Just to show you that I'm made of sterner stuff, we're going for a walk. Because I need a haircut. Today is even hotter than yesterday. When I came home for lunch the thermometer in the backyard said 100 degrees F.
It's later now, but it's still hot.
The barber is several blocks away. Off we go.
I believe this is Crataegus phaenopyrum syn. C. cordata.
It's beautiful this time of year, but then it gets something that looks like sooty mold and I try to avoid looking at it for several months until it goes dormant.
It's all over the place, as you can see in the background. This sign hangs in front of the neighborhood Italian restaurant. It used to be a beloved Hungarian sausage restaurant. But that was many years ago.
Some cultivar of Prunus serrulata that I don't know.
That must be the doorbell. How nice!
One of these days I'm going to do a post that's just all cars.
I'm not a car lover myself, but I do appreciate cool cars. I'm going to shut up for awhile now.
Eucalyptus viminalis, I think.
Centranthus ruber. A weed in more and more places.
Stairs down.
The blogger crosses the road to get to the other side.
Maytenus boaria functions as an evergreen willow.
This picture is a little dark, but I wanted to show you we have some large palms in San Francisco. And these are just street trees.
Ah, there's some moisture in the sky!
Sycamore on the left, and some cultivar of Acacia baileyana on the right.
In the shade of Chinese elms. Ulmus parvifolia. These are winter-dormant trees in San Francisco.
I don't know what kind of bottlebrush this is.
At this point, I'm at the barber getting a haircut. I'm sure one could spend a lot of money getting a haircut in San Francisco, but I go to one of the many Chinese barbers who charge $9, and I pay $12 with tip. This place is a husband-wife operation and the wife does a better job than the husband so I come on Monday when I know she's working and he's not.
The sun coming through the poster taped to the window created a disturbing/cool image I couldn't take my eyes off.
Now we're going to the pea patch to water the tomatoes.
I guess this is that French campanula..?
Iochroma cyaneum.
It's hard to get the picture right this time of day with the sun at this angle and all.
I like these little plantagos. I can't tell you the botanical name.
Is this Triteleia laxa? I think it is.
Every time I see a little brown moth now I wonder if it's California's newest pest, the brown apple moth. I think this one's too big to be the brown apple moth.
I wonder if Salvia leucantha will have a hard time fending for itself this year in places where it's naturalized.
This car is so cool, it gets two pictures.
And, we're at the pea patch.
I just signed on for this bed last week. So now I have two plots in the community garden. This is the first or second bed you see when you enter the garden, so I have to make it look really nice. Consider this a "before" shot.
I'll add soil tomorrow and start planting it up when we get some cooler weather.
Meanwhile, everything looks fine and nothing more has gone missing since that business with my lupine... including this Ipomoea tricolor 'Royal Blue Ensign' that I grew from seed and really thought might be a goner by now. I only get up here to water once a week.
I replaced the AWOL lupine with this Eriogonum arborescens, also from seed. I do hope I'm not inflicting genetic doom on the native buckwheats of Bernal Hill by planting this here. I have several months to change my mind and get rid of it before it makes flowers...
Maybe I'll plant this Euphorbia milii syn. E. splendens in the new bed.
I planted my former Erica up here.
And I propagated this Ribes from a stem cutting I took off a robust bush rogued out of the South Africa garden at Strybing.
We had a clean-up day here a couple Sundays ago, and one of the gardeners really put the hurt on this Ceanothus. I'll try to bring my saw and pruners and do some restoration work next time I'm up here.
I gave all my plants two gallons of water each, and we're done here. See them again next week.
There's a ton of big improvement projects going on this summer.
Site of future stairs.
I wonder if this part of the 'hood is even connected to the sewer.
Ficus carica of course.
This house below was the first one we bid on when we entered the market. I was seriously bummed when we didn't get it, but I got over it right away after we moved in to the house we did get.
These guys make the best cheese pizza. Lately, I'm really into sprinkling red pepper flakes on my pizza. Do you do that? I didn't use to.
But this isn't the day for cheese pizza with red pepper flakes.
This is Maggie Mudds.
Seeing this huge bag of cocoa as a little boy would have made my eyes as big as dinner plates.
Her shirt says, "I hate wussy ice cream."
I got a single scoop of root beer float on a sugar cone.
And basically the walk ends here because I couldn't very well eat ice cream and take pictures at the same time.
The hair cut? I look like a crazy person with a big, shiny nose.
And I have bed head. Smaller pictures are better than larger ones when it comes to self-portraits, don't you agree?
Also, while you're here, check out the weird reaction I have to bamboo. This is from work I did in the bamboo during my lunch break, several hours ago.
It hurts. Does this happen to you?
12 comments:
100 degrees just isn't right, is it? I didn't know it got that hot in San Francisco.
I had a similar allergic reaction to a miscanthus grass I planted recently. And yes, I always put red pepper flakes on my cheese pizza.
I am curious too. Isn't that weirdly warm for San Fran? And right after the freaky frozen winter.
You look like you got some sun today before your bed head.
The papery sheaths on bamboo at the leaf/stem nodes that surround the stem particularly on new growth is covered in thousands of tiny hairs that burrow into your skin and cause that reaction. When working with bamboo it is best to hold the stems at the bare/no sheaths section and avoid contact with those papery sheaths.
It really is quite amazing all the flowers that dot your urban landscape. Your blog alone could put a halt to all the nonsense the Mighty Wurlitzer spews out about San Francisco.
Now I am going back to my mini stress attack as I dismantle my house.
I'm pretty sure your brown moth is some type of skipper. Beyond that, all the skippers look the same to me.
I love your walking tours - hope your weather improves soon.
The weather broke some records for May, but I'm not that blown away by it. Coastal weather patterns are freaky and unpredictable all year long. You learn to roll with it. Of course, it was on the news. San Franciscans went to the beaches yesterday in droves.
Today is going to be warm, and tonight the high pressure system breaks down and we'll cool way down.
Maybe even cool enough for cheese pizza with red pepper flakes.
Thanks for the tip about bamboo, Christopher. Even this morning, 18 hours later, after a shower, my arm is welted.
Skipper is a cute name for a moth! I really need to learn more insects. I want to incorporate insects more in this blog.
I always put red pepper flakes on pizza.
You've got it backwards, Chuck. Hot weather is the perfect time to eat spicy food. Hence the Austin Hot Sauce Festival, which is held outdoors in August each year. ;-)
And I suppose you have an ice cream festival outdoors in January too..?
:)
Cool iochroma! I like bugs, too...I had a luna moth under my porch a couple years ago, but I haven't seen one since. I put red pepper on my pizza too, BTW. And I like your haircut!
Maybe 100 in direct sunlight, but the high yesterday was actually 85.
That was enough for me to leave work early, also get a haircut, take two showers, put ice in my wine, walk around half-naked, still complain unceasingly all day, and not fall asleep until 1. Believe me, people, if it hit 100 here, people would die. We just can't handle it.
That's a beautiful town you live in. All those flowers & trees. Delightful visually.
Thanks!
Mmw, that may be, but in a contest between what the weatherman says, and the observation I make with my own two eyes by reading my thermometer (in part-sun, I'll pick my own observation every time.
That moth on the blue flower is a skipper of some sort. Lulworth Skippers frequent lantana, this one doesn't look quite like a Lulworth skipper, but the way it hods its wings is definitely Skipper.
the blue flower is a Brodiaea, I'm pretty sure. There are quite a few of them, so not sure which one. Same family as Triteleia, different genus.
lovely site,
kate
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