New shoots

Spring is springing in this part of the world. To pay tribute I've bedecked the flat in flowers, potted a bunch of new seedlings, and re-potted others - that somehow survived the winter - in the hope of breathing new life into them. The sun is bright in the sky and we've been out on our bikes daily.

Last weekend, we even managed a canal-side al fresco meal, before the sun disappeared behind a building and we realised that it was, basically, still very cold out of the direct sunlight. I took up muttering like an old dear until we could find a cosy cafe to retreat to, which, this being Berlin, took all of two minutes. Lovely stuff. 

Other seeds planted in the depths of winter are beginning tentatively to shoot through. This week I met with a group of amazing women to convene a supportive writing collective that will meet regularly. We aim to listen, share, coach and mentor one another to encourage each of our writing ambitions. Like midwives of creativity. I'm very excited. Also, nervous, but mostly excited.

I hold in the back of my mind a film, I recently saw, as part of the annual Berlinale, about the years lived in this great city of late writer, poet, feminist, pioneer Audre Lorde, who mentored the nascent Afro-feminist movement here and encouraged many important new voices to emerge. Do check it out. Its called Audre Lorde, the Berlin years.

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Thanks for all of your support and encouragement for this new seedling of a blog...please continue to post, muse, critique below, don't be shy...

I'm off skiing so no post next week, unless I'm very clever and manage to post from the mountains...