They're Lucky They're Cute

Today's photo was taken in the wee hours by my neighbor. He's been having to patch up his yard every morning since a couple of raccoons discovered something delicious under his grass. You can see a bit of their handiwork behind the trap.

Those cute little animals tore my neighbor's lawn to shreds, yet the yards on either side weren't affected. These guys liked one yard and one yard only. My neighbor called the Pasadena Humane Society and rented a humane trap. He also got tips from PHS experts, who thought the problem might have to do with the fact that he'd recently put down new sod. Apparently, raccoons love the grubs and insects that come with new sod. A raccoon invasion can also have to do with watering lawns at night, which a lot of people are doing now due to our drought watering restrictions.

If you have a problem, check the PHS Wildlife Services page and click on Help With Opossum, Raccoons and Skunks for a .pdf full of useful information.

My neighbor is a nice guy, but he was frustrated after a few days of patching. The title of this post is a direct quote.

Update: The neighbors have caught a second raccoon. There are at least two more. It looks like a single group, not a continuing invasion, so they will catch and remove them all once then (hopefully) it'll be done. The family has named the first two Rocky and Rita.

Back on the Mountain

I love the Sam Merrill Trail. Depending on the switchback, civilization seems near...

...or very far away.

Until you get a ways up the mountain. Then everything below disappears into your note pad, your camera, your thoughts, your breathing, your stride.

The trail is open now, as is the Cobb Estate. J and I went about halfway up Echo Mountain yesterday and the skies were downright blustery. It felt good to be back on my mountain. (I share it with the Hiker.) I don't know how far you can go. Most of the Angeles National Forest is still closed (call 626-334-7582 between 7am and 7pm for specifics). But you can go for a good while.

None of Echo Mountain burned. Have at it. Pack out what you pack in. And no smoking. It's brittle as sun-dried bones up there.

Zen Monday: #66

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what the photo's about. I look for something worth thinking about or, failing that, at least something odd. And sometimes you have to look closely.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo, I'll add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary (if I know what it is).

Neighbors

I was talking to some neighbors yesterday about--neighbors. Neighbors are unique friends if you're lucky, as we are, to like each other. We have a good block here. We have a Neighborhood Watch with two block captains, we notify each other when we're going to be out of town and we keep an eye out for the old folks. Moms share kid duties and dog owners share dog duties. Sometimes we run errands for each other. We have an annual block party and socialize at other times, too, just because we want to.

When there's a tragedy, which happens, we do our best to be whatever support we can. It could mean calling the cops or the fire department. It could mean standing by, in case. Or just feeding the fish.

Yet we don't all know each others' private business. And that might be best, living in relatively close quarters. My closest friends live in other parts of Pasadena and Altadena, plus Burbank and Skokie and Cincinnati. They're the ones who've heard all about my dirty laundry.

My neighbors, though--they've actually seen me wearing it.

New Swank on South Lake

I'm always poking around on Hometown Pasadena, the brainchild of local publisher, editor, writer and whirlwind Colleen Dunn Bates. You can't help but scare up something great there because Colleen's got a little bit of everything. Last week she hooked me with this: Hometown Pasadena Five to Appear. It was an invitation to the open house for Granite Park Place, the new luxury condos currently under construction at the corner of San Pasqual and Lake. If you RSVP'd and showed up you not only got a peek inside the new condos, you got a free, signed copy of the latest edition of the book version of Hometown Pasadena.

Well, dayum. I wanted my free book.

I've featured these condos before. First here, then here. Obviously I was unprepared for the swank.
(Whether or not the interior design of the model is to your taste, you have to admit the dining table is out of this world. At least admit I need it in my house. It's ceramic or clay or something glazed. It probably cost at least as much as my car. I mean as much as my car cost new.)

The real estate personnel were gracious. Paul Sunshine of Domineum Marketing (right rear above), greeted me upon my arrival. He knew darned well I was not going to buy a condo. He knew I was not with the Pasadena Star-News but a mere blogger. He saw my blue jeans. Yet he gave me a friendly tour of the model condo.

While most people were down the hall chowing down on their beautifully catered bento box lunch, I shared the model condo's living room with no one but the string quartet. I took pictures while they serenaded me with a medley from Camelot. I wonder if the condos come with...? No, no, surely not. But one would have a string quartet if one were going to live in a luxury condo, doesn't one agree? In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot. Hey, I know my swank.

Judging from the number of unavailable units in the building, Granite Park Place is selling like Zhu Zhu Pets, even with the high price tag. Let's hope its presence perks up business on South Lake Avenue.

And oh yes! A coup! I got my free book! Signed by all five authors. Dayum.

Well, Almost Every Day

Sometimes I'll take a picture of something I like, and it's not until I post it that I go Googling to figure out what it is. I just like it, is all. Then it's late, and I'm tired, and I think "Oh, I'll just post this." And wait just a minute there, fella! I uncover something. Or I almost do.

There's a lot of public art in Pasadena--sculptures, mosaics, etc. At Plaza Las Fuentes just east of City Hall you'll find fountains, sculptures and brightly colored tile walls across a wide plaza connecting All Saints Church, the Hotel Maryland apartments, McCormick & Schmick's, California Pizza Kitchen and the Westin Hotel. So, you get it: big plaza. Lots of fountains, lots and lots of tiles, very colorful.

The City of Pasadena website provides fantastic walking tour maps of the public art. The one for this area shows three different possibilities for what we're seeing right here: items 4, 5 and 6 on the map. Item 4, "Dreamer with Fish" fountain by Michael Lucaro (can't find him online but I find a Michael Lucero. Typo, or I'm giving you the wrong link.) In the foreground we have a fountain, and it looks like a dreamy kind of fish. The background must be Item 5, "Pasadena, the City of Roses" tile wall by Joyce Kozloff. Yes indeed, a tile wall with roses on it. That's gotta be it.

Now take a look at item 6. "Tile Fireplace," mantle water fountain, by Ernest A. Batchelder. If you don't know Batchelder, well, he was a Pasadena townie who made such beautiful tiles for which we are so nostalgic that if your home has a Batchelder fireplace the price goes up. The City's website doesn't say when the piece was made, but Batchelder was born in 1875 and died in 1957, so--before that.

Well dang, I don't know what a Tile Fireplace mantle water fountain is, but I'm pretty sure I don't see that in my pitcher. I gotta go back and uncover that particular hidden treasure.

Theme Day: Contrast

This is not a scene from the Station Fire. It's the remains of a small brush fire that occurred within the Cobb Estate in Altadena within the last year. I thought it appropriate for today's City Daily Photo blog theme day because it shows the contrast of the burned forest in the foreground and the living forest behind it.

The Cobb Estate is a natural, wild area that belongs to the U.S. Forest Service. It didn't burn in the Station Fire but it remains closed (see the closed gates here) in order to aid the USFS in limiting access to the burn area. The station fire burned more than 250 square miles of forest and is still burning in some spots after more than five weeks.

We look forward to the reopening of our forests, although we know what we'll see when we get back up in the mountains will be in stark contrast with what we remember.

Check out the other blogs participating in today's theme.