Another walk. This time, in the rain, stoned.

Special brownies.



I've eaten, like, 75% of a whole pan. Guy's out of town again. I went to school this morning (I'm taking 'Summer Vegetables'--today we looked at Fabiaceae and Curcurbitaceae. Then I came home and, ahem, had lunch and gardened for a bit. Now, I want to go for a walk.

Outside, this is the first thing that catches my eye.



It's not like I know where I'm going to go when I go for a walk. I just look for something interesting and let it string me a long. From halfway down the block, this is what attracts my attention.

And off we go.





(It occurs to me that if I was a really tacky smoker, I might stub out my cigarette out in this planter. File that away as character resource material for the novel...)

A Fremontodendron against a north facing wall. Interesting.



Must remember to come back for this over the next several months. Fremontia want full sun. Full, hot sun, in nutrient poor soil. A signature plant of the American west.



So far this year, northern exposure promotes lusher growth and fewer flowers. We'll see another one later on.

The house isn't leaning, I am.



I really feel a gardener's spirit in this yard. Not my spirit, but a kindred one I feel love for.



This yard has a white picket fence (Stone walls or white picket fences are the only ways to go.) The flower's leaning on the fence like a bored kid or an eager puppy. Let me out! (Behind it is Melianthus major, Honeybush. Looks really good in Los Angeles!)



















Interesting, tiny house.



It's good to have your car match the trim.



(I'm kidding.)

Double parking to get coffee.



This is the main drag in Bernal Heights, Cortland Street.



When I first moved to San Francisco in 1989, I volunteered for the Shanti Project, an HIV/AIDS support organization. I had a client on Cortland Street. Shanti volunteers provided practical support to people living with AIDS. That is, I cleaned people's houses, did their laundry, picked up groceries, etc, etc, when they couldn't do it anymore. I learned a lot of important lessons doing that every week for two years as a 19-year-old college drop-out. (Certainly more than I would have been learning in college.)

A lot of my clients were end-stage sick. I saw a lot of that up close. I also saw people go from apparent health and vigor to weakness and waste in weeks. I didn't see a lot family around. Not in 1989.

Life is precious, in many, many ways.

Anyhow, we're on Cortland Street because I just picked up a double espresso and now we're going to the video store. If I'm going to be stoned on pot brownies all night, I need a movie.



Inside, they're playing Golden Girls! Woo, woo! (No--I'm not a huge Golden Girls fan. Well, I like it as much as the next living breathing human being; I'm hooting to be in the spirit of things. And who doesn't love Betty White? No friend of mine, that's for sure.)

When Guy and I get kittens after the kitchen remodel, we're getting two girls, and we're naming them Betty and Doris [Day]. We decided that last week at the wine bar.



I get A Scanner Darkly.





At night, she's a wine bar serving wine. In the morning, she's a bakery serving bread.













Enough of the main drag. Back in to the 'hood.



Cymbidium.





Virused.











Eucalyptus sideroxylon. I never noticed these trees have the same architecture before.





"California."



Parietaria judaica, spreading pellitory, judean pellitory. From the Urticaceae, the nettle family. Terribly weedy. A recent arrival to San Francisco, I'm told.





Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae). That will become a nice small tree there.



"Two-ply JUMBOTEX"



This shot gives me the giggles right now:



That other, full-sun Fremontodendron.





Geraniums are the perfect plant to complement this era of architecture.























Yellow mimulus coming through white picket fence. More kindred gardening spirit.







Lagerstroemia alternating with Maytenus boaria.

At this point, the rain is starting to come down.

Gotta go!