“Church architecture of the 1950s and -60s using the example of the three Zehlendorf “Südlicht” churches of the Ev. Communities of Schönow-Buschgraben, Zur Heimat and Stephanus and their organs – a little-noticed cultural era”.

This event was ably organised by my friend Horspeter Kreppel and his co-organiser Dieter Bünger. The two of them are obviously like a giant people magnet, because it was an astonishingly large group of people who met and walked from church to church, and the majority finished the day in Restaurant  Mühlengarten, Mühlenstr. 17, 14167 Berlin. A very interesting and pleasant day where nice new acquaintances were made. A lot of work must have gone into organising it, and to make it look so effortless is an art form :-).

We were also entertained, in more ways than one, by the three organists Klaus Treu, Mirlan Kasymaliev, and Harald Klaus.

Ev. Kirchengemeinde Schönow-Buschgraben, Andréezeile 21, 14165 Berlin (note the wooden organ pipes!)

Ev. Kirchengemeinde Zur Heimat, Heimat 27, 14165 Berlin

Ev. Kirchengemeinde Stephanus,  Mühlenstraße 49, 14167 Berlin

And since the current assignment in the photography course I am attending is Camera Movement, here are a couple of whacky abstracts:

IN PROGRESS

Another beautiful walk with Empor Berlin – this time organised by Christsine. The diversity of the nature in and around Berlin will never cease to amaze me.

The route on MapMyWalk here. Such as it is. The recording should have started at the main entrance of Volkspark Blankenfelde. We walked a total of a little over 13 km (my ears were more tired than my feet because of a lot of rather loud schnickschnack. People who walk, looking into the ground in front of them, and yackyackyack nonstop – why don’t they meet in a café instead since they don’t seem to want to enjoy being in nature. That is my eternal question after walks in groups).

Bonus info: at S Bhf Hermsdorf there are two good cafés – one suited for a larger group such as ours today (about 15, I think) called Konditorei Laufer where Christine had kindly reserved a table – their cakes looked great, their coffee certainly was, and they also serve soup – and one a lot smaller called Zwei Kraniche (their website is hopelessly out of date).

Some of the photos look a little weird because I was practising for the next assignment in the photography course (provided by Strudelmedialive) I am attending which is about camera movement (a.k.a. ICM, I believe).

First: The morning sky that day:

A beautiful walk with 15 other people, led by Eckehard Heiber, Empor Berlin. I definitely want to revisit the area again in spring, this time with bird-watching and -photography in mind. In addition to the usual cormorants, gulls, herons, mallards and swans, I saw several birds of prey, as well as several white egrets which is unusual, at least for me.

The route on MapMyWalk here.

And finally, what might have been a good idea, very badly executed:

“Bird-watching in English” with VHS Pankow. The spring programme will be available on-line shortly.

Very nice walk in November weather at its best, although I only managed one bird photo, and even that was of a bird that was actually too far away to be photographed.

The route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked 12.2 km.

Poland being back in my good books (and good to see Donald Tusk back on the scene), with the real reason being a walk with Fritz Heiber, Empor Berlin, on 2 November, with a very early start from Berlin.

Despite the fact that I am a morning person, it did not take much self-convincing to decide to treat myself to a night in a hotel in Stettin in order to be able to get up and have breakfast at leisure before meeting the others at the train station. And then – what the heck – another night there in order to have breakfast at leisure on 3 November as well, given that that is my birthday. Not an interesting birthday – 71 – but considering that I am still around, and spent my 70th birthday in “Reha”, this will make a nice change. By the way, not a word against the Hamm Klinik Sankt Peter Ording – I thoroughly enjoyed my four weeks of “Reha” there this time last autumn.

More about my strained relationship with Stettin later, which is only getting marginally better, with all those damn barriers everywhere with seemingly no other purpose than to make life miserable for pedestrians. Cars can of course move around unhindered and are clearly still king in Stettin while pedestrians are unwanted.

Anyway, I played a bit with low shutter speed, as well as (unsuccessfully) my aversion to photographing people :-), and caught some vibrant autumn colours on the way too.

By the way, I saw large flocks of storks, both in fields and in the air, but was never fast enough to photograph them. Always a wonderful sight, though.

After I had checked in at my hotel and decided to stay and not go straight back home (which I might have done, had it not been for the historical city walk I was signed up for the next day), I headed for the river. Stettin is blessed with a lot of waterfront but does nothing to make the area particularly appealing. Such a shame.

At the Chobry Embankment I headed back and started to look for a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner later, which would have been one redeeming feature, but unfortunately, I did not find any.

Some photos of the relatively new philharmonic:

Today’s afternoon route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked: 13,5 km.

Day 2

After a leisurely breakfast, and before meeting the other fourteen people off the bus from Berlin via Angermünde, I went out to have a look at the area beyond the central station – very run down, full of barriers, supposedly because of roadwork, and even more difficult to navigate than the area around the by now infamous new central station under construction in Stuttgart. Incidentally, Stettin reminds me quite a lot of Stuttgart – full of barriers and stairs.

Despite the fact that the others travelled on a Deutsche Bahn “Ersatzbus” from Angermünde, they arrived punctually, and we had a very nice and interesting walk. Eckehard Heiber had put in a lot of work and effort to prepare and make this happen, and even booked a table for lunch for us in a very nice restaurant: Karczma Polska with modern Polish food and great service. Highly recommended.

After the lunch, the others headed towards the station, and I went to the contemporary art section of the national museum. Not wildly interesting, I have to say. Afterwards, I checked out the shopping inferno called Galeria Kaskada. Not too bad, actually, and had I been in shopping mode, I could easily have found something to buy, and at lower prices than in Berlin.

I can’t think of anything else to do here, so tomorrow, all that remains is another leisurely breakfast (what a shame – I hate that ;-)) and return to Berlin, hopefully in time for the bridge evening at my place.

And then I have to start preparing the next project – the challenge I have set myself to visit and try to take acceptable photographs of things and places I don’t like (Christmas markets).

IN PROGRESS

With Empor Berlin: Loop from S-Bhf Strausberg to Lange Dammwiesen, Unteres Annatal, Hennickendorf, Gr. Stienitzsee.

Walk and weather both lovely, though a bit misty. Again I wondered why some people, instead of enjoying being in nature, feel compelled to talk ALL. THE. TIME. I guess that is the price I pay for having no orientation skills and sometimes just find it easier to walk with people and let them find the way :-).

I was shocked to hear on Danish TV that many Danes throw out food routinely and unceremoniously on a daily basis for the simple reason that “they can afford buying some other food tomorrow”. Words fail me.

I have always found food waste unethical and immoral, not to mention largely unnecessary.

Of course, it can happen that food becomes unsafe to eat, but with a bit of planning, it can and should be avoided most of the time.

One way is don’t buy more than you know, or think, you are going to eat. But as we all know, not all days go according to plan.

Here is another way:

A couple of days before going away for four days, I realised that I would not be eating at home any more till after my trip, and I had far too many vegetables still to use.

I love one-pot meals which can go in the freezer in portions. That way I can always pull a healthy, tasty dinner out on days where I know I will be too tired, or just too plain lazy to cook.

Here is what I did:

Two red onions and quite a lot of ginger – coarsely chopped and sizzled in some oil – practically all my one-pot meals start that way. (The garlic comes later, since it cooks very quickly).

Added two tblsp mustard seeds and two tblsp fenugreek seeds, stirred, then about a third of a tube of tomato paste, stirred, and a tub of goat yoghurt nearing its sell-by date, some water, and five bayleaves.

I then added a heaped tsp of turmeric (and don’t forget a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper if you want the health benefits of turmeric) and the same amount of moringa powder, and a tblsp chili flakes.

Here, I added a handful of uncooked red split lentils (they will cook while simmering), some thyme sprigs from the balcony, and a glass (previously opened) of black olives about two-thirds full, and half a small glass of tahini, also previously opened, so that it would probably not keep for another week.

In went, in that order, sliced or diced: Five carrots, one sweet potato, one kohlrabi, one aubergine, two red bell peppers, and half an iceberg salad (the root end), one lemon in slices (organic like everything else, of course – never use the peel of a lemon for ANYTHING unless it is organic) and a whole head of garlic.

And finally, some leftover, cooked millet and some leftover “paleo” (mostly nuts and seeds) bread, diced. Simmered till everything is done. Stir frequently, and any hint of anything catching on the bottom, add some water. Or a tin of tomatoes. Or a tin of coconut cream. Or both. It will only get yummier.

I did not this time, but had I had a bit of peanut butter in need of being used up, I would have thrown that in as well.

Voilà, it would not win a beauty contest, but nevertheless several complete, tasty and very healthy dinners for the freezer.