Sidewalks

 Before

During

After

Beautiful

Cactus

 I love our Cereus cactus (Cereus peruvianus)

and was excited to see it in bloom the night I returned from Ohio.

I didn't think it would be pollinated since it had only one flower

but it had an amazing fruit!

I was so proud, but I tried not to take too many pictures. Then I started seeing other cacti around town. I am trying to be happy with what I have not be too jealous!

Quick Fix

I was surprised to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to see my clock because the power was out (no photo).

I had this email the next morning.

I knew it had been restored, but had hoped they would be able to tell us the reason for the outage.

We took a walk later and met these people.

They said they were replacing a cable. Maybe a squirrel had chewed through a cable. We were impressed that they were dealing with it so quickly and without further outages. They said that was their job, even if it meant missing a family birthday party. Darn squirrels!

Beautiful Winter Walk

 

Both the baby and I love going for walks.

Changes in the neighborhood

I had never taken a picture of local artist Barbara Beretich's house on Harvard so I am using images from Google maps.

I went by recently and saw a green-waste dumpster out front. The guys working there said it was owned by Claremont Graduate University and the house had a lot of potential.

What a difference!

What I Saw Around Town

 

I went for a walk with a friend and
then another one with her mom.

The freesia smelled great

and the azalea looked great.

I was not excited to see a swarm of bees
finding a new home in a tree in front of the library.

Not the usual place for a bicycle.

This is not a little library.

There is always something new to see in town.

Different Neighborhood

Once a week and friend and I walk, hike, or bike. We usually take the same route each time because it is easy, but this time we tried something new.

We went up a steep street and then went
down along each and every side street.

There were lots of fancy homes and cool front doors, but I was glad I didn't live there and have to ride up that hill each day.

from Google Maps
As we turned around one cul-de-sac I wondered why
there was a big chunk of rocky concrete in a mini island.

I hadn't noticed anything when we first passed it.

Looking closer we could see a shield

and an explanatory plaque.

"Guanajuato Drive

Named in honor

of Claremont's sister city

Guanajuato, Mexico

Dedicated to the advancement 

Of international goodwill

December 10, 1963"

I thought it was interesting and unusual and was surprised I could not find anything online about it. It was a bit of serendipity on our morning outing.

One more bonus was finding a new-to-me concrete stamp.

Scenes from a Walk

I knew there were horses on this property
but had never seen goats before.

Just because

Little book library, little art supply library, little farmers market library.

This is a mystery to me.

These two signs are at the same intersection,
this one on the NE corner and the one above
on the SW corner. Why are they different
colors? Why is one Street and one Drive?

 

Life Gives Me Lemons

 

In the neighborhood,

in the village,

and on campus.

Life gives me oranges (in the neighborhood)

and grapefruits, too.
This is outside the school gate.