian's then boss got stuck with it for ages!

As time went on and we had our son, parties grew less frequent and more formal, focussing on major events. Our 25th wedding anniversary in 1998 was the first time we went the whole hog and hired a marquee for our celebration barn dance ( you really can't rely on the english weather in october!) we choose a harvest festival theme as the church was decorated for harvest when we married and spent hours decorating the tent.

The food had a harvest theme too - I got our local catering college to make this harvest loaf

I don't think this photos have come out badly considering they were pre-digital and had to be scanned in!

After our 25th we had big parties for our 50th & 60th birthdays ( mine was a surprise party organised by my wonderful cousin as I had decided I didn't want to do one for myself) and our son had a birthday party every year until he was 13 (we got very good at making themed cakes - the pirate treasure chest was my favourite) but this week it was time for the last party, our son's 21st.

Looking for a marquee ( people were going to need to sleep somewhere!) I found this wonderful local company who supplied beautiful indian tents including furniture - I just couldn't resist!

From then on the party developed an eastern theme with curries for the food (the only time I've ever repeated myself) and lots of lamps and lanterns adorning the garden - we've collected quite a supply over the years and we bought these Chinese lanterns back from our trip to Vietnam in the spring.

The tent came with its own lantern too

i think we bought these lanterns for the barn dance, or maybe it was my husbands 50th?

So why is this the 'last party'? . A number of reasons I think. For one thing we plan to move in a couple of years after we retire, and we are unlikely to ever again have such a perfect party house. Another reason is that I have been there, done that, and got the T-shirt - several T-shirts in fact! time to do something different. I have also realised that party planning has been a major outlet for my creative energy over the years, but possibly one I don't need any more since I discovered art and photography. Also it's really tiring and we haven't got quite as much energy as we once had. So how are we celebrating our Ruby Wedding which (DV) will happen in October? We are going to a Hotel in Cornwall for the weekend, with friends who are also celebrating their Ruby Wedding - Yay!

In the meantime I will leave you with this image of the clearing up after this week's party - see you soon

A Sense of Place

No sooner back from Call of the Wild Soul than I was off on another workshop, this time in London, with the wonderful Kat Sloma. You can find out more about Kat here.

This workshop ‘A sense of place’ based on Kats successful e-course took place in Hampstead for the classroom session, followed by a photo safari in the Spitalfields / Brick Lane area of East London. The course also took place on my 39th wedding anniversary but I was given dispensation by my husband on the basis that I let him go to a Grateful Dead concert on our anniversary in 1981 (I didn’t like the Dead at the time I do rather now!)

Having introduced ourselves it turned out to be a small world. I already had a connection with Justine through a photography based Facebook group I belong to, and it transpired that Kat and Fiona had met some of my fellow Wild Souls at an art retreat in Yorkshire last year where Flora Bowley was also teaching. It was also great to meet the other group members Alyssa & Becs.

The morning was spent looking through the workbook and thinking about what a sense of place means to us individually. The time raced by and after lunch it we headed over to the East End for the photo safari.

I have made a couple of trips to the Spitalfields / Brick lane area recently (here is a really good art supply warehouse there) and taken quite a few photos. There is always something different to see, however, and I had previously only been on a weekday when it’s rather quiet with no food stalls or pop up markets. Also it was really interesting to notice what my companions noticed / were attracted to that I wasn’t and vice versa. All the picture in the post were taken on that Saturday I haven’t included any that were taken on my previous visits.

The first thing that caught my eye was this old fashioned looking that seemed to be in its own private time zone

Next I was attracted to this window with its colourful lamps

Then we were into the main drag of Brick Lane itself full of sounds smells and colour. I wished we hadn't just had lunch, the food looked and smelled wonderful!

Some of the restaurants had very interesting decor!

Another feature of the lane was the fascinating graffiti which was everywhere - I rather liked this one which was more of a collage - is that Patrick Moore in the centre?

I also really liked this sign in a book shop window

Finally as we were heading back I was struck with the wonderful colours of this display of shoes

the whole day was fab - many thanks to Kat and my fellow photographers