The California Box Thorn might appear scraggly and unremarkable, but it helps protect the bluffs of beautiful Sunset Cliffs from erosion.
Several of these plants are protected at the north end of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in Point Loma. A nearby sign explains how the California Box Thorn (Lycium californicum) is native to the coasts and islands of Southern California.
If the shrub looks dead, it probably isn’t. It’s simply dry. After a rain, the tiny leaves turn green and you might notice white bell-shaped flowers and red berries. Birds love the berries!
It’s summer. The protected plants that I photographed are green and obviously watered.
If you’d like to become one of the Friends of Sunset Cliffs, check out my final photograph of information in the nearby kiosk. You’ll see an email address.
And yes, Sunset Cliffs with its rugged sandstone bluffs is one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in San Diego!
…
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.
Would you like to win a beautiful handmade quilt? You have that chance if you enter the raffle at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park!
A colorful community quilt was made with the help of volunteers, visitors, and California State Park staff, who sewed together a checkerboard of different patches, including many that are hand illustrated. The quilt will be raffled on the Fourth of July. (A variety of fun outdoor activities will be enjoyed by park visitors on Independence Day, too!)
You can view the quilt inside the park’s Robinson-Rose House Visitor Center, which is where you purchase the raffle tickets. One dollar buys a single ticket; five dollars gets you six tickets.
It appeared to me today that people have a decent chance to win this amazing quilt. The small glass jar containing tickets was perhaps a quarter full.
The cool thing is proceeds from the raffle will help fund the activities of the volunteers at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park!
…
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.
The 2025 San Diego County Fair has a theme that’s close to the heart. It’s all about beloved pets.
Not surprisingly, a variety of non-profit organizations centered around animals are present at the big summer event in Del Mar. I stumbled upon several of these organizations. I’d like to draw your attention to what good people (and animals) are doing in their community.
The above dog and the next photograph represent an organization in Baja California, Mexico. La Manada Feliz rescues animals and provides them with a better life with loving people. Here’s their website.
La Manada Feliz operates a cage-free sanctuary where rescued dogs can receive medical care, learn social skills and heal. Their website says: Help us achieve our mission by adopting, supporting as a guardian and/or volunteering at our dog sanctuary in Valle de Guadalupe.
Next up, San Diego Spaniel Rescue does exactly what its name says. They are an all volunteer based non-profit organization dedicated to providing breed education, rescue, fostering, medical and adoption services for abused, abandoned and/or homeless Cocker Spaniels.
If you’d like to help them or would like to adopt a rescued spaniel, you can go to their website here.
More good work and smiles can be found at Pug Rescue San Diego County.
Here’s their website. Pug Rescue of San Diego County (PRSDC) is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing unwanted, neglected, abandoned, and relinquished Pugs and placing them into a new permanent home where they may live out their lives in a loving and caring environment.
Check out the friendly dogs in my next photo! They are part of Pawsitive Teams!
Pawsitive Teams was founded in 1997 with a desire to be a volunteer-inspired and volunteer-run organization designed to promote the use of well-trained dogs to improve the lives of San Diegans. Our volunteer service dog trainers spend two years with their canine charges prior to placement with individuals with limited mobility who can benefit from the skills of our specially trained dogs. Our therapy dog program is overseen by a steering committee of volunteers dedicated to using therapy dogs with a variety of populations such as at-risk teens, active-duty military, children testifying in court, and those with mobility or developmental disabilities. Our mission with the therapy dogs is to partner with community organizations and work together with professionals in accomplishing client-related goals.
To learn more, check out the Pawsitive Teams website by clicking here.
Need I say the San Diego Humane Society does many wonderful things for animals in our community? They were at the San Diego County Fair, too, encouraging people to adopt a loving pet. Not just dogs!
Find your fur-ever friend today!
There are many ways that you can help their good work. Here’s their website.
…
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.
If you maintain a garden in San Diego, or would love to learn more about plants or gardening, you need to know about a very special library that is open to the public in Balboa Park. The San Diego Floral Association Library, located in Room 105 of the Casa del Prado, contains over 3,500 books filled with horticultural and gardening knowledge!
The San Diego Floral Association Library and Office is located down a short hallway beyond Balboa Park’s Senior Lounge. On a table just outside its entrance, one comes across an informative bulletin board and a table covered with all sorts of free printed material. I once was lucky and found the book-like California Garden Centennial Compilation 1909-2009, which is jam-packed with San Diego history and articles from past decades–a real treasure!
The San Diego Floral Association is home of California Garden magazine. It is the oldest horticulture magazine in continuous publication in the United States!
Inside the library you’ll find shelves full of books and valuable references. You’ll also see walls covered with beautiful paintings!
Looking around, I recognized several images of Kate Sessions, one of the San Diego Floral Association’s founders. Because she was instrumental in making Balboa Park a botanical wonder, she is commonly referred to as Mother of Balboa Park. (The book The Complete Writings of Kate Sessions in California Garden is also available for purchase. It would make a great gift!)
The smiling lady with whom I spoke was so very welcoming. She explained how the San Diego Floral Association hosts many fun and educational events, plus they have a gardening outreach program with San Diego schools.
If you are so inclined, become a member! Perhaps assist their efforts and volunteer! Members have the privilege of checking out library books for home use.
To see everything they have to offer, I encourage you to visit the San Diego Floral Association’s website by clicking here.
…
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.
Will you join these smiling young ladies and help the Santee Food Bank?
During my visit to the Santee Street Fair today, I learned that the Santee Food Bank could use your assistance fighting hunger. They’d love to welcome new volunteers, contributions of food, and reusable plastic bags that can be filled with food for distribution in the Santee community.
If you have it in your heart, please visit the Santee Food Bank website by clicking here.
Life is tough enough. Imagine going to bed hungry.
Your contributions–even modest ones–directly help people. Those people might be your neighbors.
…
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.
This morning the Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park was filled with activity. The City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department and volunteers belonging to the Balboa Park Garden Stewards were planting hundreds of flowers!
The new flowers will fill the garden’s large beds in time for summer and Memorial Day weekend!
Thank you to everyone with sore backs and dirty knees for making San Diego’s crown jewel even more beautiful!
…
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.
Perhaps you’d like to join Balboa Park’s volunteer Rose Garden Corps. You’ll help beautify the world-class Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden!
I saw a small army of volunteers today in the rose garden, pruning, weeding, raking and fertilizing, while enjoying the San Diego sunshine. Rose Garden Corps members work Tuesdays or Thursday in the morning, and there is a monthly meeting.
If you think you’d like to join the Rose Garden Corps, check out this webpage to learn all about it!
Incidentally, the rose garden is in peak bloom right now. It’s spectacular!
…
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.
One way to perform an “Egyptian walk” in San Diego? Become a volunteer at the Maritime Museum of San Diego and help carry a tall ship’s long mast or yard!
Today the lateen yard was being removed by a small army of volunteers from the museum’s Spanish galleon replica San Salvador. The ship will be heading down to Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista to be lifted out of the water for the periodic hull cleaning and inspection. Removing the yard is necessary before this operation.
A line of people, walking in unison, with arms bent or extended as they hold up a heavy spar does appear a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphics. One of the volunteers called what you see in my photographs an Egyptian walk!
(No, that popular song by The Bangles wasn’t playing in the background.)
…
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.
If you read this in time, you might head down to Balboa Park to enjoy San Diego EarthFest. The big environmental festival is being held on the grass near Park Boulevard and Presidents Way today–Saturday, April 19, 2025–until 5 pm.
Numerous organizations are present, providing education and volunteering opportunities to those who want to help protect our environment.
This the third year of EarthFest, not to be confused with the gigantic EarthFair that filled the entire park years ago. A smaller space, but still numerous participants! Non-profit organizations are joined by food trucks, artists, and vendors. There are several stages offering entertainment and education.
Because it’s mid-afternoon as I type this, I’ll quickly share these photographs. That might give you time to head on down!
“May the Fourth” be with blood donors in San Diego!
The Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park will be hosting a May the 4th Blood Drive, in partnership with the San Diego Blood Bank. The event will take place at the museum from 10 am to 4 pm.
Not only will this event include awesome Star Wars cosplay by local fan groups, but donors will get a free Comic-Con Museum ticket and a coupon for a complimentary Soapy Joe’s car wash!
The San Diego Blood Bank could really use your life-saving donation. You can schedule an appointment here. Walk-ins are also welcome!
…
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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 