Have you ever planted a tree and realized it will probably outlive you?
That thought occurred to me a couple days ago as I helped to plant a few young oak trees in Balboa Park.
Yesterday, as I sat gazing out at San Diego Bay, I recalled how the larger oak trees in the grove had seemed so very . . . old. How they were bent and cast dark, spidery shadows. And a bittersweet story came to me.
It’s titled Dale’s Tree. There aren’t many words. I published it here.
Twenty five new oak trees were planted today in a very special place in Balboa Park!
Forever Balboa Park, trained Tree Stewards and dozens of volunteers gathered in the USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove to revitalize a historically important area of the park that’s a bit off the beaten path.
Perhaps you’ve driven down 26th Street from Golden Hill toward Naval Medical Center San Diego and seen many old oak trees off to your left. Those live oaks were planted in 1905 to memorialize 66 sailors who died in San Diego Bay when the boiler of the USS Bennington exploded.
As these coast live oaks have aged, some have died or approached the end of their life. Planting small new oak trees infuses new life and meaning into this truly special urban forest.
Walking along, camera in hand, I got “volunteered” to help plant three of the twenty five trees! Cool thing is, when I walk this way again, I’ll know that I and others have tangibly touched the future with these living trees. They will be growing more beautiful long after I’m gone.
If you’d like to become a volunteer Garden Steward or Tree Steward in beautiful Balboa Park, click here!
The planting of these 25 live oak trees in Balboa Park was the final phase of the 26th Street Trail park improvement project.
Last year members of the California Conservation Corps greatly improved the trail that leads up 26th Street to Golden Hill Park. The path, badly eroded in many places, was replaced with decomposed granite, and three new footbridges were built!
I walked up the trail to take some photos…
Lastly, thanks again to the Boy Scouts and sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who made their mark improving and beautifying the oak grove five years ago. If you’d like to see what they did, click here!
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Not far from the front entrance to the Hotel del Coronado grows a tree you might have seen in a classic movie.
It’s the Dragon Tree, which appears briefly in the 1958 comedy Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
Here’s a page on the Hotel Del’s website about the filming of Some Like it Hot. In the movie the world-famous Victorian beach resort is called the Seminole Ritz.
When I was walking around the Hotel del Coronado late last month, I noticed the unusual Dragon Tree and then a nearby plaque…
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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!
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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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!
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!
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!
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