Some (vintage) April Foolery

I smell skunk.

That's all.

Spring fever

I just could not stay at work today. So I left at two.

Here we are in the community garden on the other side of my neighborhood.



Well, technically I guess that means we're in a different neighborhood. It's still called Bernal Heights, but this is in the northeast side. Northeast Bernal Heights. We might as well be in a different neighborhood.

Bernal has four community gardens that I can think of, but only two are picture-worthy. And, frankly, while this one is more established and more people garden here, mine is better. (It just is.)

Getting on with things, we have another Echium. This is Echium piniana. You see lots of Echium on this blog because there is lots of Echium in San Francisco.





(Who are they trying to convince?)

Always a popular sign in San Francisco:



This community garden has much better stairs than mine! Not fair. Someone here must have better connections in City Hall.



It's the time of year for calla and euphorbia.



This garden demonstrates just how much you can grow in part-shade. Most of this garden is quite shady.







Funny, my tulips haven't even begun, but these are very nearly over.



I love legume flowers.



The garden story of 2007, bees!



A bee movie.



Okay, I'm bored. Let's see the neighborhood.



Um, okay.





This one looks like metal.



Lots of public stairs over here.









They knock down a lot of old houses on this side of the hill and put up these.



What do you think about that?











I think this is beautiful:













Acanthus and fennel.





It not San Francisco without a hippy van.







I snapped this picture when I was driving by. Narrow house!



But I wanted to end with another echium.



You rarely see it pruned up like this.

Why do I like this picture so much?

(From the last post)



I like this picture because it really tells you something about San Francisco. What do the French say? "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." (Aplogies to Delphine and my high school French teacher: I'm too lazy to go looking for the accent marks.)

My neighborhood has changed enormously in the last several years. This picture could be an emblem of its past. Where was it taken?

I set the camera on the fence here, and pointed it into the yard the fence encloses...



The yard belongs to this building...



Which is someone's little holly roller church.



Do you think the pastor sleeps in the van? Cooks his breakfast on the grill?

This little church is quite literally around the corner from my house. Frequent visitors can probably intuit what kind of neighborhood I live in from the many pictures I've shown on my blog. As the future rolls in, things are trending inexorably...nicer. Without really trying, I end up showing you scenes of many things that are fading away. That's because I blog what I'm drawn to.

Maybe you can imagine what kinds of conversations people in Bernal Heights have when they talk about living here. I don't have any big judgments to make. The changes going on are much bigger than me. I just think it's funny that no matter how nice it gets, there's still a certain weediness just behind the fence.

What's the blue-flowering plant in the hanging basket?

A walk around the neighborhood.

Bernal Heights, San Francisco. March 24, 2007