Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village

Sunday, 19 January 2025

Country Living "Seasons At Seven Gates Farm"



I got it! This beautiful book arrived yesterday. 

My blog-friend "A Super Dilettante" mentioned it in his blog "Thoughts From A Life", in an abundant post about Christmas. Thank you! 

When I stay in my secondary home in Bavaria (which seems to turn more and more into a main residence) I can enjoy nature so much more, and  the long walks through fields and woods are calming. 

As in Berlin I am lucky to have a large balcony, this one is "A Room With A View" - meaning I look into a large valley with a little river, the valley bordered by woods on hills. 

And not to forget the ever changing spectacle of the sky! 

So: I am very much nearer to the seasons of the year than in our capital Berlin. 
I will pick a few of the many beautiful ideas from that book to mirror the seasons on the balcony (inside too, but there is not that much room, and I do not want to overload it). 

My balcony in Berlin - when I lived there full-time - was a really beautiful sight. Now it is still beautiful, but then it was ravishing. That is not longer possible, I already feel guilty that my French neighbour Gabriele kindly waters my roses and wine and other plants - so I will not add more whimsical touches. When she is in France I water her plants. 



 



18 comments:

  1. Having two homes is a wonderful idea. In the old days, pre-
    Covid, I was delighted to spend 10 months a year at home in Melbourne, happily working and enjoying the family.

    But for 2 months of each year, during our winter holidays (June-July), I just wanted to fly to the warm northern hemisphere. Accommodation was free in Israel and UK where family simply returned our hospitality :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gggrrr I forgot my name, Hels
      https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/

      Delete
    2. Dear Helen, yes, two homes are a gift, and I enjoy it. Your situation sounds especially good because you could spend time in one piece (as my French neighbours: they go a few times per year to their rural house near Bordeaux).
      At the moment my situation is a bit different: because of emotional strings built with the triplets I am three weeks in the country, and only one week per month in Berlin (including travelling forth and back) - so I feel a bit stressed by that situation and have to work out what is good for me - considering that there might be a difference between the situation now and in a few years, when the triplets go to school. Difficult to decide, difficult to act!

      Delete
  2. The ability to look out on scenic views is what I hated the most about living in the city. I can look out my window here and see fields for miles. It's heaven.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mimmylynn, I share your feelings! In Berlin I there is also a row of trees when I look out, but in Bavaria I see "Dutch paintings" of the ever-changing vast sky. Often I grab my camera and take photos - such a beauty, such a freedom!

      Delete
  3. Such a delightful second home and environment. Must be hard to leave.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Joanne, you hit the nail right on the head (as so often) - sometimes I feel more at home now in Bavaria, and last year I thought a lot about being torn between two places.
      I still haven't reached a decision - but want to, because drawing little sketches of a three-room flat and seeing the huge amount of things, books and furniture in a flat of 183 square meters makes my heart jump...
      I have to learn to let go, reduce, choose - which would be a kind behaviour to my son and DiL, as long as I can manage it on my own. And in my heart I know I want to be near (though not too near - "don't dilute your presence with too much presence" :-) my family.

      Delete
  4. Oo, I love the word Ravishing! I haven’t seen or heard it in an age and its surprise appearance today makes me wonder why? Maybe people focus too much on the dour and drear these days and have forgotten about the joy and beauty around us. It’s so expressive. Well chosen for your context!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Pip, I am so happy to read that you love that word, thank you! I hesitated a moment when I wrote it, feeling that it is old-fashioned - but I love it.
      To focus "on the dour and drear" really seems to become habitually - culmination was a very elegant Lady I saw who ate chocolate - with an expression as if she was forced! :-)
      I love people who have a zest for life - or as the hilarious and sharp and very witty Marjorie Hillis wrote (using it in an utterly innocent way - she wrote "Orchids On Your Budget" in 1937) a mindset called "spunk".
      "Maybe you would rather play polo than pingpong, but if you've got an old pingpong set and no ponies, you'll get a lot more fun out of life from being a pingpong champion than from taking a dispirited whack with a polo maller every now and then."
      I love her!

      Delete
  5. Your two homes sound beautiful with scenic views. My home is close to the Pacific Ocean and I walk there most days with my dog. I love to breathe in the clean ocean air. Nature is ravishing, as you said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Terra, to have the Ocean in front of your doorstep is such a gift! The salty clear air is wonderful - and to be accompanied by a playful dog is great. You are lucky!
      An ocean is a living being, as the sky - always changing, in very different moods.

      Delete
  6. My dear Britta,

    I hope that it is still not too late to wish you a very happy New Year. I'm absolutely delighted to hear that you like the book, Seasons At Seven Gates Farm.

    I love the fact that you have the best of the both worlds. And how wonderful it must be to have a balcony in Berlin. I do wonder whether a sense of place plays an important part in your imagination. Do you find if it is easier to write flow when you are in the country or in the city?

    I can visualise you gazing out from your balcony or from your window in Berlin (just like the woman in 1822 oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich), marvelling at the pewter sky in the winter and smelling roses in the summer. Although it is in the city, I can imagine that there is peace, reassuring warmth and time to collect oneself while the tall clock chimes in the apartment, echoing and marking the hours in the cosy domesticity...the kind of cosy domesticity that M.F.K. Fisher (1908 - 1992) wrote in her essay, Borderland, describing her time in Strasbourg:

    “In the morning in the soft, sultry chamber, sit in the window peeling tangerines, three or four. Peel them gently; do not bruise them, as you watch soldiers pour past and past the corner and over the canal towards the watched Rhine. Separate each plump little pregnant crescent. If you find the Kiss, the secret section, save it for Al...Take yesterday's paper (when we were in Strasbourg L'Ami du Peuple was best, because when it got hot the ink stayed on it) and spread it on top of the radiator. The maid has gone, of course - it might be hard to ignore her belligerent Alsatian glare of astonishment."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My dear friend, thank you for you good wishes!

      Yes, I do love the book very much and their ideas are so inspiring! (For instance the terracotta pots they use - some are unobtrusively painted with a picture of seed packets - as I love to draw I will snatch the idea).

      Difficult is the answer to where I write more: I write differently, that is for sure. Different topics and inspirations, different tempo and different light (just to name a few influences).
      Grown up I always saw myself as a city-girl - but in the dairies of my youth, though I lived in the big Hanse city Bremen, you find dreams of becoming "a wise woman living in a hut in the woods, collecting herbs and helping people who came to me when they needed advice." But even then you'll find a dichotomy: with 14 I wrote the somehow precocious sentence: "When I'm old I want to live in Berlin!". (I managed that, though it was a long way: from Bremen to Mainz to Stuttgart /Ludwigsburg to Hildesheim to Hamburg and then Berlin - now divided with Bavaria)

      I too love the paintings of Caspar David Friedrichs - we had so many expositions last year in Germany, (and I got a very good book about him too). Berlin owns many of his paintings. So romantic atmospheres!

      How interesting that you quote M.F.K. Fisher - I have her book "Consider the Oyster" (first printed in 1941) on my kindle (though I prefer books in paper) and have also read "How to Cook A Wolf" (1942 - the title sounded so amusing - in Wikipedia I found this quote: "Fisher's biographer Joan Reardon wrote that the overarching theme of How to Cook a Wolf was "the will to survive, whether in wartime or in battle with old age or in a crise de nerfs  [fr]."[12].
      I am optimistic and hope that we do not have to buy the book! :-)
      Thank you again for your comment and I send all my good wishes to you for a happy New Year!

      Delete
  7. How lovely to have two homes Britta ..... and to have one in the city and one in the countryside is even better. Personally, I love a bit of both .... the hustle and bustle of a beautiful city and the peaceful, verdant countryside .... the best of both worlds. You have a good neighbour which is essential if you want your roses to flourish and survive ! XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Jackie, thank you, I just discovered your comment! I am in Berlin now, and my days are fully packed with meeting friends, going to exhibitions (tomorrow the underground, busses and trans will strike - that means "going" literally) and housekeeping.
    Yes, I love it - yet I am not sure how long I will still do that. Since four years I have dual housekeeping - I get the impression (as I go too to the Netherlands quite often because of private reasons) that it becomes a bit exhausting (and expensive - for the rent for Berlin I could stay many nights per month in a very posh hotel, without having to clean the place myself :-)
    I'll watch it this summer and then decide. XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've grown to love the countryside too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Katlyn, thanks for your comment! I had a look at your blog, and am keen to see how the adventure goes on.

      Delete