A Warm New Year's Wish

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a cold night in 2011

To those from other places currently gracing Pasadena with your visit, be it for the holidays, the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Rose Bowl Game or merely lunch, welcome. 

I hope the weather warms up for you. A frosty night is no big deal in many parts of the world, but in Pasadena on New Year's Eve, if you camp out on Colorado Blvd., air horns and silly string are not going to keep you warm. 

Does anyone recall a (relatively) recent Tournament of Roses Parade when it rained? 2006, maybe. I remember those poor majorettes in their skimpy costumes, their booties filling with water, gamely tossing their batons but unable to catch them because the rain kept getting in their eyes. Everyone was freezing, even the horses. 

It won't be that way this year. The forecast says things will warm up a couple of degrees for Thursday, parade day. It'll be sunny, if a bit crisp. That's OK. When you're marching 5 miles, you tend to heat up. At least, so I imagine.

Happy 2015 to us all. I mean it.

*****

The "grandaddy of them all"—all City Daily Photo blogs, that is—has posted its final photo after ten years. Today Eric Tenin is retiring his groundbreaking Paris Daily Photo, which serves as an archive of inspiration to me and other bloggers. Thank you, Eric. I already miss you. 

Me and John atop Notre Dame Cathedral in May of 2006. We fell in love with Paris. About a month later I found Paris Daily Photo and I've been a fan ever since.

Hahamongna Alternatives

Hahamongna Watershed Park, named for the Native American village that once nestled there, is one of Pasadena's prettiest places. Now, it's NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that nestles, framed by the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Hahamongna is what it is: some open space, some utility poles, some water spreading basins owned by Pasadena Water and Power, some pathways and trails. It's big and beautiful. Partly wild, partly not. Pasadenish use it for recreation as well as utility, not to mention an important water source. It's also home to coyotes, bobcats, rabbits, snakes and the occasional mountain lion.

Hahamongna's borders touch Pasadena, Altadena and La Canada Flintridge. At its south end is the Devil's Gate Dam, which keeps runoff from the San Gabriels in check so it doesn't flood the Lower Arroyo. Los Angeles County Flood Control manages the dam.

And now the county has a plan to dig out the greenery you see in these photos, and leave the land bare.

Every kid learns in school that plants limit erosion, but despite this fact the County Board of Supervisors decided the "Big Dig" was a good plan to keep silt from building up against the Dam. Surely too much silt is not a good thing, but we don't all agree on the plan for removing it. The County says 425 trucks a day, 5 days a week, for 5 years, is a good idea. That's one truck almost every minute, rumbling through the residential neighborhoods of La Canada Flintridge, west Pasadena and west Altadena. The Arroyo Seco Foundation and a group of Pasadena citizens have offered less drastic plans, but these alternatives have been ignored.

You'll guess my opinion: a less drastic plan is a better way.

A group of concerned, active and influential citizens is raising money to sue the County. They need to pay for it.

You can contribute to this effort and get some immensely cool premiums, donated by people who care.

I think Hahamongna is well worth it. Thanks for listening (I did the voice-over on the linked video), and thanks for donating. Send in a buck! Or more! You don't have to be from Pasadena to contribute, but you become an honorary citizen in my heart.

Hahamongna Detail Week, 4

If you look closely at this photo, you'll see Boz was a younger dog when I took it. I still think it's a fun shot, and so does he.

We've encountered rattlesnakes at Hahamongna many times. They don't want to bite you. They just want an opportunity to get away. So when you come upon them, you do not sniff them or lick them. You stand back and let them pass.

It's also a good idea to keep your eyes open and stay on the path, so you don't surprise a rattlesnake in the grass.


This week, Boz is giving you a tour of Hahamongna Watershed Park to show you some of his favorite details. I'll check in and respond to comments as much as possible. It shouldn't be too hard. I hope you're having a week full of wonders.

Hahamongna Detail Week, 1

Hahamongna Watershed Park is not beautiful in a conventional sense. It's not crashing waves, alpine meadows, or even amber waves of grain, though on some days the skies are glorious. Much of the growth here is native California scrub.

There are what you might call sweeping vistas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

Conventional beauty has never been Boz's thing. Give him the wild smells and plenty of things to pee on, and he's happy.


This week, Boz is giving you a tour of Hahamongna Watershed Park to show you some of his favorite details. I'll check in and respond to comments as much as possible. It shouldn't be too hard. I hope you're having a week full of wonders.

The Other Other Pasadena

Snow topped the mountains yesterday, but I didn't get that picture.

Water Everywhere

Tucked up above Devil's Gate Dam and below NASA's (or, as we like to think, Pasadena's) Jet Propulsion Lab, is a hiking/biking/dog walking heaven called Hahamongna Watershed Park. Most of the time you'd be hard pressed to find much water there. But after a weekend of rain, boy howdy! Devil's Gate Dam was doing it's job, and the watershed basin lived up to its purpose.

Where did they get that name, Hahamongna? Try saying it five times fast. I shouldn't complain. People have trouble pronouncing my name all the time.

Those river rocks I mentioned before--I believe they're manufactured in places like this.