Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
I was back at the Mesa Urban Garden and took a photo for you guys of the little library/phone booth.
Maybe you wouldn’t call it a phone booth. It’s the later version of a phone booth, the not-fully-enclosed kind I grew up seeing. And it seems like the books have been replaced with gardening resources, which is also good. But it’d be neat if books could be back in there too.
Since we knew there’d be way more to see at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens than we’d have time to explore while we were in the Pasadena area, we skipped the desert and cactus gardens (they’re supposed to be very good – we just have lots of desert gardens here in Arizona) and headed straight for something different: the jungle garden.
I really being enveloped in lush the rainforest-like landscape.
Thick trees were like an entire ecosystem of their own with vines climbing their trunks and air plants nestled in their branches.
We spotted ferns and flowers and plants with leaves the size of umbrellas.
My favorite spot was right next to the waterfall.
We received complimentary press passes to Huntington Library via Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Before Norton Simon the art museum, there was Norton Simon the entrepreneur and art collector.
He started with works from European Old Masters, Impressionists, and Post-Impressionists and then began collecting works from Asia after a trip to India. He eventually added his collections to what was then the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, which he was director of until his passing in 1993.
Now known as Norton Simon, the museum in Pasadena houses collections of 14th century to contemporary European art, Asian art spanning two millennia, and a sculpture garden.
Continue reading “Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena”
There’s a community garden in Downtown Mesa that I’d heard about but hadn’t been to until my sister-in-law Liz was in town.
Isn’t it funny how you tend to see more of your city when someone is visiting?
Anyway, after lunch at Republica Empanada (at Hibbert and 1st Ave.), she asked about the gate next to the restaurant that leads into the Mesa Urban Garden, and we went to check it out.
I wasn’t expecting to see much, because August in Phoenix is rough on plants and only the most hardy survive. But there were still a fair number of things growing – veggies and vinca and this gorgeous trumpet vine with orange flowers and long green pods.
The garden is surrounded by walls with colorful murals, and there’s a Little Free Library made from an old phone booth.
I’ll definitely have to return later this fall!
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We’ve had this dwarf pomegranate tree for about 5 years (6? more?) without any sign of fruit – until this past spring.
I was so excited when I spotted a couple tiny red buds one day that I texted photos to Phillip. And my parents. And posted one on Instagram.
Those buds blew off on an unusually gusty day, and I thought it was all over for this year. Then new ones grew.
Yesterday, on the eve of the summer solstice, when I was on the patio worrying about my plants in the 119F-degree heat, I spotted a little pomegranate fruit.
Phillip thinks the tree is in a better spot at our new place. I think it’s because I’ve been watering it with water from Frida’s tank.
Either way, I’m glad to see it flourishing.
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