Walk in the Park and the Shade House

A few days ago, we took Maverick for a walk in Mission Hill Park where there were many interesting things to experience. As you might have noticed, I enjoy arches a lot. Here are Kathleen and Maverick taking a breather after a fairly long trail walk.

A closer look at our hosts and their attack dog [not!] Maverick.

Joan joins them for a walk on the Terrace with more beautiful arches.

I also like benches with a view...

Eucalyptus trees were brought to California from Australia as a fast growing source of wood. It's taken well to its new country and has prospered to the point of almost taking over. They are interesting trees that shed their bark to reveal interesting patterns that often have serious colour. The bigger Eucalyptus trees are very majestic and often line both sides of major avenues.

This is one of the bigger ones in the park.

Here's a hedge of blooming succulents that is over six foot tall. At home, these succulents are grown in pots and rarely grow more than a foot or so before they become straggly enough to get rid of...

The next day we revisited Balboa Park, this time to go to the large shade house. I'm pretty sure this shade house was built for the world fair almost a century ago. What a wonderful old building, where they have areas for temporary displays as well as permanent larger plants.

This is looking Westward.

And this is looking at the East side. The lady at the back was sketching a blooming begonia with its intricate branches and smallish flowers. Looking over her shoulder, I saw that the result would be a very decent, detailed rendition of an otherwise un-noticed plant. Well done!

The lack of crowds in these pictures does not accurately reflect reality: at times, private groups hovered over the interesting plants, cameras and cell phones casting shadows on their subjects. At other times, classes of children or teens were marshalled through in chaos, wishing they were elsewhere.

Here's a small Orchid display. [Remember that you can click on picture to enlarge]

Here's Joan grabbing a few San Diego rays, with a decent guitarist playing nearby. Note the interior plants escaping about half way up the shade house.

A better overview of half the shade house.

You might have noticed that every day is sunny in San Diego. That, friends, has been a very accurate description of what we have had to face every day, so far.

Wish we could share...