The Little Things
Sometimes I crave the pieces of Berlin that are empty and silent. I found some on Saturday. It was rainy and cold.
It reminded me of home. Well except for the green; home is more of a golden yellow. I love the moss growing on the edge of the sidewalk and on the tree trunks here. Some more sun would be beautiful. But if we had more sun, I would not have moments like this. ”Shhh,” I whispered to myself.
I am forgetting the sound of silence.
And then in the moments when I find myself alone and everything is quiet, I feel the brightest feeling. I see how beautiful the world is. Even the poison ivy makes me smile… which is the exact point when I realize how much I really need more of these quiet moments. Seriously? Who gets excited about poison ivy? Hmmm. It reminds me of home. It ties my roots and my new place together, so I embrace it. (metaphorically!)
Did you pause this weekend? I especially hope all the mothers reading today had the chance; it was Mother’s Day in both Germany and the US yesterday. What are some of the beautiful moments you noticed in your weekend?
May 10th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Katie,
I would love to know where those pictures were taken, it looks so beautiful and peaceful there. Is That a park in Berlin or out in the country? That is one of the things I am so looking forward to when I visit and eventually move to Germany. In Dallas, we have the bluebonnets that come up in spring and can actually make highway travel tolerable, but the bluebonnets are now gone as we are approaching 90 degree daily weather. Now we just got steel and concrete, except for a few of parks in the area. In my travel in Germany, I have always loved just how green it is everywhere in spring and summer. My two favorite areas are the mountain areas around Munich, and the Sprewald area close to farm area where we will be living. A quick 20 minute drive and you are in a small village surrounded by steams and rivers, here you can rent kayaks or ride small boats, travel along and buy homemade pickles from the residents, many of whom have to use boats just to travel back and fourth from their homes. one last favorite memory of mine is biking about a half mile from the farm house to where the bike trails start and on both sides of the road are cherry trees where you can stop pick and eat them right off the tree. These are some simple memories that stick in your mind, the you remember fondly and long to have a gain.
May 10th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Beautifully written, it’s so nice to be in nature especially in the spring! My husband and I worked in the yard all day yesterday– mostly organic weed management i.e. pulling lots of dandelions, bell flower, quack grass, rogue trees etc. There were lovely moments and heavenly smells of crab apple trees and lilacs in full bloom. We saw a western tanager couple and some butter butts (yellow rumped warblers.)
While hand washing dishes I enjoyed the view of our neighbor’s pink crab apple tree against the gray blue sky and our lilac in the foreground, stunningly beautiful color combination!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:53 am
children in the US and here love to blow dandelion seeds… :)
May 10th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Eric – I was around the Müggelsee area. It’s fantastic!
Katie
May 10th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Katie,
Tthanks I will check it out for sure when I come over at the end of July, It look fantastic.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
This weekend was also my birthday weekend as well as Mother’s Day. I spent Saturday morning on the sun porch (it was pouring outside and very windy) assembling our beehive frames with my parents. Then, later, when the sun came out, my mother and I went outside to string some netting for our growing peas in the garden. Here our flowering trees and spring bulbs are mostly finished but the bleeding hearts are still heavy with pink flowers and with all the rain we’ve had the grass is very green and the hostas are getting bigger every day. Plus we have a pair of adorable hummingbirds who have recently returned from their annual winter vacation and are frequenting our feeders once again. I can just tell summer is coming despite how cool it’s been lately.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
It was my birthday weekend also. A landmark birthday to celebrate!
Even though it’s a “high” landmark number for me, I’m so celebrating and enjoying this birthday to the fullest for my friends and aquaintences who didn’t make it to this landmark number and wished they so could of.
With that in mind…..I bet those gals I’m thinking of this birthday, would tell me to slow it down a bit and enjoy those wonderful things that bring a sense of “quiet” to our lives…as in the nature walk you took.
May 10th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
What wonderful, beautiful pictures. I love scenery like that. It reminds me of growing up in the piney woods. We currently live in a semi-arid climate where the natural landscape is cactus and scrub-brush (not so pretty in my opinion and I miss the trees.)
My husband made french toast for breakfast on Sunday and we got in a nice walk around the neighborhood Saturday evening after it cooled off a bit.
May 10th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
We went to my brother-in-law’s place for a Mother’s Day brunch. After the meal, they brought out a porcelain pedestal bowl filled with beautiful little strawberries — and the berries had long stems that cascaded over the edges of the bowl, like vines in a flower arrangement. They were some of the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted. It turned out my brother-in-law, his wife, and their 5-year-old son had gone to an organic berry farm on the Santa Cruz coast and picked these berries themselves. Each delicious berry was its own beautiful moment. :)
May 10th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Is there poison ivy here in Germany? I always thought it only grew in the U.S. Next time I take a walk in the woods, I´ll look for it carefully. There is a lot of what I always thought was just normal ivy climbing up the old trees.
May 11th, 2010 at 1:44 am
Hilde: Martin and I are both not sure of the exact name of what grows here. It is very similar to poison ivy – but you’re right. Poison ivy is in the US at altitudes higher than Berlin. Poison ivy is not a traditional “ivy”, meaning it doesn’t climb up trees as far as I know. Back in the US, I always saw it along creeks while stinging nettles could be just about anywhere else. That doesn’t do much good as a point of reference here since forests are all generally damp in Germany.
Katie
May 11th, 2010 at 6:08 am
My beautiful moments during the mothers day weekend consisted mostly of being with family. We had a family gathering due to my daughter’s graduation from college on Saturday. Being surrounded by my children, siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews and most especially my 5 week old grandson was heavenly, since we rarely get together. We all live so far away from each other. For many of them it was their first trip to Montana and they were delighted with the scenery. We did take a hike in the pine forest behind our house, but spent most of our time in the house or sitting out on the deck getting caught up with each others’ lives.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:14 am
Oh, and I forgot to say the highlight of the weekend for this mom was watching my daughter cross the stage to receive her diploma. I was just bursting with love and admiration of her accomplishment!
May 11th, 2010 at 7:02 am
Re: Poison ivy, here in CO it grows along streams but when I lived in Virginia it grew thick vigorous vines up tree trunks and covered our shed. I think it need a lot of water and here that’s along streams. It was introduced as an ornamental in England!
May 11th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Happy birthday to Amy and Andrea!
Diana – thanks for the poison ivy info. Eww!
Katie
May 12th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
This walk looks really great, it inspired me to do the same tomorrow since it is public holiday in Germany and since it is the day off it will for sure rain…
This is one of the things I love in Germany – green, green and then more green.