What exactly is it I love about Hasenheide so much? Certainly it's not the drug dealers who haunt every entrance, though if you're not in the market for hashish they pretty much leave you alone. No, I think what I really love is that this park has room for just about everyone. Hipsters sit along side Lebanese families. Öko Muttis (Granola mommies) pack their babies in Kinder Caravans attached to the back of their bikes....
...there are children of all ages, including yipsters, my own word for young, student-y hipsters, the kind who are most likely to be wearing those terrible plastic frame 80s sunglasses, the guys with so much gel in their hair you wonder how many bugs they trap a day (yes, as you can see there is still a Berlin Fashion Police side of me lingering somewhere in the cattier side of my soul. ;) )
This being Neukölln (or at least partially) there are also plenty of those eccentric 50-something bachelors who like to wear lime green tank tops while cruising on their bikes to which they've added mirrors and an old ghetto blaster (always attached with several layers of duct tape), blasting Elvis or country music as they ride on by. I don't know why that neighborhood has so many strange old guys like that, but all I can say is viva la Neukölln!
Even the tres punky look of this bull in the new petting zoo is by no means out of place....
April was much kinder on us today, so we went for a leisurely stroll in the park with all these different mixes of people.
Miss Mia and Baby Li both waited very patiently...
...for daddy to return from the imbiss with.....
"hot dogs". 
Yum!
Of course, both Jasper and I busied ourselves with taking photographs....
...and having fun, but what else is new?
Eventually we headed for home, the babies and Jasper to Akku's for soccer and me home so I could write this blog post for you. Schönes Wochenende. :)
There is a saying in German, April, April, der macht was er will: April, April, it does what it damn well pleases (ok, so I added in the swear word...) April weather can be sunshine one day, drizzle the next and, if you're really unlucky, even some snow the week after. Last Friday we had almost t-shirt weather loveliness, but for the past few days we've had what you see in this picture. No, I didn't take this photograph in the evening or wee hours of the morning. I took it at around 11 o'clock in the morning. A wet chill and gray, leaden skies like the kind I've only ever experienced in Berlin and Portland, Oregon. Talk about depressing....I went for a walk with Baby Li, naturally freezing my ass off in my way-too-light jacket. I can't help it. It's the stubborn Californian in me. April should mean good weather, I mean spring should start in late February, shouldn't it?
Last week the streets were brimming with life in a way that is only possible when Berlin wakes up from it's long winter hibernation. It was sad to see all of the tables and chairs at the cafes and the Markthalle chained up and forced to sit in the corner as though they had been caught misbehaving.
Even the places that were more optimistic and left their tables out had no customers crazy enough to sit outside. And this is Berlin, a city notorious for people insisting on sitting outside, sometimes with provided blankets, even when it's really way too cold for it (hey, you take what you can get...)
As I wandered through the neighborhood, pushing Baby Li in the stroller, I would pull out my camera from time to time to try and capture something that reminded me that this was indeed April and not November. Like the trash in this bicycle basket, of bulbs someone bought and used for some springtime planting.
And these bright flowers that are proof it is spring and summer that lie ahead, not the ever dreaded winter. Still, it's not too bad to know that the stores are stocking up on wine to get us through these last few weeks of April's moodiness...
As a native Californian, spring never really meant that much to me. Winter was a few stormy weeks in January and then "spring" came in February meaning the weather was more or less back to being perfect. I know a lot of people who move there from places that actually have weather are always complaining about the lack of seasons. As for me, I'm glad there is no such thing as winter. Winter, and snow for that matter, should only exist in mountainous places where it is beautiful and picteresque and people can go crazy skiing, relaxing afterwards with a cup of hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire. Hot cocoa with those little marshmallows on top. Don't forget the marshmallows...
But I digress. Since I have lived in Berlin I have come to truly appreciate spring. Those last few weeks of winter are so brutal. Everyone is fed up and at the point of cracking. If they have to put that freaking down jacket on one more time, they just might go over the edge. Then spring comes and plants are growing and birds are singing and flowers are blooming. Sounds like a cliche, but ain't it grand!
April is being good to us this year. There is a saying in German, April, April, der macht was er will: April, April it does as it pleases. Sometimes the month can be hellish- cold, wet, sleet and hail. But recently we've even had summer weather.
Spring, here's looking at you kid!
