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:

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.

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.

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.

My route on Mapmywalk here.

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 :-).

I really can’t sing. People run away screaming when I do. I myself feel like running away screaming when I sing. But Max calms down almost instantly and quickly falls asleep when I sing for him. So is that because it really has a calming effect on him, or is it because he thinks – oh no, not those insufferable noises again – if I pretend to be asleep pehaps she’ll stop?

But seriously, perhaps the one major change in Max is that when he moved in on 13 June last year, he had some quite serious leakage problems. More than just the occasional drip. I was told it could be behavioural, and also that it is a common problem in older, castrated dogs. And it could have something to do with his PH values, so his former foster parents passed on some pills, a natural medication, to give him.

I made a mental note to give it some time and if it did not improve, I would have him properly examined, which I think would be the first time. For example, I don’t think any bloodwork has ever been done.

Over time, the problem became less and less pronounced – he would leak a little bit indoors whenever he got excited about something – and he still is a very exciteable dog although less so by the day. And I would spot the occasional drop here and there, now and then.

Fast-forward to now – I am just realising that I had actually forgotten about it. I have not seen as much as one drop anywhere for months! I must be doing something right :-).

Also see previous post.

Determined to (re-)train Max to use public transport (sorry Max, but it has to be done), which for some reason is more difficult this time around, I took him on the same trip as on Sunday. He loved the area so I hope that if we do that trip regularly for a while, he will end up associating it with a fun and positive experience.

He was even more jittery on the train this time, and I had to keep a firm grip, since a couple of times he suddenly out of the blue lunged and barked at people who were standing completely still. This is new. Up to now, he has had problems with people moving quickly. Never a dull moment.

Anyway, it being Tuesday, there were not as many dogs around to play with as on Sunday but there were a few, and Max was in his element. This time, we walked a bit more in the forest, but he still kept an eye on me most of the time, and at one point where I lost sight of him, he appeared very quickly when I whistled. His recall is really good especially when he is not engaging with new canine acquaintances.

We walked around the small lake Hubertussee this time. I saw a lot of birds there, so I might even go back one day with my real camera and without Max (trying to focus on taking real photos with Max around is still not working – I am not sure it ever will, unfortunately, but we’ll see).

Our route on Mapmywalk here. The walk seems a little bit more tiring than just 8 km, since some of it is in sand which makes it feel a little heavy.

A long-overdue in-person and in-dog meeting with Yasmina and Robert and their dog Alpha, also half-Podenco.

First, Max and I took the S train from Anhalter Bahnhof to Frohnau. It had been too long since we were last on public transport, so for Max that was almost like a new and, clearly not altogether pleasant experience. He remained relatively calm as long we remained standing, and preferably walking around a bit, but each time I tried to sit, he became more like an unruly horse and even started barking.

When we finally got off the train, we walked down Zeltinger Str. and Schönfließer Str. to the start of the Bieselheide sandtrail where we met the others, and a couple of the their friends and their dog, Iggy.

Except for the short walks to the car with Frank the dogwalker and his two dogs, it was the first time Max walked with other people and other dogs (none of whom he had met before), sometimes on the leash and sometimes off. It all went completely seamlessly, and Max played as well with the two dogs in our group as with random dogs met along the way and as he does with dogs at the dog park. The walks we did with the dogs leashed were also without incident.

Max did act up from time to time barking for either food or my attention but all in all, it was a good day, and Max probably did the most running he has ever done, certainly after I adopted him.

The area is lovely, with an interesting sand trail and a nice little lake, surrounded by forrest.

I was hoping Max would be so tired that he would let me sit down on the train back, but no, and it even took a while for him to calm down after we got home. A sure sign that it had been a day full of new experiences and impressions.

I forgot to start recording the walk on Mapmywalk already at the station in Frohnau, so here is a link to the second part of the walk.

First a video of a less than perfect recall 🙂, and then a couple of photos: