Viewfinder

I've received a lot of email lately from former South Pasadena residents asking for more shots of the mountains as seen from Monterey Hills.

As you wish!

It doesn't take much arm-twisting to trek up and point the camera out at this view. And for those of you who live far away but still think of South Pas as home ... this is for you.

Top of the World

Okay, kids. We know that South Pasadena has a lot of interesting home architecture. Let's review. Craftsman? Check. Victorian? Check. Spanish, Traditional, Midcentury Modern? Check, check, check. That leaves cool contemporary houses precariously clinging to the side of the hill...

Check!

Winter's Palette

I took this shot a couple of weeks ago, before the storms rolled in. I believe those gorgeous trees are flowering pears. I always associate them with February, and the unforgettable scent of mock orange trees. Although the mock orange tree is not as showy as others, it manages to upstage everything else that blooms with a heady fragrance that rivals the sultriest night blooming jasmine.

Cherry trees have also begun making winter blossoms. Soon, the purple jacarandas will begin to dazzle and then drop lilac petals all over the streets. By spring, the crape myrtle trees will start making flowers that will last the summer.

Take that, New England. Fall foliage is great and everything, but just look at our winter flowers!

(And just try to beat that classic San Gabriel Valley topiary tree at the end of the street...)

Telephone Poles

I noticed this line of telephone poles the other day while wandering around Monterey Hills. Wires in a digital age...

I wonder if images like this will someday be as quaint and far away as pictures of gas lamps and horse-drawn carriages. While I certainly love the cool convenience of my Razr -- and admit to secretly coveting a friend's iPhone -- there is something so stalwart and romantic about telephone poles. I think Carl Sandburg identified the soul inside the structure when he wrote this:

Under A Telephone Pole

I AM a copper wire slung in the air,
Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow.
Night and day I keep singing--humming and thrumming:
It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the
tears, the work and want,
Death and laughter of men and women passing through
me, carrier of your speech,
In the rain and the wet dripping,
in the dawn and the
shine drying,
A copper wire.

Wintertime

The recent storm transformed our mountains into this frosty snow confection -- and graced us with a comfortable temperature of around 70 degrees in the city. Sometimes mother nature is such a grand old show off, isn't she?

Open Floor Plan

South Pasadena's Craftsman and Victorian homes in the historic neighborhoods will capture your attention, of course. And with good reason. But if you explore the hills above town you'll stumble upon this curious house. (Well, maybe. If you can find it with all the no outlet signs and cul de sacs.)

I had to stop and take a picture of this place. It's like a hobbit house ... for a midcentury hobbit who was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. And it appears to come with a science fiction cloaking device back there behind the front doors!

Just where do those doors lead, anyway? Middle Earth? Another dimension?

Acropolis above South Pas?

I never know what I'm going to discover when I wander up and around South Pasadena's winding hills. (Hey, do you think this is where she lost her head?)

"Up on the rooftop..."

I found this casual rooftop St. Nick perched near the wonderful green house with the pink Christmas tree in the window. I really love the vibe of this neighborhood!