Hmmm… It’s Raining Again

Summer is definitely over, and this year being the bizarrely unpredictable 2021 that it is, one has to wonder whether summer was every really here or whether it was a cruel figment of my imagination. How is it possible that it is warmer in Canada at the moment than here? Sure, we had some pleasantly warm days here in Berlin, but not the usual scorchers we’ve grown accustomed to over the years. The best indicator for this is the notable absence of bees, wasps and the obnoxiously large horseflies that invade the apartment this time of the year. I tolerate flies per se, having lived in countries where there was no avoiding them at all, but like cockroaches, horseflies are just downright creepy, gross me out violently, not to mention that I am highly allergic to them. Give me a dung beetle any day, at least him I can photograph! Ah, but it was my cursed desire to live by the river, so creepy crawlies are the price to pay…

In any case, the rains have returned to Berlin with a vengeance. They began over the weekend with all the bells and whistles, making me wish I was a white beagle sitting atop a dog house with an old-fashioned typewriter pecking out the words It was a dark and stormy night… The incontinent clouds have caused the temperatures to drop dramatically, down to single digits even! Good heavens, I was still enjoying my sleeveless tops and dresses, going around the house barefoot, and smiling at my rosey toesies. Today is the first day I pulled out socks and sweatshirts again, looking forlornly at my pullovers that are already lined up for duty. Even the cats are retreating to blankets and cubbies and grumbling. Sigh.

So let me officially bid farewell to summer with three photographs:

I’m cat sitting for my neighbour this week, so she thanked me in advance with a beautiful and vibrant bouquet. Yours truly of course pulled out the camera before the flowers even made it into a vase! There’s something so delicate and gentle about summer flowers that make me wish they would hang around the whole year. Alas all good things come to an end and we must make the most of the moments we have been granted.

This should probably be named the Zen of Gerbera or something along those lines. It belongs to my Flora et Foliorum collection, all of which have been photographed in the same minimalistic Zen style. If you’ve notice, I never seek out a perfect bloom to photograph. The more flaws the better because it is the gaps that tell the story, make the statement. Just like life – the most interesting part of the story is what is left unsaid, what has’t been spelled out in black and white, and remains shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. In the same manner, this flower had a perfect twin, but when deciding which one to shoot, after staring at them for a few minutes I opted for the quirkier one. It’s somehow a foreshadowing of the Fall colours, the vibrant oranges and yellows that will embrace us all with flamboyance before we bow in respect to the bareness of Winter.

This last image is an addition to the Interludes and Stopovers collection. Ordinarily I would have shot this in black and white, which is my standard treatment for train stations and airports, especially with all the tempting patterns, lines and depth of field that call out to me (well, my lens). However, last night I was drawn in by the lights inside and outside the station. This was shot at the Friedrichstr. S-Bahn station, and if you know Berlin, this is a hub in the middle of Berlin that is worth the effort. The fifty shades of orange had me at hello! and I knew there was no way I was going to commit the great sacrilege of draining the colour. Also, it is probably one of the last evenings that I will ever see people milling around without jackets. By the time I hit the station and shot this, I was already bundled up in a shawl, a zipped-up rain jacket and regretted very much not wearing a long-sleeved shirt. Vanity got the better of me when I set out earlier, and I caved in to satin and pearls, ditching sense and sensibility to celebrate my first evening out after so long. At the risk of tooting my own horn, let me just say that I absolutely loved the way this turned out and I have no regrets.