Further details and photos to come.
Georg Jensen Dessert Spoons (“årsskeer”) for sale
Thirteen in total: 1972-1983, all used, all stamped “RAAB Sterling Denmark”, gilded sterling silver with enamel flower. Used, in good condition, as per photo below. Can be viewed in 10969 Berlin.
25 euro per spoon (price as new approx. 50 euro), 300 euro for all thirteen spoons.
Two Holmegaard “Shape” Vases for Sale
Vintage Elmshorn Vase for Sale
Photo to come.
Ludwigslust Thursday, 5 May
Approximate route planned here.
Ludwigslust – about 75 minutes from Berlin on the ICE – turned out to be a very pleasant, if a little sleepy, town with a nice Thursday market and – probably most importantly to the locals, Ludwigslust Castle at the edge of its huge park. The park has a lot of the elements which you would expect from this type of park but fortunately some of the grounds are forest left almost to its own devices.
Gallery Weekend Berlin and Spring Gallery Openings at Spinnerei Leipzig
Giving Max the luxury of two extra outings with Frank (and myself the luxury of not having to take care of his major daily exercise), I have put together some outings for myself and anyone who would like to join me: one gallery walk in Berlin in the late afternoon of Friday 29 April, and one in the afternoon of Sunday, 1 May. In between, I will be going to Leipzig for the “Frühlingsrundgang” in Spinnerei Leipzig on Saturday 30 April.
Some impressions from Spinnerei Leipzig 30 April (starting with a couple of tulips in the nice café garden):
And some from the walk on 1 May (including one photo from one of the traditional 1 May demos, and one of a wild hare of which there are now so many in Berlin – I just was never aware of them until I started walking with a dog with a well-developed hunting instinct):
A day out devoted to a photography assignment
The first assignment in Strudelmedia’s class: Stretch your creative muscles (hahaha as if I actually have any creative muscles to stretch) is: take eight to ten photos of a public bench (the same bench – not eight to ten different benches. The bench, details of the bench, what goes on around the bench, and so on.
So on Max’s weekly day off from me, off I went to Urbanhafen in search of a photogenic bench. Or just a bench. Benches are not photogenic. I very rarely see a nice-looking bench.
Anyway, I was not in photography mode, the sun was out most of the time which I don’t particularly like, I could not see what was going on on the screen, it was one of those days where I hated Berlin, and people, and life. I took about a hundred awful photos, all blurry and grainy and either over- or underexposed.
I have tried to make the best of the following short-list, and will whittle it down to ten, nine or eight photos later:
Sweet potato ice cream with date-caramel sauce
Note: you need a strong food processor for this. Also, the sweet potatoes need to be frozen for at least five hours.
800 g sweet potatoes (unpeeled)
1 tsp coconut oil
80 g (after removal of stones) soft dates
300 g coconut milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch seasalt
For the sauce:
1 tsp best quality cocoa powder
80 g date syrup
1 pinch seasalt
For garnish:
2-3 tsp cocoaniby
Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, smear with coconut oil and place them cut side down on baking paper and bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel and place in a freezer bag and freeze for at least five hours, preferably overnight.
Soak the dates in water for abut two hours.
Mix the ingredients for the sauce.
Pre-cool the individual bowls in which you want to serve the ice cream.
Drain the dates and chop them. Blitz at full speed in the food processor with the potatoes (straight from the freezer), coconut milk, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Scrape the sides of the bow from time to time and add coconut milk if the texture needs adjustment.
Distribute the ice cream in the serving bowls and serve drizzled with the sauce and cocoa nibs.
New rule
Don’t eat out, don’t order in, and don’t even go grocery shopping as long as the freezer and pantry are stuffed full of food. Just get creative and use up what is at hand.
Stuffed squid
I needed to make room in my freezer, and the fridge was pretty full to, so I stuffed some squid with what was at hand – some cooked lentils and cooked quinoa (could have been some cooked rice), some defrosted kale but could have anything chopped. I would have liked to flavour with oyster sauce so discovered on that occasion that I had run out. Anyway, after stir-frying it all together I stuffed the squid with the mixture, sealed them and pan-fried them. I would have preferred to served them on the proverbial “bed of ruccola” but I had run out of that too, so used some pea shoots of which I already have an abundance growing on the balcony. It is not the last time I have made sure to always have squid in the freezer.
Thursday is still my “day off” (and Max’s day off from me): Müggelsee
Although my wonderful dogwalker is on holiday this week, my equally wonderful cleaning help – the only other person whom I trust to be able to handle Max in the “worst-case-scenario” (which fortunately becomes less and less frequent) agreed to put in an extra hour and take Max for a couple of “toilet rounds”, so that I was able to spend most of the day out with Mr Canon, this time walking along the southern shore of Müggelsee.
Not really a long walk at all, and – worse – far from enough exercise for Max today, but weather permitting, we will make up for that at Bieselheide tomorrow.
Note to self: Next time, take bus 169 to the end stop (from either S Bhf Köpenick or bus 165 stop Krankenhaus Besuchereingang and check out the forest around there, the sanddune, and not least the waterfront restaurants.
A lot of nature left to its own devices, birdlife, and one mountainbiker whom I did not hear coming so he ended up in my ICM photo of some trees :-).