Tag: trees

A philosophical short story for Arbor Day.

Wooden footbridge along 26th Street leads to a little-used trail through USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove in Balboa Park.

Today is Arbor Day. It’s a day when we think about the future and plant trees.

Early last year I published a very short story that mentions Arbor Day. Dale’s Tree is the title. You might enjoy this touching, slightly philosophical tale.

To read Dale’s Tree, click here.

Have an excellent weekend, and stay tuned for more photographs from walks all around San Diego!

(The above photograph was taken in Balboa Park, as I walked down a path from Golden Hill into the Bennington Memorial Oak Grove. The place inspired my story.)

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Spring blooms at Japanese Friendship Garden!

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.

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Help make Balboa Park more beautiful!

Would you like to help San Diego’s world-famous Balboa Park become even more beautiful? There are many volunteering opportunities for you to explore!

Today I spotted a bunch of volunteers picking up litter in the park. I learned from a friendly lady at the Forever Balboa Park canopy in the Plaza de Panama that a similar cleanup is scheduled for next weekend! Get your coworkers and friends involved!

I also learned an Arbor Day Tree Planting event that you can join is coming up! It will be on April 26th, from 9 am to 11 am.

Would you like to learn more? Check out the Forever Balboa Park volunteer web page here! And to remain informed, join their email list!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Art created from destructive Cedar Fire.

Some unusual art was recently moved onto the second floor of San Diego’s Central Library. Cedar Fire was created by local artist Timothy Murdoch in 2019.

The work is composed of collected burnt wood and house paint. Many communities throughout San Diego were affected by the historic, incredibly destructive Cedar Fire in 2003. The fire destroyed 2,820 buildings including 2,232 homes.

I still remember how all of San Diego County was disrupted as people coped with the fast moving, Santa Ana wind driven fire. I had to drive up Interstate 15 under a dark orange sky during the fire, and it seemed I was the only one on the freeway. It’s hard for me to believe that was over twenty years ago. Seems like yesterday.

Does this sculpture look familiar? Cedar Fire, part of the City of San Diego Art Collection, was previously displayed in the lobby of San Diego’s City Administration Building.

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

New plantings at Manchester Pacific Gateway plaza!

A new tree-filled, park-like space is coming to San Diego’s waterfront!

The Manchester Pacific Gateway project’s 1.9 acre plaza will be located west of the One Broadway Hotel, which is now in the early stages of construction. The sunny outdoor plaza will be open to the public, just across Harbor Drive from Broadway Pier.

A small army of workers was out today planting greenery in the new plaza. When completed, this popular stretch of the North Embarcadero should be even more inviting and beautiful!

The tall building you see in the background of my next photograph is one of five new buildings at the adjacent Research and Development District. I spotted more new public art at RaDD during today’s walk. I’ll be blogging about that shortly!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

A giant Balboa Park tree’s tiny beginning!

The giant Moreton Bay Fig tree just north of the San Diego Natural History Museum was not always so huge!

Years before any of us were born, this historic tree was planted in Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Visitors to the exposition might have viewed the tiny tree in one of the flower beds in a large formal garden. The garden stretched north of the Southern California Counties Building, which was later replaced by the Natural History Museum–the building visible in the above photograph.

I’ve found two images which show the young tree in the formal garden. Arrows have been added to mark the position of the small tree.

The first image is from a sign located under today’s Moreton Bay Fig, next to the observation platform. The second image is an old photograph–one of many century-old Balboa Park photographs that I posted here.

Did you know Balboa Park’s immense Moreton Bay Fig has a sister tree in National City? See my blog post concerning that here!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Downloadable maps of Balboa Park’s Australian Garden.

Three years ago I posted a blog titled Balboa Park’s hidden Australian Garden. You can read it here.

I’ve learned the San Diego Floral Association has downloadable maps of this large, little-known garden. The two maps show where different species of plants and trees (that were donated by the government of Australia for the United States Bicentennial) are planted.

Click here for a .pdf map of the Australian Garden’s lower area, which stretches along Paseo del Oro in Gold Gulch. There are different species of Acacia, Brachychiton, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Melaleuca, and many others.

For a map of the upper area, where you can observe more beautiful plants below Presidents Way, click here.

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Wetland restored at Cottonwood Creek in Encinitas.

Cottonwood Creek Park in Encinitas is a place to play, picnic, relax and enjoy nature. A beautiful walkway crosses over Cottonwood Creek and leads to leafy overlooks.

At one overlook, a sign lures inquisitive eyes. It describes how the nearby wetland was re-created, where for many years the water had been piped underground directly to the portion of the creek that lies west of the Pacific Coast Highway. The park and its restored wetland lie immediately east of Vulcan Avenue (a short distance east of Coast Highway 101).

The benefit of water filtration by plants (such as bulrushes and sedges) and plant litter (decomposing vegetation) is explained. Water that eventually flows into the ocean at Moonlight Beach is naturally cleaned of contaminants like heavy metals, nitrates and phosphorus.

The reclaimed riparian habitat also supports many native species. Trees, frogs and butterflies that benefit are depicted on a second sign.

To read more, enlarge the two sign images.

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

The Pompom Project in Civic Center Plaza!

Are those Christmas ornaments hanging from the trees in San Diego’s Civic Center Plaza? No! They are pom poms made of yarn!

The Pompom Project has decorated the Civic Center with many bright spheres of color. Artist Katie Ruiz and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego produced this cool installation with the help of the people of San Diego. A goal is to bring strangers together in our community.

This public art is a part of Creative City, a cultural planning project of the City of San Diego.

I took these photos during my downtown walk this morning…

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Free trees on Saturday in Balboa Park!

Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, holds a pine cone by the grass.

This Saturday, November 4, visitors to Balboa Park can pick up a free tree sapling to plant at home. The distribution of free trees is part of Forever Balboa Park’s two-day event Plant It Forward 2023: Growing Our Urban Forest.

Forever Balboa Park will be handing out 100 tree saplings in the Plaza de Panama from 9 am to noon. (First come first served, one sapling per household.) In the afternoon there will be a park cleanup that you can join, if you’d like.

Learn about the Plant It Forward event, the free trees and park cleanup by visiting this website. (You’ll also find videos about tree planting, choosing the appropriate tree, and more.)

Help grow San Diego’s urban forest! Plant your own shady, beautiful tree!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!