Flower on Corona Height

I brought my little one on Corona Heights...

Steel Magnolias

 

These lovely flowers can be seen on the Embarcadero. 

Contrary to what you may think (don't believe your eyes): they are tiny!

I guess I could have called them Steel Daisies but that really does not sound right...

Puff, the Magic Dragon

There are many different buses in San Francisco. They seem to leave very few people indifferent...

This one is a pretty expensive one that does not commute!

I saw it last month for the first time.
On Haight Street. Where else?

(I have no idea why the title song came to my mind, when I saw this bus...)

Hidden Stairs of San Francisco

Last weekend, we went up some superb stairs...
We started from the bottom of the stairs on 16th avenue (and Kirkham St) and went up, up, up...

 

While we were walking up the stairs, we met Paul, a man devoted to the stairs who told us that there was more : another set of stairs, finished years before... Leading to the most amazing view point of San Francisco : Grand View Park...
The project was initiated by Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher who worked together with over 300 community volunteers for over a two and a half year period until August 2005.

We made it! We reached the Star!

Stubborn

On a door to some restrooms. Somewhere in or not too far from SF...

I'm pretty sure I pushed that damned door!
:)

Giving Trees (a Shel Silverstein tribute)

There are many Giving Trees in the city...

Here are a few of them:

Strawberry tree berries. Everywhere is SF. They are very pretty with their lily of the valley kind flowers... Arbousier in French.

Grapefruit tree. In French, grappe means cluster... That makes so much sense when you know it. I have seen 2 of these trees so far. Pamplemoussier.

Loquat trees. My favorites. Néflier.

Lemon tree. This one is a Meyer. It belongs to my friend who sometimes gives me some lemons.
Thank you my friend. Citronnier.

One last thing, if you have never read Shel Silverstein, open one of his book. You'll be amazed!

Two rocks

My toddler called them like that when she sees them!

I take it that like the Sphinx, these used to have a nose...

A couples of months ago, I saw another one. Unattached. When I walked past it again it had gone. Either somebody hates them or they love it a little too much!!!

Mondrian

I love this door! The whole house is a tribute to the Dutch painter. It does deserve some more painting but who I am to judge?

On Haight street.

A nest

Arachnophobes, please move away!

I found this lovely nest fascinating. I watched it for hours. I could see the little spiders move inside.

Photographing it was not easy. Not with my camera, anyway. This is my best picture.

The next day, they had gone.
Thank God for screen doors!

Masks

I see these when I go to the Mission. I have no idea what they are. I suspect they are for wrestling (I've watched TV series with a glimpse on those) but that's about it...

Oh Cecilia...

Patron saint of the musicians.
Everybody should worship her.

What's a world without music?!?

Apple

San Francisco has so many Giving Trees...

Last week I walked past this lovely apple tree.  Not enough to make a pie. But still.

Most of the time, on most trees, fruit goes rotten before anyone gets them.

What a waste!

Dog on wall

Dogs.
They certainly inspire San Franciscans.

And like most art, they have a message!

My interpretation : Maybe, dog owners (or their dogsitters) should be carrying a little bottle of water along side their plastic bags to wash away the stench...

Ah, but I forgot, it's drought season in California. Maybe next year!

Touristic map of San Francisco

In a nutshell...

The essential is there.
Perfect if you're staying 2 days. (Who needs Frommer's now?!? ;)

Too Funky

 

I like this building. I don't know what took me so long to notice it.

From sunny Embarcadero. 

Ocean Beach

Nice empty beach on a windy day*...

As soon as I had set my foot on the sand I understood my mistake. Both the wind and the sand were lashing at me. It was painful.

I had to use the stairway for protection, took one shot and left the beach.

*:  (when I want to go where I am going... ;)

Art on pavement #2

Somebody has been dropping these little sculptures on the pavement.

So let's keep our eyes down for an artful cause!

I [poop] you

There is a French expression that is close to that one... It's pretty rude. The translation here is literal so I would say that the very conceptual artist who did this display has probably some notion of French...

Does his/her linguistic skill equal his talent? That is the question!

Conceptual art needs not be pretty. It's generally the contrary.

I finds this funny. In a window on a street known to love that type of art. Of course never in my house...

But the artist is right : sometimes, art is [poop]

Coit Tower Art

I call it : Coit Terror. I apologize for the bad pun. (After all, I did consider a journalistic career ;)

Last summer, we went to the Coit Tower. It was hellish : it took us forever to find a parking space and when we finally arrived there, the line to get to the top of the tower was longer than that of Delfina's at weekends.

And then the first thing I saw was this :

 Sympa !

We left. But on the way back to our car, we found pine nuts...  (like the one I used to break open with my sister in my grand-mother's garden!)  -Super sympa !

What's that?

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to get some ice-cream from a neighborhood ice-cream parlor in the Mission.

It's a nice walk and in general it's always sunny :)

On our way to that Crazy Ice-cream Cup thing, we walked past one of the many shops on Mission Street. They were selling these :

Now, there was a little sign to tell us ignorant people what this was... If not, I would never have guessed.

Would you?







Fresh chick peas!