April 2025 Leftovers

 

vegetable garden, planted by a squirrel

pay phone in train station
I put a coin in the return slot for someone to find.

The little one I care for is learning to pump!

New mural in the village

Freebies Found

 While out and about

March Leftovers

 

Botanic garden

Village West with A.'s girlfriend

spring

school garden

clover with banana for scale

Spring Break, Part Two

Part two started with a bike ride to the end of the A Line, which is currently 12 miles away. In nine months will be less than three miles away. 🤞

The train ride was uneventful and then we cycled the last mile to our friends' condo, unloaded, changed, and started strolling through the big city, stopping to shop at 

Erewhon
(yes, we did go back to buy NZ peanut butter)

and Vroman's
(we did not buy this Little Golden Book but did find other treasures).

D. caught the bus to Velo Pasadena

which is part store and part museum.
D. was not tempted by an $8000, even with a 30% discount.

I found a children's resale shop and found a 

sling to replace the used one I bought and used with the last two children I looked after. It had no price tag and they couldn't find it in the system so they sold it to me for a real deal! 

We finally met up with our friends and had a wonderful dinner at a plant-based restaurant. It is always a treat to have so many options, but it does make it harder to choose.

In the morning my friend and I cycled to the Huntington 

and enjoyed the beautiful spring flowers

and gardens before it was open to the public. 
D. and D. took the dog for a walk in the Arroyo (not all 22 miles).

We met up and the four of us took a tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Gamble House. 

I did like seeing other houses and learning about things like the brick sidewalks (no longer allowed to install them but also not allowed to remove the existing ones), 

but one of my favorite parts was hearing and seeing a swim meet at the Rose Bowl Aquatics pool.

I kind of want a brick planter now

or maybe brick designs in the driveway.

What is a vacation without our sigfigs?

After lunch we reversed the process,

with slightly more crowded trains and an uphill ride home.

It was good to go and good to be back home.

Fall Break, mini figure edition

 

arboretum

Monterey Bay

Natural Bridges State Beach

Garden Tour

I feel too voyeuristic when I go on house tours, which is why I have loved that Claremont Heritage has created video tours. I feel perfectly comfortable going on garden tours, which is kind of funny since I don't like to garden.

I invited two friends who do like to
garden and we all had fun poking around.

Here are some highlights.

This garden had a couple dozen artichokes.
I am proud to say that I did not pick any!

The pool had been converted to a koi pond and the prayer
flags prevent birds of prey from swooping down to catch the fish.

Maybe this was the only house with grass.

Not part of a garden, but this family
showed how they had converted
the garage to a playroom. Wow!

This is what I aspire to have something like this.

Just the right amount of voyeurism for me!

Annual Cactus Post

 

On May 18 I noticed a little bud on
the cactus (on the left near the top).

This was taken at 5:30am on June 8.

And this was taken at 9pm on June 8.
You can see that the first one is already closed.

If they the blossoms had been open at the same time and if the bees had found them then they could have been pollinated and become fruit. Maybe, just maybe there is another cactus in the neighborhood I have never seen and it was blooming at the same time.

It is hard not to take lots of pictures since we know they are open for only one evening.

Check out all the buds on this
cactus a few miles from our house.

Cactus Fruit

 

Last summer we our Night
Blooming Cereus grew a piece of fruit.

It split open, but no animals seemed to eat it.

It just fell to the ground, maybe to
have its seeds grow to form a new cactus?

This year we harvested the fruit before it split.
To me it tasted like soap.