Berlin-Neukölln: Air plants at the Saturday market

Two surprises awaited me this past Saturday as I took a walk from Neukölln to Kreuzberg, getting acclimated in Berlin again after a week in the heat of Spain. First, I realized that one of my favorite greenmarkets, the “Turkish market” (held on Tuesdays and Fridays on Maybachufer), has spun off a third, Saturday market dedicated to fabrics and handcrafts. There, I was doubly surprised to find an airy, minimal stand in shades of dusty green and creamy white, offering an array of strange air plants with nary a root or speck of soil in sight.

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Berlin-Friedrichshain: Club kids

Big bro and kid bro dandelion hanging out in front of the techno club ://aboutblank. Giving them a once over: cool couple hops and Ailanthus altissima.

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Berlin: Field flowers on Oranienstraße

In a grungy steel planter in front of a cute little mite of a delicatessen in Kreuzberg,

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Berlin: Restaurant plants before opening time

In this restaurant in Berlin-Friedrichshain the other day, in the morning before the restaurant had opened for the day, a crew of plants were chilling in the window, from oranges to orchids.

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Berlin: banana tree

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Berlin: Bärlauch, or, cooking spring

As I’ve mentioned, spring has felt massively delayed to many Berliners this year. Maybe our expectations have been warped by global warming, but it feels like we’ve been waiting, shivering at near-zero temperatures, on the brink of spring for ages. We’ve watched reports on TV about Germany’s beloved spring crop, white asparagus, whose harvest has been delayed for more than four weeks by the cold rain. Same for my favorites, bright pink rhubarb and Bärlauch, the tender wild garlic greens that Berliners forage in city parks, which both have been nowhere to be seen… until this week!

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Berlin: Taking spring into his own hands

Snow is still on the ground a week after Easter. Most Berliners are busy complaining about the total absence of spring, but my neighbor Herr Mischke has taken matters into his own hands. On the mountain of old snow in front of his bookshop, Atlantis, he’s throwing this spring’s first garden party on the icy peak.

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Geografische Buchhandlung Atlantis is an independent bookshop ‘for reading travelers and traveling readers,’ with maps, travel guides, and general interest books (mostly in German). Karl-Marx-Allee 98, Berlin-Friedrichshain.

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Berlin: ranunculus découpage

Kind of gross, kind of gorgeous. I left this red ranunculus blossom in a water glass on my office windowsill over the weekend. Today I found it had drunk all the water and stuck itself to the bottom of the glass in a surprising way. Beautiful decay? Or just slimy?

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Berlin: Cardboard tulips at Sylee’s

“Make your own sunshine,” Sylee titled the blog post on Berlin Reified featuring her photos of this make-your-own tulips kit, made here in Berlin. Yes, we must make our own sunshine here in the gray city at the moment, holding our breaths, waiting for spring to come and bring us the real thing!

Photo by Sylee Gore, Berlin Reified 

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Berlin: Blackberry vine starting early

Much of the city is still leafless, but I caught this vine growing rapidly down a concrete wall separating the train station from the swimming center. Maybe there will be post-swim berries this summer?

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