It’s the neighborhood where I used to live, so there are fond memories of it: near Bundesplatz in Wilmersdorf…a southwestern district of Berlin. Also it’s one of the major setting in my upcoming release, novel, The Agony of Joy, for which I took photos of the paths my characters walked and where they lived in previous photo journal entry: Volkspark Wilmersdorf & “Agony” Scenes. But that was in fading summer, and this was the first true snow of winter in this area.
I was out shopping, returning to a favorite little card shop I’ve frequented for almost ten years now, and one my son also loves just the sheer, dense, colorful madness of having all the things we prize all in one area: drawing pencils, paints, pastels, paper of all kinds, for all uses and a smiling pretty shopkeeper.
But today was around -7°C at 10am this morning when I was by, of course there was the snow. I wanted to see the park as I’d never seen it before, for ironically enough I’d been there in winter but never went it had snowed. It was a few city blocks away however, icy, slippery blocks, and the clock tower I especially wished to make a photo of was even farther than that at the far end of the park.
I had already declined to step off the train at Jannowitzbrücke this morning, at a bend of one of the many waterways of Berlin, even though as the sun rose the sky was an absolutely brilliant in shades of crimson, apricot and rose. I am not a morning person. So I’d mentally kicked myself, but not too hard, yet this time I was going to miss an opportunity of photos when I really had nothing else to do and could always use the exercise.
There were only a few people in the park, a father and son, presumably, using one of the gently sloping hills as a sledding ramp. A couple of joggers and the inevitable dog walkers. In the playground, seen a number of times in my previous journals, had only a dozen or so small children. Even with only four or so inches, a valiant cross country skiier had pulled out their gear and “slushed” across the central sea of snow.
As I walked I gained more energy and warmth, and actually ended walking not just through the park but several more blocks into the Schöneberg district. Rather north and east, and felt a little special in the same shoes and coat I’d worn early this year when I’d walked all the way across the wide frozen sea of Scharmützel, seen in the journal entries below. Not many can say they’ve walked in such a way, nor even if given the opportunity, would chance such a journey. But there was nothing like reaching the center of the ice where no one had walked before, no tell-tale footprints in the untrodden snow.
All photos are again by me, please don’t use them without my explicit permission, thanks. See disclaimer below.
Red Haircrow 
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