A number of unusual Christmas trees can be found atop the coastal bluffs in Carlsbad!
Today, Monday the 26th, is the official observed holiday for Christmas this year. I decided to jump on the Coaster train and enjoy a walk by the ocean.
I walked north along Carlsbad Boulevard (historic Highway 101) from a point near the Poinsettia train station all the way into Carlsbad Village. Imagine my surprise when I saw several of these trees, decorated profusely with dangling ornaments. Most of the windswept trees were dead, which perhaps made the placement of the colorful ornaments more meaningful.
I don’t visit Carlsbad that often, so I don’t know the story behind these trees. If you do, please leave a comment!
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Amazing views of San Diego can be enjoyed from the top of Grant Hill.
To the west lies downtown San Diego and its skyscrapers; to the northwest one can spy distant Point Loma; to the southwest the Coronado Bridge spans San Diego Bay, and boats can be seen as tiny dots in Glorietta Bay; to the south one can view Navy ships and much of South Bay; to the southeast rises distant San Miguel Mountain.
Today, after a long walk through Logan Heights and Sherman Heights, I turned east and moved into the Grant Hill neighborhood. There was a short steep climb up J Street to reach Grant Hill Neighborhood Park. It was a beautiful day with little haze, perfect for seeing almost to horizon–even over the Pacific Ocean. These photos resulted.
When I finally completed my exploration and walked back across the grass among the gigantic eucalyptus trees, someone was getting ready to fly a kite. It can be breezy atop Grant Hill!
Approaching Grant Hill Neighborhood Park from the west.Heading up a walking path, looking at giant eucalyptus trees atop Grant Hill.Several people were sitting on the park’s grass, enjoying the wide outdoors in the middle of a busy city.Downtown can be seen when turning back west. That’s J Street, which I climbed.Downtown San Diego seen from the top of Grant Hill.Turning a little to the left, there’s the Coronado Bridge!Coronado Bridge seen from the top of Grant Hill.A zoom photo shows Glorietta Bay and Coronado Shores buildings.A zoom photo over Coronado reveals distant Point Loma jutting into the Pacific Ocean.Walking down the Grant Hill Neighborhood Park path heading east.San Miguel Mountain seen from Grant Hill.I turned back west and passed this old tree in an interesting planter.Grant Hill Neighborhood Park is a beautiful grassy retreat in urban San Diego.
I have numerous photographs on my computer which I need to share!
Stay tuned in the next week or two for blog posts concerning Solana Beach, Cardiff, Escondido, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, and more!
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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!
Look at this inspirational public art in Vista! The metal sculpture, a large tree whose silver leaves shine brightly in the sunshine, is titled Aspire.
Look closely at the tree’s trunk. Several human figures reach up, their outspread arms transformed and branching, touching the blue sky.
Like a living tree, Aspire was grown by local artists Melissa Ralston and Robert Rochin.
The sculpture was placed in a newly created roundabout on the Paseo Santa Fe corridor a little over two years ago. You can view this wonderful artwork at the intersection of Santa Fe Avenue and Guajome Street.
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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!
About three years ago, a new Community Christmas Tree was planted in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park. It replaced a beloved old Christmas tree that still shines brightly in the memories of many. But over the decades that aging tree became overgrown, gangly and misshapen.
San Diego’s new Community Christmas Tree has grown considerably. It’s now large and shapely. You’d think it would be a part of December Nights this year.
No.
As you can see in my photos taken this morning, hours before December Nights will begin, the new Community Christmas Tree is half concealed behind vendor tents. No lights, no ornaments, nothing. All but forgotten, it appears.
Yesterday I spoke to a gentleman who was helping to supervise the setting up of December Nights, and he had absolutely no clue about the tree’s existence. Very sad.
You can see the original old tree, and how the new tree has grown, by clicking here.
That first Community Christmas Tree had a plaque near it, just within the fence. Here’s an old photo of it…
That plaque seems to have disappeared. What became of it, I don’t know. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can leave a comment.
Sad to say, but December Nights is about to open and you can barely see San Diego’s new Community Christmas Tree hidden behind a big white canopy…
UPDATE!
When I walked past two weeks later, I noticed a golden bow had appeared!
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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!
It’s easy to explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag. There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
Balboa Park is bustling with activity today, as an army of workers and volunteers prepares for December Nights, San Diego’s epic holiday festival that kicks off tomorrow afternoon!
In Room 101 of the Casa de Prado, I saw many smiling people busy decorating Christmas trees for this year’s Festival of Trees!
The Festival of Trees is a 50 year tradition that began in 1972, inaugurated by the San Diego Floral Association. Visitors to the Casa del Prado during December Nights will see dozens of beautifully decorated Christmas trees, sponsored by organizations throughout Balboa Park and San Diego.
It appears to me the Festival of Trees in 2022 will be just as spectacular as ever. It’s always a very popular family attraction during December Nights. Of course, admission is free!
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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!
It’s easy to explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag. There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
A thought-provoking sculpture can be found at Liberty Station in Point Loma. Created by San Diego artist Trevor Amery in 2021, the wood sculpture, Archive and Witness, stands in front of the Dick Laub NTC Command Center.
A nearby sign explains that Archive and Witness takes the form of…a fallen tree in a forest…Through…decomposition and decay, it…provides a home to animals and insects…The fallen tree is not the end of a life cycle; it is a transformation as well as a beginning…
The slab from the dead tree, whose tree rings represent a finished life, seems to pulse outward with abstract rings symbolizing future life. At least, that’s the way I see it.
It was interesting to read that artist Trevor Amery’s father was stationed at the old Naval Training Center San Diego here years ago. The human world, like a forest, is interconnected in surprising ways.
Archive and Witness stands where the Mingei International Museum’s Nikigator sculpture stood while that Balboa Park museum was undergoing its renovation a couple years ago.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
An important reforestation effort is underway at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
In recent years the critically endangered Torrey pine population has been reduced significantly by bark beetles, particularly in the park’s North Grove. So over 450 Torrey pine seedlings and 581 native shrubs grown in the nursery at the San Diego Safari Park are being planted in different locations around the Reserve.
You can read more about the project, an effort of California State Parks, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and the U.S. Forest Service, by clicking here.
I walked the loop of the Guy Fleming Trail yesterday, where visitors can see many of the dead Torrey pines. Among dead trees, clustered close to the ground, stand strange blue tubes. These plastic protectors shield growing trees and other plants from animals and drying winds.
Native shrubs that have also been planted, mostly above the west-facing bluffs facing the Pacific Ocean, include sea dahlia, jojoba, lanceleaf liveforever, fingertips (San Diego dudleya), lemonade berry, coast lilac, and San Diego mountain mahogany.
As I walked along, observing all those blue tubes, I paused to read signs that explain how bark beetles kill the rare and beautiful Torrey pine. This tree’s natural protection against beetle infestation is sap. During drought trees produce less sap than usual and become especially vulnerable.
Without sufficient water, trees cannot produce enough oleoresin, an oozy sap-substance, and one type of chemical defense that can flush beetles from trees…
Bark Beetle Trapping and Observation in Progress.
The Five-Spined Engraver Beetle is a native insect that survives by burrowing in the Torrey pine tree. During normal conditions, the pines will excrete sap to prevent beetles from laying eggs within the tree. The sap simultaneously protects the damaged bark from fungus and disease…
…The stacked black funnels that are seen on a dead Torrey pine contain a specialized chemical pheromone to attract and trap beetles…
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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 Clearing, André Derain, circa 1906. Oil on canvas.
The San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park has been invaded by wild beasts!
Les Fauves is French for Wild Beasts, and paintings by early 20th century artists known as the Fauves are running rampant in one amazing gallery!
These particular paintings are part of a wider exhibition titled Monet to Matisse: Impressionist Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation. I visited the San Diego Museum of Art back in May and blogged about the exhibition here.
During my visit yesterday, my docent friend Catherine took me through several of the museum galleries and explained how Impressionism evolved into Post-Impressionism and other avant-garde movements.
Fauvism was a modern movement that shocked art lovers in France between 1905 and 1908. It was led by Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.
Looking at these canvases, museum visitors can see how the Fauves loved strong contrasts, saturated colors and bold brush strokes producing abstract, often weirdly unexpected forms.
Trees can appear as gangly streaks of pure color. Thick smudges and dabs of paint create startling still life images and brilliant landscapes.
In a strange way the dreamlike effect is similar to the gauzy, delicate work of the Impressionists. The viewer feels the momentary impression of a place or object. But these particular dreams are quite vivid!
The more I looked at these unique works, the more I appreciated the artistry and visionary genius of the Wild Beasts.
Head down to the San Diego Museum of Art and experience this famous artwork with your own eyes!
Monet to Matisse: Impressionist Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation was to end in August, but it has been extended through October 10, 2022.
The Gulf, Henri Manguin, circa 1920. Oil on canvas.Still Life with Fish, Maurice de Vlaminck. Oil on canvas.View of Chatou, Maurice de Vlaminck, circa 1907. Oil on canvas.
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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 know why there are so many Jacaranda trees in San Diego? A century ago, horticulturist Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, planted hundreds of these colorful trees in the heart of our city. They are native to South America.
Twice a year–in Spring and Autumn–the striking lilac-blue blooms appear along city streets, adding their unique hue to sunny San Diego. Of course, they’re very messy trees, and you don’t want to park under them when the sticky flowers are dropping!
In 2000, Jacaranda mimosifolia was designated the official non-native tree of San Diego.
I walked from Cortez Hill to Little Italy this morning, and these photos represent a little of what I saw!
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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!
Would you like to have a beautiful, shady “street tree” planted in front of your home or building in San Diego?
There’s a city program called Free Tree SD that will plant a tree in the public right-of-way between your sidewalk and street, if arborists determine its a good spot with plenty of soil, and you promise to water the new tree for several years.
I just learned about this green program and thought some of you might be interested. Learn all the details on the City of San Diego website by clicking here!
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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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