A cherry blossom has opened in mid-February at Balboa Park’s beautiful Japanese Friendship Garden!
Look what I discovered this afternoon while walking through Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden. A few cherry blossoms have opened!
I spoke to one of the master gardeners and he thinks there might be quite a show of beautiful cherry blossoms this year, because of our rainy winter. So everyone in San Diego who loves springtime and breathtaking displays of dreamy flowers should probably go to the Japanese Friendship Garden’s 12th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival! It takes place Friday, March 10 through Sunday, March 12.
I’ll be there!
A solitary burst of pink on a mostly bare cherry tree. This unusually wet winter might produce an amazing show of spring blossoms.Gray cherry trees in winter, but spring is around the corner!A few early cherry blossoms appear in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Here we go again! I wrote another short story! What does it have to do with Cool San Diego Sights? Nothing. Silly me!
This very short work of fiction is about life. And painting angels. It has a happy ending! Click this link to read it on my writing blog Short Stories by Richard!
Thank you! I promise my next blog post will actually be about San Diego!
Volunteers in downtown San Diego add a coat of paint to a metal post. A wonderful community project put together by the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
A busy morning! I’ve got lots of fun photos coming! First, check out something really fantastic. The Downtown San Diego Partnership arranged for a bunch of generous volunteers to help beautify the city! The resident volunteers converged this morning at Eighth Avenue and B Street, were given paint and brushes, and were then shown lampposts in the area that need a coat of paint!
Thank you Downtown San Diego Partnership for working to keep the heart of our city in tip top shape! I was told this sort of event might occur in the future on a regular basis. Hopefully this blog post helps to raise awareness a bit!
Around 150 volunteers had signed up to paint lamp posts. Many had gathered at Eighth Avenue and B Street just after nine o’clock when I walked through the area.Getting the paint ready at the center of the parking lot where all the volunteers gathered in downtown’s Core district.The base of a downtown lamppost has been primed and is ready to be painted by volunteers. Hundreds of posts would be painted today!A worker for the Clean and Safe program beautifies downtown San Diego. As a resident, I thank you all.These nice volunteers were painting their third lamppost as I walked back through the area later in the day!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
This is the first weekend visitors to the Star of India can walk on the beautiful new poop deck!
We all are a part of history. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that.
The people at the Maritime Museum of San Diego are contributing to history by restoring the main deck of the world-famous Star of India. The poop deck is finished! Visitors can now enjoy the beautiful new wood deck and varnished helm and imagine putting to sea steering the romantic wheel. On a historic tall ship that is now 153 years old!
The beautiful new wood deck underfoot is meant to last another 50 or so years. The bench along the saloon’s skylight will be sanded and varnished next.The 1863 Star of India is a world treasure. Its amazing, varied history includes circumnavigating the globe 21 times. It’s the oldest active sailing ship in the world!A visitor rang the ship’s cheerful bell while his friends talked near the binnacle and helm.The helm’s new varnish is still drying! In my dreams I command this amazing tall ship while standing at the wheel!A super nice Maritime Museum docent showed me how the steering mechanism works. The two opposing screw-like worms were made with amazing precision over 150 years ago!The port side of the main deck has been caulked! Now just to sand and apply several layers of sealing protection.The people at the Maritime Museum of San Diego are working hard to keep an important part of world history alive.The finished main deck on the starboard side. Soon the entire ship’s deck will be shiny like new!Folks enjoy a sunny San Diego day on the newly restored poop deck of the historic tall ship Star of India.
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Purple Trailing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) attracts hummingbirds, butterflies, and a wide range of feeding insects and birds.
Tweet Street park on Cortez Hill has a sign with some very useful information. It shows shrubs and trees that attract local San Diego birds and butterflies.
Please refer to the information on the sign and my photo captions. As you can see, some of these plants are native to San Diego. All are beautiful and would fit nicely in most San Diego gardens. And all naturally attract winged life. Even in the heart of the big city.
A sign at the Tweet Street linear park on Cortez Hill, a neighborhood in downtown San Diego. It shows beautiful plants that attract local birds and butterflies.Jacaranda (Jacaranda acutifolia) is a flowering tree that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. The trees host insects that are a food supply for insectivorous birds such as finches.Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is a San Diego native. White flowers in March attract hummingbirds and butterflies. In winter, red berries are food for many different birds.Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora “Samuel Sommer”) provides shade and perches for birds. The fragrant white flowers attract bees and hummingbirds.Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii “Purple Passion”) has flowers that are a rich source of nectar, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.Ornamental Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) has flowers, fruit and seeds that make a good food source for many birds.Prostrate Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis “Prostratus”) is an herb that attracts bees, butterflies and insects that many birds eat.Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) is a native clumping grass. It’s abundant with seeds that birds eat. The tall grass tufts also serve as shelter.Rockrose (Cistus “Sunset”) attracts birds and insects with its magenta color and fragrance.Copper Canyon Daisy (Tagetes lemmonii) is native to Mexico. It attracts butterflies most of the year with its strong lemon-mint fragrance.Torch Lily (Kniphofia uvaria) also known as Red Hot Poker, produces sweet nectar that hummingbirds absolutely love.Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus africanus) is a popular perennial that attracts both butterflies and hummingbirds.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
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After the rain, girls in plastic ponchos take photos with Will the friendly Bard near the Balboa Park reflecting pool.
A major storm hit San Diego yesterday, causing flooding and uprooting trees.
I went for a walk through Balboa Park this morning. As I started across the Cabrillo Bridge, my hat protected my face from a few lingering very light showers. But they didn’t last long. My camera was out.
Rain has painted the arching west entrance to Balboa Park.Leaves, puddles, and a few early visitors entering Balboa Park after the latest San Diego storm.Leaves blown by a very windy storm on a wet tile bench in the Alcazar Garden.The aftermath.The Plaza de Panama might be wet, but people find tranquility and many wonders in the park.Dripping branches and leaves seem to overhang The Watchers. This outdoor sculpture is by artist Lynn Chadwick.Rainwater has collected in this beautiful flower.Walkways glisten and the air is clean and cool.The colors of the tiles in Spanish Village’s patio are made bold and cheerful with the lingering moisture.A magical passageway.Magical life. A squirrel on the damp green grass feasts.Walking toward the Casa del Prado, between the huge Moreton Bay Fig and the San Diego Natural History Museum. Everything is so green.A photographer gets his subjects to pose. Hopefully nobody slips!An iconic sculpture in the rain-wet courtyard of the House of Hospitality. Aztec Woman of Tehuantepec by famed San Diego artist Donal Hord, 1935.Beads of water on bright jewel-like flowers.Cleaning up after the muddy, messy storm with a smile.Gazing down at the Japanese Friendship Garden’s canyon from an overlook by the koi pond.The strong storm yesterday knocked over a towering eucalyptus tree at the Japanese Friendship Garden canyon’s edge. Guys with chainsaws cut it up.That long puddle almost looks impassable!Rain or not, it seems an umbrella and cell phone simply can’t be put aside.Patches of dampness add even more character to the side of the Balboa Park Club.A seldom used path to the old cactus garden is lined with bright rain-loving moss.Just a beautiful photo.The picnic benches behind the Balboa Park Club are empty as usual. Grass has turned bright green in collected pools of water.The clouds are clearing. I hear a cry above. Paired Red-tailed Hawks whirl and dance in the sky together above Balboa Park.This is Engineer Joe. He was blowing a train whistle outside to attract an audience! He is presently performing at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre.
Engineer Joe is a super nice guy. He told me that the Balboa Park puppet theater has been in continuous operation since 1948. That’s a long time for a puppet theater! He also said Marie Hitchcock created the hand puppets used by the San Diego Zoo to feed endangered California Condor chicks in the early 1980s, saving the species from extinction!
The sun is out after the storm. A Balboa Park ranger opens the colorful table umbrellas in the Plaza de Panama.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around taking photographs! Just for fun! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Glorious sun and clouds through trees high above Mission Valley.
I’m going through thousands of photographs stored in my computer this morning. I’ve found a number of beautiful nature shots taken over the past year or so.
Sometimes I can be in a hurry (or feeling a bit lazy) and I don’t properly label or categorize my images. I’m not sure exactly where I captured a couple of these. Somewhere around San Diego . . .
I’d like to thank those of you who follow this blog. I know there’s loads of stuff on the internet, and a whole lot of San Diego websites that are slicker and more professional. I’m just a regular guy and my amateur photo blog is nothing more than a work of joy. And a way for me to see this complex world more closely as I walk around the city. I hope that together, in the weeks and months ahead, we experience even more beauty and many more Cool San Diego Sights!
Now I’m off on a leisurely Sunday walk. Where will I go? I haven’t decided yet! I guess I’ll begin by stepping out the door . . .
One tiny part of a vast, intricate, simply wonderful world.Dazzling bits of stone (and a couple pieces of broken glass) in the water of Mission Bay.Colorful leaves inside Balboa Park’s Botanical Building.Complex, dramatic clouds above our fair city.Delicate natural beauty seen during a hike in Mission Trails Regional Park.A pure white egret on a branch by the shining San Diego River.Crashing water meets wet, smooth stones on the ocean shore in La Jolla.A shapely succulent in Balboa Park. Nature produces another marvel.Beautiful clouds and blue sky above San Diego Bay.I took this photo yesterday walking along Friars Road as I approached the San Diego River estuary. A few droplets cling to green leaves.Photo of a beautiful pink rose taken during a walk somewhere in San Diego.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Do you enjoy beautiful things? Please visit my other fun photography blog which I call A Small World Full of Beauty.
Golden morning light near Horton Plaza creates a cool sight in downtown San Diego.
It’s raining right now in downtown San Diego. I hear the patter outside my window.
The antidote to gloom? Some warm, beautiful photos of golden morning light!
I took these photographs a couple months ago during a pleasant walk to the Convention Center trolley station. The sky was clear. Slanting light touched high buildings.
Photo of early sunlight slanting onto a few Broadway buildings in the heart of San Diego.The historic U.S. Grant Hotel with splashes of morning light.Bright morning reflection in windows.Light shines on the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter building.Peering at reflections on the AT&T building and beyond.Looking skyward along a path of light.Turning to look north along Front Street early one clear morning.East side of the New Children’s Museum. Glass and interesting architecture in the morning light.The beautiful Horizons Condos San Diego towers catch light from the rising sun.Palms along Harbor Drive, and morning light and shadow on the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Someone gazes from the Broadway Pier across the water toward Coast Guard Air Station San Diego, whose buildings shine, reflecting early morning sunlight.
I was surprised at the number of beautiful photos I was able to capture this morning during my leisurely walk out on the Broadway Pier. All was quiet. The sun was rising…
The sun is about to rise above a part of the San Diego skyline.A gull glides over still water.Early morning light turns active aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) golden. It is docked at Naval Air Station North Island.Colorful reflection on San Diego Bay of the USS Midway Museum, seen from the Broadway Pier.Bronze plaques create an historical timeline as one walks toward the pier’s end. The construction of the Broadway Pier took place in 1913.An exquisitely beautiful seagull feather on the wet concrete at my feet.Someone rides out to the end of the Broadway Pier early one Friday morning. Few people are about.Water droplets cling to the metal seats and tables at the end of the Broadway Pier.Three large maps on the Broadway Pier show the shape of San Diego Bay in different eras. This outline of the modern bay shows where I now stand on the Embarcadero!Beautiful clouds and morning light on blue water frame a United States Coast Guard Cutter in the middle of San Diego Bay.A dreamlike vision one morning at San Diego’s magical Broadway Pier.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 