around the 'hood

Because of various errands that needed running this morning, we found ourselves on a slightly different set of walks than usual.  Primarily, Alice's car needed a smog test, which is why we found ourselves parked outside a truck advertising, and possibly delivering, Donna's Pickle Beer.  Before this morning, I had no idea that there's such a thing on this earth as pickle beer.  Someone tell me if I want to try hops that have been blended with dill and cilantro and gherkin juice?  Who ever thought of that?

Reeling even from the contemplation of this beverage, we came upon these fire hydrants, and then a tree - look closely! - that's full of chandeliers.

Then taking the smog certificate, and check, to the mail at the Atwater Village post office, there was a little store next door to it with lots of cat themed gifts, and vintage clothes, and apparently some live kittens wanting rehoming, and a large orange plaster cat on the roof.  I'll be back, sometime soon, when it's open (not for the kittens, or Moth and Gramsci would never talk to me again) to investigate further ...

 

campus life

I'm not sure whether coyotes have been seen recently on our campus or not, but the warnings remain: warnings tastefully printed in the campus colors of cardinal and gold.  It's the season when groups of prospective and - for all I know - early admitted candidates are earnestly looking at where they're going to spend the next four years: I'm not sure how much of a selling point our local wildlife is (the squirrels are cute, but also, presumably, function as readily available coyote snacks), which is quite probably why this informative board is a little obscured from view.

 

Glendale's global welcome

To Glendale, to get my favorite carry-on suitcase's handle fixed at the Americana (I know: it's only taken me three months to find time for that) - and I was very happy to find a parking space by the public library: I always feel as though paying for parking in the Americana itself is giving even more money into Rick Caruso's pockets.  The junction box outside the library is wonderfully welcoming on all four sides - international architecture (in Glendale, you might well expect everything to be Armenian ...), and greeting you in a very polyglot way.  And nonetheless, there's a Californian poppy proudly in the center.

 

Tommy's, post rain

Tommy's Hamburgers is one of those LA icons that I drive past every day, and that I've never stopped at, and very probably never will (you are much more likely to find me eating a taco than a burger, any day).  Tommy's has been there since ... they change their sign every year, in May - 1946, when it was started by Tom Koulax, the son of Greek immigrants.  It expanded further onto this lot, and then onto the opposite corner, and now has a whole lot of other locations.  Apparently.  I've just found this out from their website, after checking the date of their founding.  At the same time I find they serve a chili tamale, which makes them marginally more tempting - but I doubt it.  And, nb, it's a regular eating place for cops.  But I do love the architecture.

Also, it poured - absolutely poured - last night, and these thick clouds are just wandering away.

 

reading at the car wash?

This is part of a wonderful long mural at a car wash behind the Mobil gas station on S. Hoover - I'd not been stopped in traffic and looking carefully at it before - one of those things that, having taken on board, I'm sure, but not having previously noticed properly, one wonders how long it's been there.  And one speculates, too, who painted it, and why they included a girl immersed in a book (maybe done by a local school?).  And of course one ponders whether the car wash is fully functioning and fully staffed, given the propensity of 🧊 to kidnap people from this particular genre of employment.

 

contemplating the garden path

... as one does, when rain is on the way, and when we've just been talking to our garden person - not the landscape designer herself (who lives in Tucson), but the plants and water and maintenance and general expert guy (who now has a wonderful German boyfriend, and lives in ... Berlin).  This is not 100% ideal, since we only get to see him twice a year - though now he has a visa this should become once a season - and facetiming him with, say, problems with dwarf lavender (very dwarf - not visible here, and barely visible if the camera were pointing in the other direction) isn't super-convenient.  But he is a lovely person, even if given to enthusiasms that sometimes prove to be a bit hit or miss.  Today's real issue were the citrus trees in pots, which seem not be be draining, and they're not doing well in them anyway ... we do love the pots, like a Mediterranean garden, but it would be great if the Meyer lemon wasn't drooping and wilting ...

 

hawk, seahawks

This handsome red-tailed hawk was disemboweling another bird this morning at the reservoir.  I'm hoping it wasn't a heron (it does have rather long legs, but I'm hoping not long enough ...).  I love those herons, but I also love raptors, and do understand their need for breakfast.  Still.  It was a very nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw start to the day.

And later ... Moth and Gramsci were as riveted as us (yawn) by the Superbowl, but yay to Sam Darnold, our former USC quarterback, for his performance.  And yay to Bad Bunny (and Villa's Tacos!) for the half time show, which was fun, and went far beyond that.  But oh, all of those endless ads for different forms of AI (or clearly made using AI), which made me very grateful for the reality of feathered, bloodthirsty hawks.