Monday morning always carries the blues for us. Usually I wake up first, but today it was Axel and he was nearly ready to go before I was able to have a fast coffee on the terrace with him. The first thought always is how much nicer it would be if he could stay. And then he has to go and routine starts. Doing the laundry, watering flowers, cleaning cat litter, move away things, fill up drinks in the fridge, fill up dog food and water. Simply to get going, but it is different on Mondays with the farewell mood. It is only for 5 days but a piece of sadness anyway. Even the cats feel it, Smokie is sitting beside me at the computer and is consoling me. The weekend always ends so fast, especially if we had met friends or did something else. But Axel and I are glad that he has this job, he loves it a lot and I simply do not want to exchange our small paradise here in Friedrichshain for a smaller flat in Hamburg, especially as all our friends now again are here in Berlin and I would be rather lost in Hamburg.

So, up the head and keep going and… yes, I just read an English translation of Count Bernstorff’s memoirs from 1936, which Michael had sent us from London, and yesterday I got the biography of Susan Albright from our ice-bear Dagmar… so lots of stuff to pass the time. And a question to all technology freaks… my sister has sent me lots of pictures from Canada which I am not able to open and even Axel did not manage it. Anybody got an idea how to find out such a thing????

Our cats and especially Linus love our terrace and the many plants. Linus has at least three favourite spots among the plants for lying down. Unfortunately this is not always good for the plants and leads to twigs torn down and several deformations.

Listening to ”La Pulce D’Aqua”, by Angelo Branduardi (Play Count: 16)