Summer is Almost Over (in Berlin)

What a feeling it is, going to the fridge of an overseas friend to retrieve the morning yogurt, to find a piece of your own craft work affixed thereto. Such a feeling washed over me this morning in the flat of Peter Bihr and Michelle Thorne, on loan to me this week I’m in Berlin: upon their fridge I found Act Quickly Summer Is Almost Over, a reminder I created, to myself and to others, three summers ago. The discovery was sweeter still as the flat is in the same neighbourhood where I spent August 2011 printing.

Michelle and Peter were very generous to loan me their lovely flat: truth be told, we’ve only met face-to-face a few times, the rest of our relationship mediated by a shared love of travel and readership of each other’s blogs. 

As it happens, summer has just arrived in Berlin this very week: every single person I’ve encountered has mentioned that I’ve come at exactly the right time, as the weather turned from cold and grey to warm and sunny just this past weekend. I’ve been a great beneficiary of this turn, having spent many lunches, suppers and drinks outside in the sunshine this week.

Berlin and the people I know here are a great tonic for the mind and the soul; it’s a good way to start the summer season.