Friday Night Photos New Year Edition

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 5:00pm

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Happy new year everyone. We're three days into the new year and the assholes in charge (does anybody really know who's in charge?) have not unleashed nuclear armageddon yet. So far, so good.
To help bring in the new year are photos of the newly renovated botanical garden in Balboa Park. After being closed for the last two years while undergoing renovation, the garden reopened to the public just in time to usher in the new year.

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 7:10pm

Once again thanks for the excellent images.

The part about a 2 year renovation (seemed lengthy) piqued my interest and I came up with this.

https://balboaparkbotanical.org/summer-2023-progress/

The Botanical Building and Gardens Restoration project has been steadily making progress this summer. Phase 1, managed by the City of San Diego, is on track for completion in 2024. The overall project restores the historic elements of the building and grounds, including stucco arcades that will once again wrap around the exterior of the building and the historic pergola on the west lawn. It will also bring to life new aspects focused on improving the visitor experience—enhanced botanic displays, new LED lighting, improved access for persons with disabilities, and flexible education and programming space.

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 7:41pm

Hi, humphrey

@humphrey
The work took a little bit of time to complete, but the finished product was worth the wait.
Thanks for the link.

—

I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 7:51pm

that is one helluva greenhouse

could live in that space
and thrive
thanks SP!
makes me wanna build again
cool tune too! reminds one of 'somewhere
down the the highway' by an unknown artist

—

question everything

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 7:59pm

Hi, Q

@QMS @QMS
I was very pleased with the new garden. I'm with you. I could live in that space, too.

Edit: Thanks for the CSN. Such incredible harmony's.

—

I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 8:05pm

yeah, so today Stephan Stills

@Socialprogressive
turned 80
sounds a bit old
your pics will never die young

—

question everything

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 8:29pm

Maybe we can all share the space

@Socialprogressive

I love it too ; ).

Nothing like a harmonious feeling in time and place, and music.

Heard this today ...

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 9:16pm

The space seems to be very popular

@janis b
Interesting mix of instruments and voice. Anoushka's as talented on the sitar as her father.

—

I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 8:24pm

Hi Social

What a gorgeous structure!

Now you have a botanical garden that seems to have perfected the union of classical and modern. The photo with the rising sun making beautiful drawings and patterns of light and shadow is wonderful. The outside is as beautiful as the inside in a different way, as you reveal in the photo across the mirror pond. What great vision, all of it.

Cool music too, thanks Social.

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 9:25pm

Thank you, Janis

@janis b
The light and shadows provide an ever changing palette. Come at a different time on a different day and get different patterns.

—

I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 8:35pm

Hi all

I wasn't very productive this week photographically, so I'll just add this link that I hope brings you to the photography of Frank Abbott that an overseas visitor introduced me to yesterday.

https://x.com/FrankAb35446026?mx=2

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 9:32pm

Hi, Janis

@janis b
Miss your work. Hope you're able to be productive with the camera soon.
Thanks for the Frank Abbott link. What an incredible photographer. I loved the shot of the Vizslas running down the beach.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 11:00pm

I knew you would enjoy his photography

@Socialprogressive

Thank you for the appreciation and encouragement of my photography.

Submitted by orlbucfan on Sun, 01/05/2025 - 9:04am

@janis b jb, Abbott's pictures are

@janis b jb, Abbott's pictures are ABFAB but don't sell yourself short. Your stuff looks like paintings. Sp, those Balboa Park photos are beyond the pale, especially that top one. San Diego really is a cool place, but what's with the tornadoes in No. CA?? Climate change, I'll bet. I pay attention cos I have a very dear pal who now lives in Santa Rosa. Anywho, Rec'd!!.

—

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Submitted by dystopian on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 10:00pm

Hi pixelators

Hi all, Hey SP

Nice looking atrium ya got there! Botanic Gardens are great places. GREAT photos SP!

Here are a couple when fall hit, on a Tuesday a couple weeks ago...

Hackberry at peak color. AKA Sugarberry and very important winter wildlife forage.

Rocky Mountain Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentata), this one not lost as those at Lost Maples are.

I think this was mountains and valleys when I overflew Planet Sulfura?

Oh no, here it is, it was a Mulberry leaf.

I gotta fly... Have a good one all...

happy trails, and get pictures...

—

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

Submitted by Socialprogressive on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 10:36pm

Hi, dystopian

@dystopian
Thanks for the fall colors. Around here the leaves in the Sycamores turned yellow and started to fall a few weeks ago.

—

I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 01/03/2025 - 11:09pm

Hi d

@dystopian

Pray tell, where are you flying off to, another visit to Planet Sulfura, or someplace less smelly?

Do the Hackberry/ Sugarberry leaves hang on the tree throughout winter for foraging, or do the dried leaves that fall feed wildlife in winter?

Submitted by dystopian on Sat, 01/04/2025 - 11:19am

hackberries

@janis b Hey J,

It's the berries. That hack of a berry that is the magic of Hackberries. They are just starting to turn purple now. I'll get a pic in a week or two. To examine it, I would would describe it as a pit with a husk. That is all. The layer of flesh in between seems miniscule. Yet is packed with sugars. They grow thickly along any watercourse, draw, wash, etc. The birds are crazy about them. Across the southwestern U.S. they may be the most important forage crop for frugivores in winter. Mammals like Racoon and Ringtail climb the trees at night to eat them.

One big old climax Hackberry we had has died due to the drought recently. Actually three have. But the biggest oldest one had a quarter acre of canopy (shade in summer) it provided. One winter I actually did a count to get an estimate of how many berries were on the tree. I can comfortably say there were at least 50,000 berries on that one tree, one winter. That winter we had 500-1000 Robins chorusing in our yard nearly daily, and a thousand Cedar Waxwings, planting hackerries everywhere (after eating them).

Most locals hate them as the thickets become unpassable. But big ones are beautiful. The wood is not easily milled so it is seen to have little value. Birders love them. The leaves feel like sandpaper. Some butterflies use it as the larval food plant (e.g. where they lay eggs), such as the Snout, and Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis). Celtis the specific name of the Emperor, is the Genus of the Hackberry. And so goes the circle of life in nature.

This concludes 'More than you wanted to know about Hackberries'.

Join us next week when we tackle bark. :0

edit to fix type

)

—

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