Reasons to Love Red Hook #1: Coffey Park

Coffey Park is an eight-acre slice of heaven in the center of Red Hook. Largely overlooked by visitors to this neighborhood, it serves as a sort of town square for residents. Devoted dog owners have fought for off-leash hours, and a regular crew of mutts (and their pets) assembles there nightly. Kids stroll through on their way to school, old folks populate the benches near Pioneer Street entrance. Warm weather brings barbeques and Old Timers' Day, sprinklers in the playground, and basketball games running late into the evening. 

Walking through the park this morning I spotted John, the park's gardener. I remarked on the Springlike weather, and he pointed toward the Southeast side of the park, near the playground and park house. "There's a witch hazel in the planting area over there. It just started to bloom." I love witch hazel - I'm a particular fan of any plant that blooms at odd times of year - and I'll walk my lumbering dog past that corner later this afternoon. 

As the warmer weather arrives, the crab apples will bloom pale pink and white, and the tulips planted by school kids each Fall will lurch brightly from the mulch. The sycamores will spread their leaves, and families will start sending scouts out into the early morning to reserve a block of picnic tables for the long, lazy day's barbeque to follow.