Archive for April, 2009
this sounds like a good idea to me! (link)
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
proof of the spring explosion…
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
So, to compare, these pictures of our park were taken a week after those lake pictures! Things are growing incredibly fast. By now the trees all have some leaves on them, so even this photograph isn’t accurate.
The flowering trees are especially awesome right now!
Schlachten See
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
I’m getting behind in my posts, but I will try to catch up a bit…
Here are some photos from our trip to Schlachten See, a small lake on the southwest side of Berlin. There is a large forested area over there, with dozens of lakes, some of them quite large. I think you could spend weeks exploring with a bicycle.
We brought along a picnic, and before long attracted the attention of a nice pair of Mallards. I suspect we were not the first people to throw them some bread crumbs. The drake was very polite and let his mate eat all she wanted, while he defended her from other birds. At one point a coot tried to get some bread, and he swam over and bit it. Here you see the coot leaving in a hurry:
Since this is rapidly becoming a blog about ducks, I might as well post this picture too. This guy certainly had a lot to say to his mate. She doesn’t seem too impressed:
The lakes are only slightly more wild than your average city park, so there’s not much hiking to be done. There are lots of joggers, however. Eventually we wrapped up our picknick stuff, said goodbye to the ducks and followed the lake to its end, where we found a sort of lodge with a biergarten and lots of people lounging in the sun, drinking it all in.
Spring!
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
We’ve now had about a week’s worth of weather around the 65-70 degree range, and suddenly the bare branches and cold ground is exploding with greenery and flowers. The whole population of Berlin seems to be outside, lounging in the parks and sometimes literally singing and dancing. At first glance at a street of restaurants and cafes, it looks as though the population has quadrupled, but in reality all the stores have turned inside-out: empty inside, with everyone is sitting out on the street trying to absorb as much sunlight as possible.
Last Friday I took a walk in a new area, a stop on the train called “Treptower Park.” The park stretches along the banks of the Spree River, where cheerful little houseboats are docked and small snack stands offer everything from the classic beer-and-wurst to Thai snacks.
Further down the strand is the bird-buffet, where the feathered residents congregate in anticipation of snacks from the humans (who never tire of giving them out.)
The duck pictured below didn’t join in the food-frenzy. Instead he stood politely and let everyone photograph him. I think he liked it. I heard lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing about how pretty he was. His mate was alongside, but she was not nearly as flashy and didn’t bother to turn around for the camera, which is why she isn’t pictured here.
I took gobs of spring photos, giddy as I was about the warm weather. Here you go: proof that the winter is over!
