Spring is in full bloom at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park!
On this sunny day, many visitors were walking through scenes of lush natural beauty.
In the Lower Garden the cherry blossoms were still like clouds of pink through which anyone could serenely amble. Being the third Tuesday of the month, San Diego residents could enter the garden for free. Lots of families took advantage!
As I walked along the high path near JFG’s newest waterfall, I noticed that an azumaya is under construction. An azumaya is defined as a traditional arbor or summer pavilion found in formal Japanese gardens.
These photographs show how dreamy the garden now appears.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
In 2023, a long mural was created in the alley behind Bread & Salt in Logan Heights. Transmutation – Exploring art & Healing is the title in English. It’s by San Diego artist May-ling Martinez.
The artwork combines various elements, including geometry, anatomy, natural forms and design. It seems that creativity is in our human DNA.
I saw this mural for the first time a few days ago when I explored the old Weber’s bread bakery, the historic building in which the Bread & Salt cultural center is located.
In late 2020 I walked around the same building and through the same alley, taking photos of different murals, many of which remain today. See those here.
Looking at the artist’s website, I see she created fun art that I photographed almost ten years ago in East Village. It’s the closet-like mural titled Inside Outside that you can see here!
Here are more photos of Transmutation, taken along the alley as I walked from left to right…
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several signs posted along the edge of the San Diego River Estuary indicate: Endangered Species Predator Control in Progress. These signs were placed by the City of San Diego Public Works Department. I saw them today for the first time.
The Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rail uses the San Diego River Estuary as natural habitat, and efforts to protect this endangered subspecies involve trapping predators like raccoons, feral cats, and rats. The sign asks people to not feed feral cats, which are being trapped and relocated to the nearest Humane Society.
As I walked along the river on a beautiful late February day, I saw many birds in the water, among vegetation and on distant mudflats. I don’t believe I spotted any Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rails, but I can’t say for sure.
When I walked into the nearby Marina Village Conference Center, where Audubon’s San Diego Bird Festival is taking place all weekend, I asked an expert how the Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rail is doing. Hanging on, was the gist of the reply.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
A free “Bird Friendly Home and Garden Fair” will be open to the public this coming Sunday, February 25, 2024. It’s part of San Diego Audubon’s big five-day San Diego Bird Festival, which is presently underway at the Marina Village Conference Center!
The Bird Friendly Home and Garden Fair will feature local organizations and businesses that help you help birds. There will be exhibitor booths, educational presentations, and people can build a bluebird nesting box for the California Bluebird Recovery Project. The program schedule includes a family music program and a live birds of prey presentation. There will be information about native seed libraries, what to do if you find an injured or baby bird, and much more!
To read more about this unique weekend event, click here and scroll down. You can participate in other San Diego Bird Festival activities, too!
(If you’re curious about the above photograph–that’s a Great Blue Heron that was perched in a tree above the San Diego River. I spotted it yesterday while walking across the pedestrian bridge near the Fashion Valley transit center.)
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
A beautiful new mural has debuted in San Diego’s Rolando neighborhood!
Depictions of homes in the community, nearby San Diego State University, and familiar plants and animals enliven a wall on 62nd Avenue, a block south of El Cajon Boulevard. The mural was created in partnership with SDG&E, whose substation is located here.
This colorful public art debuted earlier this week and is the work of ArtReach. The lead muralist was Katy Yeaw.
(While visiting Katy’s website, I learned she painted a fun electrical box that I photographed years ago in Little Italy!)
Late this afternoon I checked out the three sides of this great new mural…
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Another amazing orchid show is being held this weekend in Balboa Park. The San Diego County Orchid Society hosts the spectacular Orchids in the Park event, and I’m glad I stumbled upon it today!
In addition to displays of stunning, award-winning blooms, the free show allows visitors to purchase orchid plants and listen to gardening experts.
I saw an enthusiastic crowd wandering about Room 101 of the Casa del Prado, where the orchid show and sale takes place. Who doesn’t love beautiful flowers? My camera battery was very low, so I took only a few photos. Thankfully, a few came out okay.
If you love natural beauty, and orchids in particular, you must not miss this show. It continues tomorrow, Sunday, January 28, from 10 am to 4 pm. Signs are posted around Balboa Park. Follow the arrows!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
It rained very heavily in San Diego today. I heard that some coastal areas received up to four inches of rain. That’s a staggering amount of water in less than 24 hours for our naturally arid climate.
Not surprisingly, many parts of the city flooded. A couple of highways partially closed. All three trolley lines had service disruptions.
Severe flooding often occurs in Mission Valley as the San Diego River rapidly swells. As you can see in my photos, that happened again.
Late this afternoon I observed two cars half underwater where Mission Center Road crosses the San Diego River. I hope those drivers are okay.
Holding my umbrella, I then walked along the leaf-strewn pathway beside the swollen river.
The above sign west of Mission Center Road explains the San Diego River’s peculiarities, and why periodic flooding is actually helpful:
A River in Flood
Under historical conditions, the seasonal variation in San Diego’s rainfall creates strong fluctuation in the amount of water flowing within the San Diego River. The low rainfall and the geologic composition allowed for the river to run below ground during much of the year; this lead to the River’s nickname, the Upside Down River.
Habitats and vegetation adapted to flooding in the winter and subsurface flow in the summer. Flooding helped restore the natural river bottom, flushed out debris, created new sand bars and kept the river healthy.
Large flooding events were common and are natural along the river course. Over time, with the construction of regional reservoirs, El Capitan in 1934 and San Vicente in 1943, these large flooding event have been reduced and flows constrained.
Every year we’re reminded: Avoid driving in flooded areas!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The Art of Science is a photographic exhibit that explores the intersection of art and science. Curious eyes can view this cool exhibit inside the Sally T. WongAvery Library at UC San Diego, and at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.
The above fluorescent image of a pine tree stem cross-section was taken using a microscope. A stem that is scientifically examined might be a natural object, but like any art the resulting image is human-created, and can stimulate complex thought and emotion.
Many would say the above image is beautiful.
Do you consider it to be beautiful?
Why or why not?
Aren’t all things in this world potentially beautiful?
Is beauty entirely in the eye (or mind) of the beholder?
The Art of Science presents several intriguing images that appear simultaneously familiar and strange.
Here’s a web page that describes the exhibit, including: Now in its third year, the Library’s Art of Science contest celebrates the beauty that can emerge during scientific research at UC San Diego and beyond. This year, librarians and staff pre-selected items from the Research Data Collections repository. From these selected images, winners were chosen by the campus and the broader San Diego community via online voting.
More samples from the exhibit…
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Visitors to Balboa Park during the winter might walk past the sunken Zoro Garden without seeing its enduring beauty.
On a cold, gray day late in the year, fallen leaves, puddles and a big patch of bare dirt might seem the main attraction of this stone grotto garden. But those who stroll down any of the winding pathways will discover small flowers, surprising color, and perhaps gleaming raindrops on bright green leaves.
Please enjoy these photographs. I took them today on a New Year’s Eve walk through Balboa Park. It had been drizzling earlier in the day.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
History is being made in Mission Valley. Two massive projects are being developed along the San Diego River: SDSU Mission Valley and Riverwalk San Diego.
The river park at SDSU Mission Valley is mostly complete, and large areas are now accessible to the public during its soft opening.
I walked around the river park the other day and found a number of fascinating information signs. One shows birds that might be found along the San Diego River. Another concerns stormwater management and the creation of bioretention basins. The largest such basin is located near the Stadium trolley station.
The signs that interested me most concern the history of Mission Valley and the San Diego River.
I took photos of several signs, which you can enlarge for easier reading…
The Native American Kumeyaay historically used plants along the river for food, tools and construction materials. They sustainably managed the land. Before World War II and the subsequent boom in urban development, Mission Valley was largely farmland. At one point there were 20 dairy farms in Mission Valley. Several Japanese American families operated vegetable farms.Early 1900s postcards of Mission Valley show large areas of green farmland on either side of the San Diego River.New plants for the new river park at SDSU Mission Valley.The San Diego River begins in the Cuyamaca Mountains and flows west to the Pacific Ocean. It is the source of important biodiversity. In 1971, plans to replace the sometimes flooding river with a concrete channel were thwarted by intense public opposition. The vision of a more natural San Diego River, with innovative safeguards against flooding, would eventually prevail.Photo of damaging flooding in Mission Valley circa 1980, before the adoption in 1982 of FSDRIP–the First San Diego River Improvement Project.The Kumeyaay were the first people to live in this region. This sign explains they understood the importance of caring for the land, water, flora and fauna that are all a part of this intricate ecological system that relates and sustains all life in balance and harmony. A map of Kumeyaay territory includes San Diego County and the northern portion of Baja California.A field without farms–playing soccer near Snapdragon Stadium at SDSU Mission Valley.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 