It's legit: spring has sprung, and as like every year, the city is psyched. Amazing how quickly we forget the joy of springtime once summer rolls around, and how fresh and pure the excitement is once the sun returns after half a year of drizzly darkness. Here in Hamburg, we had some especially beautiful days towards the end of March, with t-shirt temperatures and enough sunlight to make sunscreen a permanent fixture in my bag again. The trees are popping pink and white around the Alster, and the daffodils are out in force on the southeast shore of the lake, attracting both ducklings and tourists with selfie sticks. (Well, the tourists have the selfie sticks, not the ducklings.) Walking downtown on one particularly beautiful Friday evening, every conversation I overheard in passing went something like: "I can't believe how beautiful it is!", "It's so warm!", "The warmest March on record!", "This is awesome!", or "Herrlich, herrlich" or "Einfach wunderschön!" or "Träumchen!" or "boa digga scheiß digga voll GEIL ää". Everyone was so, so happy. And then it got cold and I got a cold and the sky started dripping and so did my nose and I had to wear a thick coat and hat and gloves to the grocery store yesterday and you know what? That's okay. Remember when it was so beautiful?
Like a couple weeks ago when a friend and I went for a walk along the Elbe west of the city. It was still too early for greenery, but budding branches were bracing themselves to bust.
Each morning I head to a part of town that is known for its architecture but not exactly for its aesthetic appeal, and walk along the U-Bahn tracks from the station to my work. The short walk doesn't usually have much to offer, except for now, when the trees throw a party and the path from A to B morphs into a fairytale landscape gone photo studio for bridal magazines. Especially in these last sunny days, time slows down as you tiptoe under the branches, the air all a-flutter of floating, flip-flopping pink petals catching in the sunlight as they dance their way down to the confetti fields.
Last weekend, a friend and I left Hamburg and ended up going on a glorious 25km excursion along the coast of the Baltic Sea. Truly a splendid adventure. And so many splendid dogs.
And while we're on the topic of sweetness and light, I've been on a bit of a truffle fix lately. Discovering how simple (albeit time-consuming) it is to make very impressive, professional-looking truffles has lead to many a late night in the kitchen listening to podcasts and bending over a bain-marie of smooth, melted chocolate. White chocolate ganache with lemon, raspberry and ginger, adorable s'moreables, and deeply raspberry chocolate. And dark chocolate peanut butter cups. And less truffley rolled barley pudding with orange syrup and tahini, and caramel apple pecan blondies, and megabrownies stuffed with caramel and nuts and marshmallows. And chocolate banana pancakes. Because a lot of my friends decided to have birthdays in the last few weeks. And also, why not?
