"City Scapes and Public Places"

That's the name of the San Francisco City Guides walking tour I took today.

"City Guides got [their] start more than 25 years ago when a San Francisco mayor asked the city librarian to find volunteers to give tours in City Hall."

Today, City Guides offers walking dozens of different walking tours all over San Francisco "focus[ing] on the architecture, history, legends, and lore".

The best part? All tours are free. (Donations accepted.)

That's pretty cool because tourism in San Francisco is not cheap. Tickets for comparable commercial tours would easily start at $30.

Today, we're going to "discover hidden parks, rooftop gardens, and other delights while experiencing some of the colorful history and distinctive old architecture of San Francisco's financial district."

And why not. San Francisco's getting all tricked out for the holidays.





The roof garden at Montgomery and Market. I've always wondered how to get up here. The entrance is through the Galleria next door.







Coleonema album, Rutaceae. I like this plant. The foliage has a spicy fragrance.



You can get a good view of the Palace Hotel from up here--formerly the Palace Sheraton. I'm going to take the City Guides tour of that too.



And you can see this building...



which is built entirely around this smaller building...



and I've never noticed that before although I've walked right past it hundreds of times.

Moving on...



I didn't know Evel Knievel died today when I took these pictures of motorcycles.







The address is One Sansome Street.



(The tree is actually crooked, not the photographer.)



And this is Star Girl.





I was too busy taking pictures to pay attention to the historical narrative, or even to pay attention to where we were exactly. The guide took us into dozens of public buildings I never imagined entering by myself. I took a lot of pictures, including stuff that had nothing to do with the tour.



San Francisco has amazing old banks with incredible features and flourishes. Unfortunately, they don't want you taking pictures.



And many of the pictures I took anyway were too blurry to use. Heh, heh. But this one's okay.



The tour was full of interesting nuggets. Seriously. This is a "money museum" in the basement of an old bank.



And these are some relics from a pre-1906 apothecary shop found during a building excavation some years ago.





More roof garden action.



Every once in awhile you catch a little glimpse of the bay between the buildings.



And I learned these statues (which I like, but which many consider tacky) are made out of styrofoam so that if they fall, hopefully noone will die.





This is the Bank of America building.



You might know the Transamerica Pyramid...



But did you know there's a garden of redwood trees next to it?



With a fountain.









And I like plantings like this, with the redacted hardscape.



This was the last stop on the tour, but I'll end with this short clip of a mesmerizing fountain in one of the buildings we buzzed through.

Vegetable gardening, Honolulu style

There's a big community garden next to the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu.



Apparently, maintaining your garden plot is vital. Guy loved this sign; he wanted to move here and be in charge of it.



At first I thought this was a little over the top. But after I thought about it, I realized the growing season is 365 days long in Hawaii. If you don't stay on top of the garden chores, things could get out of control pretty fast.

Let's take a look at what people are growing.

















Ah, I grow this in my garden.



'African Blue' basil. Do you grow this too?



Ordinary basil, Ocimum basilicum, is an warm season annual that likes a little more warmth than San Francisco summers have to offer. It will grow here, but a lot of people grow this hybrid perennial instead, or as a supplement. In addition to potager service, it has showy flowers that attract bees. (I actually have a variegated form.)





So that's community gardening Honolulu. Let's now turn to home gardening. Guy's nephew's sister-in-law and her husband own a house in a very prim and trim development on Oahu's western side. They have a small garden, and grow some vegetables. (His name is Dave, so you could say this is, wait for it, Dave's garden!)



Seems like an innocent enough little garden, doesn't it? Well, it's illegal! Their neighborhood association forbids vegetable gardening! I can't imagine why. Produce in Hawaiian markets, shipped from the mainland United States, or wherever else, is expensive and shabby. Banning vegetable gardening seems downright un-American to me.









This pepper plant volunteered.





And this is papaya. Papaya with lemon juice is my favorite Hawaiian breakfast.