Saturday, June 21, 2008

Something Loves a Wall

Just a path for your weekend wanderings. This one's a quiet alternative to the main trails at Hahamongna Watershed Park. I don't know if the path has a name, we just call it "the upper path." It's a good place to be quiet because it travels behind private homes.

All sorts of critters live in the slim space between this path and the lower, busier path—birds, snakes, rabbits—we've even seen a bobcat there, and surely it's good hunting for the coyotes—and it's only about 100 feet wide at its broadest points.

The main reason I photographed the pathway, though, is the stone wall, made of those ubiquitous local river rocks. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, but that something would not be me.

11 comments:

Dina said...

Ha Petrea--I love your closing line!! Count me in. You would love the narrowish path I just came from. It's just like in your picture but leads down to the monastery. And here it's jackals et al. Wherever I go, I have to stop and photograph the stone walls. They have a life of their own.
It's good to read that Frost again.
Thanks for a wonderful post.

Katie said...

What a fabulous soothing photo! Love the river rocks too. I hope it's a little cooler here on this partially shady path. It's blazing hot in the SF area too. I have no air conditioning or even a fan, so I hope to see fog in the hills tomorrow morning. I would love to take a walk here on a cooler day!

Petrea Burchard said...

Dina, I do believe I'd love the Jerusalem Hills. Stone walls that "have a life of their own"--yes, I can picture that. I'm glad you like the poem. It's always been one of my favorites.

Katie, I feel for you--more humidity where you are makes it harder to bear. We have air conditioning but only turn it on when things are unbearable. Yes, it's on today.

Christie said...

Petrea, lovely shot! I love walls as well, and it is true that good fences make good neighbors! We just put one up this year and things are great!

My husband is really in to medieval times right now and wants to build a stone wall that resembles a crumbling ruin. I'm trying to get a secret garden type wall that will have a lovely garden inside with "curtains and fountains of roses". I wonder who will get their wish?

Pont Girl said...

There are so many beautiful places in Pasadena - it's too bad we can't have our PDP Bastille Day Eve at one of these locations, but I fear it will be trop chaude!

USelaine said...

I've always liked those craftsman era bungalows with river rock elements.

I hope you were wearing shoes under those frightful live oaks!

freefalling said...

My mind is still on the hedge.
Can you ask Ken if you can post a photo of him closer up?
Just the way he is standing on his ladder makes me happy.
I need to have a look at his face!

AND.....
once again you are psychotic!! (come on, you got to love that more than psychic!).
Stone walls!
Have just finished watching a doco on an Australian artist Andrew Rogers and his stone wall sculptures.
You gotta see them.
I think you'll love them.
(the page takes ages to load - just click on the Gobi Desert-China ones).
http://www.andrewrogers.org/

freefalling said...

Oh Dina - he's done some in Israel, too.

Marylène said...

Wonderful picture.
I never thought you had such places in Pasadena.
You would have explained that you had made a magic jump to the South of France I would have beleived you !

Profile Not Available said...

One of my favorite poems! Great photo

Petrea Burchard said...

Hmm, Christie, how about a crumbling ruin with a lovely garden inside with curtains and fountains of roses? You're going to win, I think, but keep me up-to-date.

I hope the weather breaks, pont girl. It can't stay this hot all summer, can it?

Shoe, you betchya, Elaine. I keep Boz out of the poison oak, too. There's plenty of it up there and he can transfer it to me.

freefalling, I was disappointed in the shots of Ken (not of the hedge) because the sun was so bright behind him his face didn't pop very well. I should have known better.

Marylène, it's one reason I love Pasadena so much. Otherwise I'd have to find a way to move to France right away.

Thanks, Kelly!