Santa Monica Beach and the JP Getty Villa

After the big day at the Huntington Gardens yesterday, we visited the JP Getty Villa. The Villa was built to house the Getty collection of Antiquities, and have it available to the public. JP Getty did not see this building, he died in England two years after the building opened to the public.

A trust was set up to manage the villa and its collections and access for the public was to remain free. Of course, as buildings, collections, and administration use up funds, it was decided to charge for parking: all of $15 per day.  But I am ahead of myself; our 'parking' permit was to start at 10am, and we had some time to kill.

We drove to Santa Monica Beach, which was on the way. Here is a quick view of this very large and amazing beach. The pier you see has a ferris wheel and other popular amusement facilities. The beach seems to have paved paths for joggers, bicyclists, and others, as well as Beach Volleyball courts, Beach Soccer pitches, and similar facilities.

We stayed near the road and walked a well maintained path along the cliff.

I thought it strange that this path would sport a No Smoking sign along the long line of palms leaning towards the sea.

Further down the path, we could oversee these accommodations for the wealthy, right on the beach.

A ten minute drive later, we arrived at the Villa. Here are Kathleen and Phillip examining a display of 2000 year old survivors from the ravages of time.

The Villa has many courtyards, gardens, dramatic porches and such. Here is the formal garden in the main courtyard. Of course, statues and sculptures are everywhere.

This statue is in front of an opaque piece of onyx that serves as a window to let natural light enter the room.  Quite spectacular.

Most rooms and halls had distinctive floors, all patterned after floors found in Herculaneum and Pompeii; both cities being buried under ash when the volcano Vesuvius blew its head off in 79 AD., only to be re-discovered and excavated about a hundred years ago.

This is the hero of this Villa: Hercules with his club and the pelt of a nemean lion that he killed and skinned. Since the skin was impervious to human weapons, Hercules carried it with him as protection.

Here is the hapless lion skin.

This next shot is of an outside terrace that I found particularly beautiful. The columns on the left open to an outside courtyard. The left side wall is hand painted to replicate the painted walls of an actual house buried by Vesuvius.

This hall is at right angle to the previous. I thought it was a good representation of a diminishing point of perspective.  Neat or what.

Of course, while others were blown away by the artifacts, I was stunned by these halls...

It has been a long day, capped by an uneventful but pleasant two hour trip back to San Diego, and we are all slipping into various degrees of relaxation.  I think I'll join them...

Huntington Gardens, the European Museum

Today we visited the Huntington Gardens in Los Angeles. These pictures were made in the Huntington residence and show a few pieces of art spread around a splendiferous seasonal house of the very rich.

When you enter, this is the first room: a magnificent salon with built in bookshelves filled with special editions, likely first editions, of many English language classics. It was like walking into an European furniture collector's salon. The tapestries were from the 1700's, as was most of the furniture. One felt very small in this very large room.

The built in bookcases were on every wall, and contained beautifully bound books. A treasure trove of English literature.

As some of you might remember, I love staircases; this statue is framed by columns and has a background of painted panels with a very interesting staircase.

Here's a view of the matching staircase to the right.

This may originally been a large ballroom, now it is the home of many famous paintings.

Blue Boy was bought by the Huntington's for a paltry $700,000. The largest amount ever paid for a painting at the time. It just happens that Blue Boy has a special meaning for me.

When I was in grade 1, my teacher suggested that I go visit her fiancé's parents who lived a few blocks away from our house in the west end of Ottawa. I did, they offered milk and cookies, and I sat in their small sitting room where they had a large copy of Blue Boy on the wall. It was quite likely the first piece of art that I noticed and paid attention to, at six years of age.  My Mother and Mrs. C became fast friends, a friendship that lasted until I attended University when Mrs. C died.   But I digress... Here's Blue Boy.

There are many paintings and sculptures in the Huntington house, this next one is just a sample.

The gardens were also spectacular, and maybe some pictures will follow in a few days. It was a very pleasant but long day and everyone else is sawing logs, so I think I'll join them.

Tomorrow, we go to the Getty Villa, to see more artistic treasures.  What fun!

Orchid Odyssey at the Zoo

The third Friday of the month, the orchid greenhouse is open to the public.  We missed the last orchid odyssey due to heavy rains. Today was to be our last chance.

This first orchid is one of my favourites, Oncidium Kalihi, a cross of two Oncidium species. The flower is about 6 inches high and this particular plant is absolutely stunning.

Since it is a 'cross' or hybrid, it really does not belong in this facility, but it was a gift from another orchid museum and it has joined this collection of confiscated orchids.

All the other orchids here have been confiscated at the border since they are on the CITES list of endangered orchids that can not be exported from their country of origin.  This zoo facility houses all these confiscated orchids, and they can't do anything that would create a profit from these orchids.  None can be sold, propagated for sale, nor can the seed be used for any commercial purposes.  This effectively means the plants are kept until they die.  If they multiply naturally, all will be kept alive until they die.

As usual, Joan and I have been very lucky when visiting: we end up witnessing unusual events wherever we go. 

This plant blooms almost every month. Yesterday, this plant only had buds.  Today, it is in glorious bloom.  Tomorrow, the flowers will be gone. How lucky is that?

Lady Slippers seem to be favourites to steal, so this facility has an extensive collection of these types of orchids.

I'm not sure what kind this is, but it still is quite spectacular.

This next one is a little Masdevalia species, about 3" high. 

And this is a white species of Masdevalia. , about 2.5" high.

This is an over view of one corner of the greenhouse.

Nearby, on our way out, we saw these two quite attractive Serval cats. Don't forget you can click on picture to see larger.

And lastly, just because it is near the entrance, this large male orangoutang was not only active but seemed to be using a stick to collect stuff off the wall.

Lastly, here's a view of Mission Beach today; there is a high wind warning, and a flooding warning for tonight. The waves might even be better tomorrow...

The World Famous San Diego Zoo

Any day at this 'world famous' zoo is a day well spent.  Really, really well spent.  

Here is a Saddlebill Stork, a very large bird with a most appropriate name.

As far as appropriate names go, this red tailed monkey is on the winners list also.

This is likely a mouth that only a hippopotamus might relish.   ... hard to imagine as that may be.

Here are two hippopotamuses [it passed the spell check!] just at the water surface. 

The exhibit was apparently closed when we arrived, but they opened it just as we arrived. Karma or what? The hippopotamus in the background just surfaced and flicked his ears causing that little splash of water at the top left of the picture.

We saw this fishing cat [I am not sure of his title or name] a few years ago, and we were blown back by the intense smell.  This time the cat was not in season, and it smelled just fine.  It still paced a lot and Joan and I both feel it is not a very happy camper.

Same cat, different view. It is a medium sized 'big cat'.

The zoo is particularly natural. You really are walking through a rain forest, a jungle or a desert as you walk from one display to the next.  As I mentioned before, you would be hard pressed to see the zoo from above: it would just look like a forest. All this to say, there is some wildlife to be found in strange places if you look for it.  

This is a fist sized bunny rabbit [how is that for a scientific name?] between the hippototami and the viewing wall. Just a little bunny eating quietly beside the nearby predators that would be delighted with fresh meat.  Cute or what?

We stopped for lunch at Albert's Restaurant where this next shot was made: a small waterfall behind some palm fronds. Great ambiance for Valentine's day.

On the way back to the exit, we stopped into the orangoutang exhibit for a while.  These guys are rarely overactive, but always interesting.

Here is Dad, doing what he seems to do best.

Next is Junior, a mischievous little guy who is always interesting to watch. I think he is up to no good, and seems to be planning some mischief or other... [click picture to see larger]

Mom is more serious and seems to be contemplating the meaning of life.

With some time left, Joan and I dropped in at the hummingbird house. With help, we spotted this hummingbird nest with two eggs in it.  According to the docent, the eggs are unfertilized since there isn't an appropriate male hummingbird in this house.

Here is Mom sitting on the nest.  Keep in mind, this nest is just a little more than an inch in size.

And finally, here is another hummingbird, likely a different species from the Mom, on a nearby twig.

While I normally do not agree with putting animals in cages, the San Diego Zoo is different: the animals have the superior land and space. 

While the tourists have comfortable and safe areas to walk,  this Zoo is definitely about the animals, and their comfort and safety to live in. The zoo has many breeding programs to save and multiply animals that are endangered, and has been very successful in re-introducing rare animals to their native homes.

Wild Animal Park: the Gardens

Friday was warm and sunny, a good day to revisit the Wild Animal Park. It is about 20 miles north of here, and we wanted to see some of their many gardens.

But first, here is one of the lizard 'ambassadors' being shown off near the entrance. While gentle, he was fairly quick moving, hence the harness. Imagine walking behind this little guy in your own neighbourhood.

One of the gardens displayed bonsai maintained by the local Bonsai Club. Here are a few samples of the fifty or so on display.

Very few bonsai were taller than two feet or so, and all had very shallow pots. The training of limbs, pruning and watering of these plants require skill and near constant attention. The bonsai follow the seasons so deciduous tree are still leafless at this time of year.

The next picture highlights the change of wood colour when some limbs die off, but still remain part of the bonsai.  It was very dramatic to see.

This next one looks like a dead forrest, but I suspect it is just hibernating.

As we walked along the path through the succulent gardens, Joan spotted this little female hummingbird, sitting on her nest.  What an incredible find!

The hummingbird was on an opuntia plant, about seven feet off the ground. Empty, the one inch nest looked just like another growth on the plant. Occupied, there was just a small head, beak, and tail visible, and only if you knew exactly where to look.

I can not pass by the tigers without a shot or two.

This next shot is of just a small part of the large and varied tiger area. I think this area holds about 6 tigers.  They have the run of the land but seem to congregate near each other for their afternoon nap.
Each time we visited, we saw most of them fairly easily.

We walked through this bamboo tunnel that was photographed for an earlier post. What was different this time is that this space was being misted while we walked through.  It turns out that many areas of this park are misted fairly often.  The mist provided immediate cooling and much needed humidity for some of the plants and animals, and in some cases, for the visitors.

For me, the attraction was the 'God rays'...