Encounters with Beauty and Grace
“What I like to think, and perhaps it is an adolescent thought, is that anything can happen. As long as you think that anything can happen, it will. We’re all allowed to have our dreams.” ~ Anjelica Huston Like an exotic bird in a […]
The woman’s lithe figure moved with ease from tables topped with flickering candles and vases cradling stems with pink petals. A ribbon of white satin framed a neckline that would leave swans envious. Her black apron was starched, stain-free and blended seamlessly with the […]
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water” – Galileo Galilei Antonie and Andreas Pietsch are cultivators. Soil embedded under rugged fingernails, skin bronzed by the outdoors and cheeks rosy from external elements. Like the 2.2 hectares of gnarled vines the couple tends and […]
I was on a mission to find a peony. As I entered Blumen Dekker I learned peony season had come and gone. The owner, Jaap Dekker, ushered me to a bucket filled with roses in full blossom. With a discerning eye he plucked the flower that […]
Sultry vocals of Nora Jones drift overhead in Wingert Vinothek. Disheveled stacks of wine crates, books by Proust, eclectic art, lit candles, wooden tables and comfortable leather chairs create an atmosphere of relaxed pleasure. Owner Holger Schwedler, an economist and lecturer of wine studies, could easily […]
Like his fraying parchment colored linen shirt, Husam (Sam) Al-Badri is a soul who seems to have lived many lives. Born in Baghdad, Sam learned to bind books by age twelve. Adulthood brought him to Berlin, where he went on to build a successful career as […]
Christopher Deyer and his wife Antje Probst surround themselves with objects they love and value – books. In 2014 the couple opened a shop where bookworms would feel at home, Buch-Café Nero39. They chose a beautiful location off a quiet street. The store’s interior includes original […]