Friday Night Photos La Biblioteca Edition
Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well . Post any photos, memes, or music you like.
It's been a week of gray skies and moderate temps. It was supposed to be sunny and warm yesterday. Never did see the sun and there was rain, thunder, lightning, and hail thrown in for good measure. Mother Nature's way of reminding everybody it's still winter, even in sunny San Diego.
Last Saturday when it was sunny I went to the library. The San Diego library has 35 branch locations scattered throughout the county plus the central library located downtown. The central branch was built in 2013.
Not your average looking library
Metal mushroom garden
Magazine display in the Sullivan Baseball Research Center
It wouldn't be baseball without a silver slugger
Display in the rare books and collections room
Any of you guys read Latin? The Psalter, 467 pages and 45 lbs of Catholic mumbo jumbo circa 1686
More rare books and collections
The Bard
More metal mushrooms
Can't read without proper lighting
If I had spent more time in the library I might have been an A student
Comments
Your library is so modern looking
love the metal mushrooms!
Ours was built in 1929, so relatively new by local standards.
Being a small town, I know the book meisters by name. And being an avid reader, they know
my interests well. Sometimes pull a book for me they know I would like.
Thanks for the book essay!
Hi, QMS.
I like your small town library. It has charm and personality.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Thank you Q
What a contrast between centuries and styles. There's a special kind of intimacy in the difference of scale and feeling.
That’s a great building
.
But it doesn’t look inviting. Are the mushrooms lamps?
Ours is between yours and Q's. Looks like a museum from the outside.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hi, snoopy
Yes, the mushrooms are lamps.
On the outside, the buildings architecture is unique. On the inside, it's like any other library. Lots of selves with lots of books.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Hi Social
Great song to accompany your library and photos. You get an A+ from me ; ). The best work is not necessarily ’school’ work, no?
This week I read something about The Library of Congress building, described by a kiwi friend who visited it. I googled images and its interior looks very inviting, visually.
Thank you for your contribution of images and interest. It's appreciated.
...
What is on the top floors?
Hi, Janis
Beautiful shots from the Library of Congress. So much to see and photograph in DC. It's another one of those locations on my list of places I'd like to visit.
As for what's on the top floors, I don't know. Just a guess, HVAC and other equipment to power the building.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Nice view for the HVAC technicians n/t
Hi all
This is my favourite flower, flowering. I look forward to it every year. It’s white ginger, whose beauty and fragrance are divine.
Here is a silk tent of the nursery web spider, spun in muehlenbeckia.
Be well and enjoy all
The flowers look like
small Plumaria blossoms. Do the Nursery Web spiders live in the tents or use them to lay their eggs in?
Love the music selection. Makes me want to be sitting in the shade of a palm tree on a beach in Maui.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
The ginger is last to flower
The plumeria (called Frangipani here) is still producing a few flowers, so there are a combination of intoxicating fragrances at the moment.
The web is a cocoon like tent from which baby spiders will hatch. Quite a nice and secure nursery the mama has created.
Hey J!
Hi Janis,
Beautiful flowers, and nice leaves too. The spider web is fantastic. What an odd one that is. Spider web diversity is fascinating.
Somewhere today I saw they are reducing funding for the national archives. Probably to get rid of a bunch of pesky papers and hard drives they don't want seen.
Hope all is well in kiwi land!
take care!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi dystopian
Cleaning house, are they?
All is well in kiwi land as I watch the tiniest sweet grey warblers catching insects in the last of the sunlight.
You must be enjoying the beginnings of Spring.
spring
Hi Janis,
Yeah that explosion of lime green is one of my favorite things. All the birds are singing. Such a great expression of new growth, new beginnings, more good things ahead. It is just starting, but quickly gathering a head of steam.
You must be heading into fall. Do you get good leaf color changes there?
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Splurge in the lime green of Spring, dystopian
What can be better than a lime in flavour and colour ; )
Most leaves here are eternally one shade of green or another. At this time on my local travels I pass a few deciduous trees starting to turn colour, but nothing like what you get.
Hi pixelators
Hi all, hey SP!
Great pics as always SP. Can't help with the latin unless an animal binomial, of which I know a lot of their meanings. Often the word roots are the same in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and even the usually overlooked also Latin-based language, Romanian. Which since it was behind iron curtain, we were not taught it was also one of the Latin languages.
Mountain Laurel are blooming now. One of the sweetest scents there is. I call it a cross between a strong Rose and Sweet Pea. It is heavenly. Ms Dys makes floral water with it. The red and black seeds are toxic, however ancient native peoples knew how to process and get high off them. No one living does though. In small world dept., today's pic at 'the automatic earth' is Van Gogh's "laurel'.
There is a metallic turquoise bee that uses them but is so dang fast I can't get a good pic. It is big as a honey bee. Butterflies love them too of course.
P.S. the two bird pics on 5th image I think, are Laughing Falcon (left), and Magpie-Jay (right). Laughing Falcon makes the most human-like laugh I ever heard out of a bird. It will crack you up!
Thanks for the OT SP!
Hope all is well all over out there!
edit to add P.S.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi, dystopian
Your Mountain Laurel is a beautiful looking flower. It looks like more than butterflies and metallic turquoise bees like the flowers. I see a small flying critter sitting on one of the petals on the upper right.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
great spotting!
Hi SP! Good eye there man. Yeah an OOF (out of focus) Diptera of some sort there. With dips, for me, ya gotta be a fancy fly or I look for another bug....
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
From your description
one can get high from the fragrance alone, at least a little high. I guess the laurel says 'smell, but don't touch' ; ).
laurel scents
Hi Janis,
Yeah, but check the flower for bees before you stick your nose in for a hit.
I shake them first if I'm going in. Anyone that doesn't believe in aroma therapy needs to sit by one of these for a half-hour. 
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
"Texas mountain laurel" (Calia secundiflora)
is not related to Appalachian mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) - here's some Kalmia for comparison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmia#/media/File:Kalmia_latifolia.jpg
And neither one is related to the Lauraceae or "true laurels".
I tried to post this information a little bit ago and ran head-on into a syscrash (wha' hoppen?).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
dystopian, that photo of those flowers is
OUTRAGEOUS! Purple is one of my fave colors.
I sure do know the scent of Frangipani, jb. There's a lot of it down here, and that scent is beyond heavenly. Did you ever enter that photography contest you mentioned in an earlier post? Love your pics, too. I was born in DC, and saw a lot of web spiders as a youngun. Sp, your library is cool looking, like something out of the 23rd century. It also looks like it's designed for withstanding hot weather. Being a lifelong book/reading maniac, the library has always been one of my very favorite hangouts. Our library (main downtown branch) just looks like a gray slab. Inside is where the jewels 
are. Anywho, weather is getting warm now. Soon, another storm season will be upon us--blech! Hope everyone is well. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Hi, orlbucfan
Most of the library branches around here look nondescript and boring. The branch closest to me is in a small corner center mixed in with a handful of small business'. I like to read books, but I don't read as much as I use to. Now instead of reading a book, I spend my time reading things I find online.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Hi obf
Do you locals also call it Frangipani?
The exhibition was last weekend, and I got some very nice feedback for my work. Thanks for asking.