In San Diego this afternoon, blue and yellow umbrellas sheltered a tight-knit gathering from the rain. Supporters of Ukraine met near the El Cid statue in Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama, waving flags, giving heartfelt speeches, asking for help.
It’s now a year since Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine, and in San Diego many are appalled that dictatorship and murderous barbarism can rise again in the 21st century.
Powerful images and messages that concern one year of Defending Freedom surrounded the group.
As I stood in the crowd listening, a young person voiced her optimism that Freedom, in the end, would prevail.
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San Diego is experiencing very high winds today. Combined with morning showers, including a sudden bout of hail, the icy wind made walking downtown a bit of an adventure.
I ventured outside after the hail. Nevertheless, my usual San Diego jacket felt far too thin. And crazy wind gusts almost knocked me over several times!
Flags were whipping around, most people were bundled up and my hat flew off twice. As you can see in the next photo, it’s Ash Wednesday.
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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 Twitter!
It’s a breezy and drizzly New Year’s Day in San Diego. But a visit to Balboa Park proved to be just as wonderful as ever!
I was surprised that a few museums were open. Several studios in Spanish Village were also open. And, of course, there was the reliable two o’clock Sunday concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, where, due to the threat of rain, audience members got to sit right up close to the guest organist on stage!
The photo captions describe what I experienced…
Not the usual Sunday crowd on El Prado, but still pretty busy.Roger, a regular Balboa Park busker, somehow managed to escape again!Leaves and puddles in front of a colorful Spanish Village studio.Gallery 21 was open. The 26th Annual Exhibition of 7 Printmakers continues through tomorrow, January 2, 2023. (I’ll be blogging about it shortly.)I was greeted by a smile in Studio 9. Glass bottles were being converted into cool wind chimes!A videographer records a street musician on El Prado.The Palisades part of Balboa Park was unusually quiet on New Year’s Day.Color in a tree and on the grass is a reminder that winter has arrived in San Diego.Guest organist Jeobon Hwang rehearses before the Sunday afternoon Spreckels Organ concert.Jaebon Hwang, organist at First United Methodist Church of San Diego, comes on stage.I got to sit up close. The mighty Spreckels Organ thundered music directly into my bones!Some people listening on the benches have umbrellas at the ready.A flawless performance of classical music by one of San Diego’s outstanding organists!
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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 Twitter!
The green grumpy Grinch was spotted in the rain this morning stringing Christmas lights in downtown San Diego! Riders of the trolley had to look twice as they rolled down C Street between Brooklyn Pizzeria and Coal Bros Taqueria!
It seems the grim grouchy Grinch has finally seen the light!
This fun artwork is by Ground Floor Murals–that young artist couple who’ve painted all those awesome Padres murals around San Diego!
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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 Twitter!
You might remember a few photographs I took of buildings reflected in puddles. I posted those last month, after downtown San Diego had experienced a night of rain.
Looking into those silver puddles was almost like peering into a strange, bright world just beyond our own. To see those photos again, you can click here.
Well, during my walk among those magic puddles a seed was planted.
That seed germinated, grew, broke through, has blossomed.
If you’d like to read my newly completed short story, which I titled The Shining World, click here.
Late this morning I walked through Balboa Park before another storm hits this evening. We’re between winter storms.
It was very quiet. When I departed shortly after noon, a few more people were trickling into the park, but it’s winter, rain’s coming, and we’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I did buy some snacks at the Japanese Friendship Garden and San Diego Air and Space Museum gift shops which were open. The museums are suffering during the pandemic like almost everyone else. They appreciate whatever help they can get.
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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!
Last night it rained. This afternoon the winter storm arrives in earnest. It will be raining on and off in San Diego for most of the week.
This morning I walked from Cortez Hill to Golden Hill and back. As I moved through downtown, I noticed interesting reflections in the sidewalk puddles.
Whenever I found a good rain puddle, I peered through the shining, magical portal and glimpsed fragments of a mysterious city…
I have lots of cool (and unusual) photos from my Golden Hill walk coming up, so stay tuned!
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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!
The new pedestrian plaza in Balboa Park’s South Palisades area is almost ready!
I noticed during my walk today that tables and colorful umbrellas have been placed around the new plaza’s perimeter. Remove that yellow tape, exchange sunshine for a drizzly afternoon, and I bet life immediately flows in.
The nearby San Diego Automotive Museum is also looking great with a fresh coat of paint!
We’re nearing Thanksgiving, a time for gathering. Unfortunately with the coming of cooler weather, the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening in many parts of the world. Because of the growing rate of infection in San Diego, it seems likely most of Balboa Park’s museums will be forced to close again.
On this overcast, rainy November day, very few people were about. But a day will come when smiling crowds gather again in one of the world’s most amazing city parks. And it will be more beautiful than ever.
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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!
Today I walked through a small section of Mira Mesa. I was on a mission to check out a cool sculpture I’d read about that stands in front of a fire station.
As I walked west along Hillery Drive from the Miramar College Transit Station, I observed what at first glance appeared like a scrubby vacant lot behind a fence. When I came to the corner of Hillery Drive and Black Mountain Road, a sign on the fence informed me that I was looking at an area of special environmental importance–a unique nature preserve!
I was walking right next to the Miramar College Vernal Pools.
Here’s a little information provided by three signs that I read:
This plot of land was originally leased to the Navy in 1931 and called Linda Vista Mesa Field, or Hourglass Field because of its distinctive shape. It was part of Camp Kearny, which was located on the site of the current Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. This field was used by the Army and Navy for dive bombing practice and emergency landings.
From 1957 to 1959, the field was used as a sports car racecourse, and from the 1970’s to 2008 what remained of the old runway was used for law enforcement training and nicknamed The Grinder.
The protected field now contains many seasonal vernal pools–a very rare type of wetland. Shallow vernal pools are wet during the rainy season–particularly in spring–then quickly turn to mud and dry out. Because of this unusual environment, a number of rare and endemic species live in vernal pool areas. In addition to teeming microscopic life and small crustaceans like the fairy shrimp, there are frogs, snakes, birds and mammals. More than 200 plant species thrive in and around vernal pools, including annual wildflowers.
One sign indicates the Miramar College Vernal Pools’ interpretive trails are open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 10:30 pm. Unfortunately, I walked by on a Saturday and had to observe this natural area from behind the surrounding fence.
If you want to read the signs, click my photos and they will enlarge.
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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! 