This morning the Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park was filled with activity. The City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department and volunteers belonging to the Balboa Park Garden Stewards were planting hundreds of flowers!
The new flowers will fill the garden’s large beds in time for summer and Memorial Day weekend!
Thank you to everyone with sore backs and dirty knees for making San Diego’s crown jewel even more beautiful!
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This very beautiful mural was painted in Leucadia by local artist Skye Walker in 2023. It’s called Remember California.
The artwork, gracing the 101 Wine Company building at 1496 North Coast Highway 101, is the result of the Paint Encinitas Mural Arts Program.
The mural is absolutely gorgeous. Notice that even the posts near the wall were painted so they fit the image.
A plaque to one side provides description.
Skye Walker’s “Remember California” mural is a visual ode to the state and its natural surroundings, amongst them being the Pacific Ocean, endless sunsets, and golden poppies. The woman figure represents Mother Nature in all her beauty, reminding us that we are responsible for protecting and nurturing her delicate, life-giving abundance. Walker hopes people are inspired by the mural not just to appreciate the natural, but also to witness the need for humans to be in balance with nature, each other, and ourselves.
…The building, originally called Ruby’s Bar, was once part of Leucadia’s early, colorful business district. Owner Ruby Nelson was known for staging dancing girls without a license, selling hamburgers to Marines, and smoking cigars soaked in Cook’s Rum. The property where the mural is located las been owned by the Georges family since 1987…
You can see an earlier version of this mural on the same building by checking out a blog post from 2019 here. That older mural is very similar, but noticeably different.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Should you visit the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, make sure to step into the Krichman Family Gallery. That’s where you can experience eye-opening effects of light, caused by apertures cut in glass windows overlooking the coast.
This site-conditional installation is the work of Robert Irwin, who passed away in 2023. According to a nearby sign, his art is foundational to a certain West Coast minimalism, referred to as Light and Space. He was a longtime resident of San Diego.
Window areas with no glass bring new light into the viewer’s eyes. Standing in the gallery makes one wonder: to what extent do we fully experience reality and its acute beauty? Is there “glass” in our eyes that can be cut away?
Those open spaces in the windows also allow our senses to feel and smell the fresh ocean breeze. Now, if only human hands could reach out and feel the ocean’s vastness.
Robert Irwin is also responsible for the Edwards Sculpture Garden’s radiant Spanish Fan, which you can see in the lower left of the above photograph.
Inside the museum’s adjacent galleries are more of Irwin’s beautiful works. Perhaps I’ll cover those at some future time.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
It’s springtime in San Diego, and the Sri Chinmoy Peace Garden in North Park is in full bloom!
Sri Chinmoy was a spiritual leader from India who taught meditation in the United States. What better place to meditate but in a place of tranquil beauty.
The Sri Chimnoy Peace Garden was established in 2013 and includes a statue of the spiritual leader and benches for quiet sitting.
The small garden, located off Adams Avenue just east of Arizona Street, has been maintained by the San Diego Sri Chimnoy Centre, which according to Google is permanently closed. As a sign explains, the natural setting is intended to enhance the beauty of the area and offer the community a place for reflection.
Spring is a time for renewal–perhaps for the soul as well.
Sri Chinmoy – STUDENT OF PEACE – CHAMPION OF THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF MANKIND
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Perhaps you’d like to join Balboa Park’s volunteer Rose Garden Corps. You’ll help beautify the world-class Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden!
I saw a small army of volunteers today in the rose garden, pruning, weeding, raking and fertilizing, while enjoying the San Diego sunshine. Rose Garden Corps members work Tuesdays or Thursday in the morning, and there is a monthly meeting.
If you think you’d like to join the Rose Garden Corps, check out this webpage to learn all about it!
Incidentally, the rose garden is in peak bloom right now. It’s spectacular!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A very busy Mother’s Day in Balboa Park included the San Diego Epiphyllum Society’s annual flower show and sale. I strolled through the Casa del Prado’s Room 101 and was wowed by hundreds of incredibly beautiful, very colorful blooms.
The web page describing the show claims SDES’s annual Mother’s Day Show is the ultimate Epi Flower Show in the country. I can see why!
The San Diego Epiphyllum Society is celebrating their 55th anniversary, and there were floral displays that proudly announced it! There were Mother’s Day displays, too, and many others that were artistic, or that provided useful information.
The flowers themselves were the star of the show!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Dozens of beautiful glass wind chimes, many decorated with images of cherry blossoms, hang suspended like shining stars at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park!
Together these many wind chimes twinkle-tink-tink, creating music in the patio of the Upper Garden.
I hadn’t been to the Japanese Friendship Garden in a long time, so today I had to ask a nearby gardener when these were installed. He told me months ago. They were part of a special event or exhibition.
Their magic remains.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Seventeen long, narrow mosaic panels were created last year in Encinitas on either side of the El Portal Undercrossing, which allows pedestrians to pass under railroad tracks.
I saw them the other day for the first time!
This excellent article about the project explains how it aims to tell the storied and colorful history of the city and its residents, was a collaborative effort between students from Paul Ecke Central Elementary School and San Dieguito Academy, nonprofit art studio Campana Studios and SDA art teacher Jeremy Wright.
I took a bunch of photos for everyone to enjoy!
The City of Encinitas has completed other public art projects at underpasses, similar to this. In the past I’ve photographed some of that art: here and here and here.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Here’s another sensational work of mosaic art that I discovered during my most recent visit to Coronado High School. A step-like installation filling a corner between two walls seems to flow with water and the life it sustains. Mosaics in three dimensions have created the appearance of a blue waterfall among greenery, flowers and small native animals.
The mosaic, completed in 2011, is titled The River of Giving. According to the webpage of mosaicist Kirstin Green, the project is a recognition wall for individuals and businesses who have donated money to the Coronado Schools Foundation over the past 3 decades.
The elements were all hand made by students. You can watch a time lapse video of this amazing art being made here.
The River of Giving – Mosaicist Kirstin Green – Visual Arts Laura Hill – Ceramics Eric Rempe – Created through the collaborative work of CHS students and teachers.THE RIVER OF GIVING – Coronado Schools Foundation – Dedicated to honor our most generous and consistent donors, and to inspire others to give vital support for learning that helps our students thrive. 2011
What about the other fantastic mosaic that I photographed at Coronado High School? Check that out here!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Easter Sunday, for many, is a day full of promise, joy, new life.
As I walked through Balboa Park early this afternoon, I could see in many open faces a love of life. Laughter and smiles. Delighting in the sunshine. Soaking in our world’s beauty and the bright colors of spring.
I wandered about without any destination in mind…
A smile and Easter Bunny ears in the Balboa Park Visitors Center.Joyful baile folklórico dancing in the Plaza de Panama.Is there a more wonderful place?Plenty of flowers for a photographic background.The Spring Orchids In The Park Show attracts a big crowd inside the Casa del Prado.A street performer has colorful balloons ready.Mitchell Walker brought three didgeridoos today!Spring has turned the park’s trees bright green.I see golden California poppies along the San Diego Natural History Museum’s new nature trail.Spanish Village is always colorful, no matter the season.Abstract artist Lucas Smith is exhibiting in Gallery 21 through tomorrow.Another weekend in Spanish Village means more live glassblowing!Plenty of color here!The San Diego History Center will soon have the official opening of Taste San Diego: Filipino Culinary Journeys.What spring looks like between Casa de Balboa and the House of Hospitality.A couple of the International Cottages were open on Easter Sunday. This very beautiful pendant is displayed in the House of Korea.Imagination Station is now playing at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater.A prickly pear blooms in the Kate O. Sessions Cactus Garden.Colorful umbrellas provide shade during rehearsal before the Sunday two o’clock organ concert.Talented musicians in a splash of sunshine along El Prado.An artist has captured some of this world’s infinite color.Balboa Park’s thriving rose garden attracts many families on Easter Sunday.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Cool San Diego Sights! 