April in Minnesota
Since we landed in Minnesota, the weather has been awful: honest-to-god-snowtorms, rain, cold, just the gamut of terrible weather. Yet somehow I am in good spirits—it makes such a difference to be surrounded by so many friendly faces, good conversations, and good food. Yesterday there…
Springtime in Berlin
This is it. This is what it’s like here right now: a never-ending loop of winter. If you take last “summer” into consideration, this is like month 18 of winter for Berlin. And I have had it. At this time of the year, it is…
Hammershøi Light
My touchstone for defining lack of sunshine was always the Pacific Northwest, but places like Portland and Seattle get more sun on average than Berlin. I know. The paintings of the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi do a lovely job at capturing the winter light in…
Sun
We rearranged our schedules today to get out into the sun. So cold and windy out there, but I needed that light on my face. And I needed to take photos—I have really missed wandering, looking, and snapping these last few months. The Kleingartens have…
Field Report 018
Minneapolis Lake of the Isles at dusk, Art-a-Whirl, and tornadoes. So good to be back.
There is snow in this picture.
5th Avenue SE, Minneapolis We checked out a Nice Ride bike for me and rode around to openings all night. It was a warm and sunny day—which is why, when the massive snow pile outside of the Soap Factory was pointed out to me, I…
Cold.
Everybody’s talking about the insufferable cold. At the moment it is 36°F or 2°C. That sound you hear is the collective snort from my readers in Minnesota, where it is currently -5°F or -20°C. And honestly when I go outside here, I still secretly marvel…
Blizzard
This weekend, while Berlin was being blessed with a sloppy melt, Minneapolis had an old-fashioned blizzard; 24 in (61 cm) by the time it was over.
Training
Mound, Minnesota circa 1950 This is how we roll where I come from; let the babes loose in the snow and let them figure it out. And yet despite my lifelong training, I almost managed to break my head last night on the Berlin sidewalks….
Wunderland.
Cured.
Matters of darkness and marching bands
We turned back the clocks last weekend, so it is dark early (timestamp on this photo: 4:39:07 pm). Although doing daytime things in the darkness triggers the sensation of winter, it has been mild and rainy—not very winter-like at all. The darkness only gets grimmer…
