Everyday sights in Bernal Heights

I don't get to do this much anymore -- walk around my neighborhood. Because I work all the time. Well, it's nice to be wanted (for work). Up to a point. And then, blech.



Am I right?







The Leonotis leonurus looks particularly good around town right now.



I seem to recall these old olive trees had been targeted for removal. Someone from the City taped signs to them declaring them to be old and unsuitable. Or something. Figuring out how a few 20' olive trees that managed to get old suddenly became unsuitable, I will leave as an exercise for the reader. Hint: the idea was to replace them with natives. Well, they planted a California buckeye nearby, and it was dead in two years. It's very windy up here. It's fine w/ me if they want to try planting more trees in Holly Park, especially natives, but they should not be removing anything that has not yet died, in my opinion.



Windy is good for laundry.







This house looks like it needs some love (or rather some money. Some money-love), but the weedy fennel invariably growing in front of it every spring and summer always catches my eye.



And so does this brugmansia.



It's like this always.



The garden on Gates at Powhattan is looking very fine.



I've included it on these little walks for years. One day I'll post a retrospective.





This is not the end. We're about halfway.





The patch at Salvia spathacea next to the community garden is still going. Not right now tho', it's dormant.



What do you think is going on with this aloe near the garden fence? I've never seen anything like it.



That dead Agave attenuata inflorescence has been in that position for a good four or five years now, right? I should do a retrospective on that too.



Ladies and gentlemen, the immortally dead flower spike.



The secret succulent garden is doing well.



I think it's been getting some gardening attention lately.



Someone set a beehive up. Perfect place for it. Although I'm sure the bees would like to have some more stuff around to eat about now.



More buckwheat maybe.



Pretty quiet on the hill today.



Pretty quiet in general.















If you plant nothing in San Francisco, there will be fennel, Exhibit #2,451.







Alas, the urge to garden is strong.







I could not tell what I was looking at here.



Is this something Euphorbia will do? I think I would have seen this before.



Then again, I don't see everything, do I?





Sometimes, I look but I don't see.





It's time for me to stop.

Vallejo Street Steps

Vallejo between Montgomery and Kearny is too steep for cars, so it has stairs instead of street. And, guess what, you guys? The stairs have been planted.

My office is about 6 blocks south of here, and I frequently pass this way at lunch. 

Today I brought my camera. 

For you.

Would be great to have a big hydrangea garden, for cuttings. (Unless you're Madonna, of course. She absolutely loathes hydrangeas.)

Maybe she's in to succulents. Succulents are the hip thing now.

I'm just more in to flowers. 

Oh, hey. Those leafy gray spikes on the left? Echium wildprettii. It seemed like the it-plant while I was in grad school. I saw it everywhere. It was the it-plant in my garden back in spring 2008. 

Anyway, check this out:

There's at least 3 volunteers in that little clump. I wonder how that's going to work out!

The view near the top of the garden. 

Cool, overcast, and breezy today. But I'm sweating like a dog climbing all these hills and stairs. 

No, dogs sweat with their tongues. "Their tongue"? No, I wasn't sweating like that. I was sweating like a horse.

The older I get, the more I sweat.

I'm not in to it at all.

Looks like you missed your chance to buy this fixer-upper...

Could you live in a house without a street in front of it? Or, do you already? 

Anyway, I need to wrap this up. 

Time to get back to work. 

(No, I do not work at the Federal Reserve.)