Monthly Archives: December 2012

Under December’s Grey Skies

The illustration that accompanies this piece is by a good friend Julia Stone, who created it as a companion to the Shadows and Reflections article I wrote for Caught by the River. It is a lovely series of posts, as the different contributors to the website reflect on the year that has passed, and having made my own contribution it also means that I do not want to go over the same ground here. What I would like to do in what will most likely be the final Under a Grey Sky entry of 2012 is reflect a little on this place, which began almost a year ago in those muted and melancholic days between Christmas and the New Year.

When I began Under a Grey Sky I had a loose idea of what I wanted to create. I knew that I wanted it to be somewhere that explored the nature of “place”, the adventures that can be had beyond the front door whether in the city, town or country, on the fens or in the high mountains, in the woods or on the water. I did not want to write it alone, and it has been the biggest source of pleasure during this first year of Under a Grey Sky that so many people have chosen to contribute their words and their pictures, and the list that you will find on this page shows the range of interests and locations of those who have been part of the project so far.

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At the Christmas Market

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I am an unashamed fan of the Christmas Market, whether it is a small collection of wooden stalls in an cobblestoned square of some small town, or one of the countless versions that we can enjoy here in Berlin, and the four weeks of advent during which they operate is one of the highlights of my year. There is one particular market in Berlin, in the shadow of the opera house, that is called the “Nostalgie Markt” or nostalgia market, which got me thinking the other day as I strolled through the wooden huts, past the glühwein stands and intricate little wooden handicrafts, the smell of roasting chestnuts mingling with the meat on the grill as the big wheel turned against the backdrop of a Plattenbau, that in the end, aren’t all Christmas Markets “Nostalgia Markets” in a certain way?

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Berlin: A winter diary

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People like to moan about the winter here in Berlin. From about the middle of September, or whenever the supermarkets break out the Christmas chocolate – whichever comes first – the grumbles of a city fully used to an expecting sixth months of grey skies, dark afternoons and cold, cold, cold temperatures begin to sound. When it finally comes, with the first cold snap of minus temperatures or the initial dumping of a load of snow that sends taxis sliding down the street and kids temporarily insane with the possibilities, people walk hunched and huddled against the biting winds that come, of course, from Russia, and look for sanctuary in the cozy cafes or the warmth of their own apartments. I think it is why Christmas is such a big deal, bringing light, cheer and mulled wine to the streets that lifts the mood for a month or two before it is all of a sudden January and – then – most brutally of all, February. Somehow the shortest month of the year always feels the longest.

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Street culture in Plagwitz, Leipzig

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Whenever we get the chance we head south from Berlin to Leipzig, only an hour and a half away by train (unless you like to take the more leisurely route), where we have good friends to visit and the added bonus of one of my favourite cities in Germany. Normally we spend most of our time in the slightly-beaten-up but increasingly trendy neighbourhood around the Karl-Liebknecht-Straße south of the city centre, which is where our friends lived and which, with its combination of cafes and bars, semi-squatted cultural centres, and mixed population, reminds both Katrin and I of the Prenzlauer Berg of ten or more years ago.

This time we were taken west, not to the old industrial neighbourhood of Schleußig – which is also well worth a visit – but to Plagwitz, which was hosting one of their quarterly “Westpaket” events, which combines handicrafts and fleamarket stalls in an old iron and steel works and along the Karl-Heine-Straße, but also readings, performances, concerts and other cultural offerings. We entered the market through a anarchist travellers site parked up alongside the canal on a patch of wasteland, which was certainly a singular way to arrive, before we stepped into the vast industrial hall to explore what goodies the creative folk of Leipzig had come up with.

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A slow train through the snow

The Lorry-boat Shrimpers of Southport

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By Chris Hughes:

Driving along the coastal road into Southport from my home in Ainsdale I pass a motley collection of vehicles parked up on the beach. Half lorry, half boat these are, or rather were, the shrimpers of Birkdale. The photographs in this article were taken 10 to 15 years ago and there are fewer and less interesting vehicles left now. Although shrimping is still carried on it appears to be largely tractors employed in the process today and far less people are engaged in the activity.

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A brush with Istanbul

Songs of the grillman, Croatia

The German Forest and the photography of Michael Lange

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With Under a Grey Sky being based in Berlin, and Berlin being in Germany, it is probably not surprising that the forest has been something of a theme during this the first year of the website. Those who have visited Berlin and arrived in the city by plane will have seen how the forests, dotted with lakes, make up much of the hinterland, and indeed, within the city itself. After all, how many city states have their own forestry department? But Berlin needs one, as the forests that the surround the city pay no heed to official boundaries, and even in parts of the Tiergarten – Berlin’s central park right in the centre – it is possible to lose yourself in the trees. With no mountains or coast for miles around, it is a walk in the woods that is the normal escape from the bustle of everyday life.

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