Cactus Garden

Next to the rose garden on the east side of Park Blvd. you will find a cactus garden. One of my intern jobs at the Safari Park last summer was to inventory the plants in the Baja Garden. This meant donning long pants, long sleeves, and my giant sun hat, and spending a few days scrambling through the poky landscape to check the accession tags on the plants and match them to what the GIS database showed. It's from that project that I emerged with a love of agave (and I don't mean tequila!).

What I find most beautiful about agave is the way they have serrate imprints on their leaves from being tightly wrapped in the bud at the center of the plant.

There was also some yucca blooming in the cactus garden. That's a plant I have a particular respect for because I can't tell you how many times I'd come away with gashes on my legs after walking too close to one--even with long pants on!

You also have to respect the cacti with those tiny hairlike spines! You think you haven't touched them or you've avoided injury by not running into a large thorn, but the itty bitty ones get in your skin, are invisible, and just won't leave! I'm pretty sure there's still part of a thorn lodged in the pinkie of my left hand, though it's been a year since it found its way in there!

Morning in Balboa Park

I love mornings. Unless I'm really exhausted, it is practically impossible for me to sleep past 9:00, and if I do try to stretch my sleep time I usually end up with a terrible headache that just doesn't go away--so I'm good at getting up and getting moving in the morning!
Last summer when I was working at the Safari Park I was waking up at 4:30 Monday-Friday to catch the vanpool and make it to work for a 6:00 clock in. Being a creature of habit, I didn't sleep in too late on weekends, either. On Saturdays I'd wake up slowly, kill some time, and then around 7:00 head to Starbucks to get a coffee and make my way to Balboa Park. Once there I'd settle in on a bench next to the lily pond to read, reflect on life, watch the people as the trickled by, and write letters to my friends. Now that I'm running out of time in San Diego I'm suddenly trying to make the best use of my time here and made one of those early morning trips to Balboa Park yesterday morning.
Usually when I visit Balboa Park I just do a cursory walk--park by the carousel, walk through the Spanish Art Village, past the botanical building, over to the organ pavilion, then turn around and head back. In my four summers here I had not crossed the bridge and gone to the other side of Park Boulevard. Yesterday I finally did, and I wish I'd done it sooner! Once you cross the bridge to the east side of the street, there are two gardens: the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden and the Desert Garden.

This was perhaps the best rose garden I've seen. All of the bushes are filled with blooms right now, and catching them in the morning means their fragrances are hanging in the air. My friend Michaela subscribes to the stop and smell the roses philosophy--whenever we're out shopping and there are flowers for sale, it's mandatory to stop and smell the roses. Well, while I was wandering through this vast planting of roses, I remembered to stop and smell! One in particular, Wild Blue Yonder, smelled amazing and definitely helped set my day off on the right foot. Just a few shots for today... Desert Garden to follow!

Monarchs

Last week I took Mom and Aunt Carol to Balboa Park one morning to visit my favorite spots. When I visit Balboa Park I usually only go as far as the pond in front of the botanical building and find a bench to relax on. I haven't been in a single museum this summer, though there are some cool exhibits right now that I should check out. Maybe I'll take advantage of museum air conditioning with my Thursday and Friday off!

Last summer I discovered that the crown plants near the entrance doors of the botanical building were absolutely loaded with monarch caterpillars. This summer there seem to be fewer of them, but still enough to elicit wonder at the jeweled chrysalises the caterpillars use for their transformations. 



How many caterpillars can you find in the photo? This crown plant was absolutely loaded!

In other news, San Diego has been terribly hot and humid lately. When I got done at the dentist at 10:30 yesterday morning it was already so hot and muggy that I felt like doing nothing but coming home and enjoying the air conditioning. This means that I've been getting a lot of reading done! The first day of each month book publishers make Kindle editions of select titles free to a limited number of readers, so bright and early Monday morning I downloaded a bunch of free books to add to my reading list!  I'm continuing in my zero-cooking trend; the stove makes the kitchen too hot! A 5am cooking session may be required to actually get something done!