Boz Loves the Beach

Last weekend, to get away from the smoke, Boz and I went to Huntington Dog Beach. Maybe it wasn't the best idea I've ever had; the weekend is chaotic at the dog beach because everyone else has the same not-their-best-idea at the same time. So if the weekend is the only time you can go and your dog isn't under excellent voice command, I recommend a leash. But if your constant companion has been pent up in the house because you're trying not to inhale the smoke--oh hell, just go! Head on out and get yourself and your pal some negative ions. Pooch will think it's the greatest idea of all time.

But go on a weekday if you can.

(In case you were wondering, yes indeedy, the name Huntington Beach is tied up in history with that of Pasadena's own--okay, California's own--Henry Huntington.)

Don't carry too much. Poo bags, drinking water, your dog's bowl. We were there for two and a half hours and Boz stopped moving only long enough to have a treat and a drink, and he's no spring chicken. Although he would be happy to have a spring chicken, bones and all.

Update: Altadena needs a party and tonight is it! Head up to North Lake Avenue at 5pm for the Altadena Arts Coalition Project: Altadena Open House!

Stress

The Station Fire has seriously stressed me out. The smoky air, the online discussions about bad (or nonexistent) news coverage, the talk of costs in money, not to mention lives. And now that we know it was arson my mind is completely blown.

It's all relative. I live in Pasadena. My home has not, at any point, been threatened by the fire. Yet I'm stressed to the point of near-illness because of the effects this thing has on my community. My stress is nothing compared to that of the people who live up the hill in Altadena, or over the hill in Acton, or across the valley in Sierra Madre and Monrovia--the people whose bags are still packed in case they have to evacuate.

And the animals. It's too horrible to contemplate.

Then I think of the people who did have to evacuate. That's stress. But those who lost their homes are going through worse. Real people. I don't know them but I can put myself in their place, or lack of a place. It's devastating.

Real lives have been lost, too. Two lives, two firefighters. My heart goes out to their families. I'm so glad I married a guy who works at his computer. Having him here, now, is a great stress-reducer.

We talked about the firefighters last night. I imagine you have to love fire to be a firefighter. You have to love the challenge, the teamwork, the danger, the heat. The kudos, too, when you get them. You have to be able to deal with some major stress on that job, I would think. Maybe you even have to relish that stress.

We can never give them kudos enough, but we can try.

Olive

It has been a very tough week thanks to the Station Fire. I wanted to post a picture of something beautiful and sweet. Yesterday at dusk we sat on our front curb and visited with our neighbor, Olive. She let me snap photo after photo and I got my wish.

Here she is in color.

Excellent information on the wildfires may be found at
inciweb
altadenablog
altadenahiker
kpcc, our fab local public radio station

Altered Arts

Besides interfering with vision, the Station Fire is altering vision as well. I keep finding strange light, and I've heard of unusual sunsets all along the coast.

The smoke is doing stuff to my throat and nose, too, but I haven't figured out how to make art out of that. At least nothing I'd want to share with you.

Theme Day: Big

Update, 3:50 PM: in case you missed it, here's the alternative link for updates from Mount Wilson while the regular site is down: http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php

12:01am
For two days I've been trying to capture a compelling photo of the pyrocumulus cloud that hangs over the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena and Altadena. It can be seen for at least 70 miles. I know this because I shot pictures of it yesterday from Huntington Beach. (100 miles my friend Michelle says--she saw it from Santa Barbara.)

But I can't do it justice. There's no way to show you how big the Station Fire is--how much acreage it has burned in our hearts, how the sound of the air conditioner has become the sound of the flames, how we listen for the water-dropping aircraft overhead, how we wonder and worry about the creatures, the views, the smells, the land and the paths we walk--because the fire burns differently for each of us.

There are over 1,000 City Daily Photo blogs around the world. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in today's theme.

(Take a look at Gem City Images. Keith captured the cloud extremely well. Or view the cloud from San Pedro Daily Photo, where Lori Lynn got a great shot of it.)

Zen Monday: #61

Last night, from our back porch. Flames at left are above Altadena. Small lights at right are Mount Wilson buildings and towers.

Firefighter Blog
InciWeb
LA County Fire Department
Los Angeles Times (coverage has been excellent and up-to-the-minute)
Mount Wilson News
Mount Wilson Towercam
Welcome to The Meadows

this morning

Tinder

I was offline most of the day yesterday. Karin, Tim, Deb and Greg will be good blogger sources for what yesterday felt like in Altadena. It sounds to me like it was tense and scary. But people supported each other and helped each other face the tasks they had to face.

We were kind of doing the same thing here in the old 'hood, except it didn't require aircraft. We had a bon voyage party for our friends who are leaving Pasadena.

Yesterday in the comments here on PDP, USElaine said, "When we love nature, we have to accept all of it as a package." Yes, I think so. I think we have to accept it all in order to love it.

Life has such sadness sometimes, such hardship. If we embrace the hardship, might that enable us to find life's goodness? Is that how we locate happiness, by slogging through pain with our eyes and ears and hearts wide open?

"Accept all of it as a package"?

Yes, I think so.

They say some of that brush up in the hills hasn't burned for 60 years. Well, it's a process of nature. That brush has got to burn.

(Update: Thanks to Bellis for reminding me to check LA Creek Freak. Always excellent information there from Jessica and Joe.)

Irresistible Threat

A few days ago, this was this.

As flames close in on the hills above JPL and Altadena, I eat the words I wrote on my Thursday Overdog post: "obviously not threatened."

I wasn't going to take photos of the Station fire last night but I had to go look at it. We've all seen photos and news footage of brush fires, but to see this element doing its thing, which is neither good nor evil but magnificently ignorant of human values, is to feel awe.

I'll be asleep when this post goes online at a minute after midnight. Fire changes in seconds. At this writing, the Pasadena Star-News is reporting that the main JPL campus is "shut down" and some Altadena neighborhoods are preparing to evacuate. That could change at any second, just as the fire does. While John and I watched, the flames would disappear for moments, then reappear, red against the hillside, as high as buildings.

One neighborhood that may have to evacuate is The Meadows. It's a beautiful, rural area in the hills above Altadena. Greg Stanton, a very cool real estate agent, lives in and blogs about The Meadows and has more photos of the fire. It's from his blog I found this link to updates on the Station Fire.
In this photo, taken yesterday at about noon, Altadena residents watch the flames from the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Altadena Drive, not far below The Meadows. Incidentally, it's the first publishable photo I've taken with my new Canon 20D. I purchased the camera from Ibarionex Perello, who is probably out getting amazing shots of the fire right now. I'll bet he can't resist. I'll bet he has to go look at it. (Oh! I just clicked on his blog. Sure enough.)

Update, 8:40 am:
Kathy Christie Hernandez, our blogger buddy in La Canada Flintridge, is (as usual) posting excellent, up-to-the-minute information.
And check out more photos and info:
Tim, at Altadenablog.
Laurie, at Glimpses of South Pasadena, and click on her link to her overage blog.
Karin, the Altadena Hiker went up to the fire line last night.
Ben, at the sky is big in pasadena

Go ahead and click on the San Gabriel Valley blog links on the left side of the page here. I wouldn't be surprised if you find more.

Heritage Square: Past, Present, Future

I wish I could tell you the name of the photographer who took this shot. The photo is courtesy of Heritage Square Museum and was probably taken in 1968 or 69. Pictured are the Castle and the Salt Box, two historical structures from Bunker Hill that were saved from demolition only to be burned by vandals in the early days of Heritage Square. The building in the background is the Union Bank Plaza.

It might have been an inauspicious beginning. But Heritage Square Museum has survived and thrived, and is now the location of eight historic structures. I've featured a few this week, but let's leave some to the imagination. It's more fun to see the place for yourself.

When you go, you'll visit the gorgeously renovated, completely furnished, Victorian Hale House.


You'll tour the John Ford House, made remarkable by the fact that every bit of the distinct carving, inside and out, was done by Ford's own hand.


You'll see inside the Perry Mansion. You'll see the outside, too. It's all a treat—literally—it's a big old birthday cake of a house.


(Photo courtesy of Heritage Square Museum. If you'd like to be a costumed docent, keep reading.)
All the while, let your costumed docent tell you about the little things, like where they found the carved Newel post, or the pieces of lost trim, or the research into the original wallpaper. Ask what they're doing with all those Victorian fire engines. Is that real hair inside that frame? How do you move a building? And why is there a bathtub on the lawn?

Et cetera.

Be sure to ask what's coming up, because as much as Heritage Square Museum looks to our past it also has big plans for the future. There's room on the property for expansion, and those docents will tell you there's more to come.

(I posted some photos of yesterday's smoke plume from La Canada Flintridge on Overdog. If I get more shots today I'll add them.)

Heritage Square: Not Square

Even in 1893 an octagonal house was unusual. This was Gilbert Longfellow's second octagon house, originally located on San Pasqual Street in Pasadena near where Caltech stands now. The Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House has been part of Heritage Square Museum since 1986.

The house has been partially renovated and is currently used to display photos and other items. I loved the linoleum carpet and the view up the stairs.


Here's our friend Brian Sheridan, Heritage Square's Director of Development and Communications, standing in the doorway to the dining room. He's holding a recent LA Times article by Sam Watters about the Octagon House.
Some of the buildings at Heritage Square are completely refurbished and ornately decorated. Some are still rough.

Octagon House is squarely in the middle.
A view from a window in Octagon House.

Heritage Square: Idyll Worship

This building may seem familiar to Pasadena residents as the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church. Of course if you know Lincoln Avenue you know it's no longer there. The church is now a denizen of Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights. And it's okay that the stained glass window is covered in this photo because--well, keep reading.
The cornerstone of the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church was laid in 1897 and the church opened for services in April of 1898. Information about the architecture is at the museum's website. The church was moved to Heritage Square in 1981 to make way for a modern post office at Lincoln and Orange Grove.
Now do you remember?

(If you go a couple of blocks south of the post office to the very end of Lincoln Avenue where it meets the 210 freeway, you'll see a couple of older properties. If you squint a bit and shut the freeway noise from your ears, you can get an idea of what that part of Pasadena was like a hundred years ago when the church was new.)

In yesterday's post about Heritage Square Museum I said you can tour almost all of the buildings there. You can't go inside the Lincoln Avenue Church just yet because there are funds to be raised and work to be done to restore it. A building has to be taken apart to move it, and although the church is back in one piece you can see from the ceiling there's still much to be done. You can even make a donation to the museum to help in the effort.
Brian Sheridan, Director of Development and Communications for the museum, told me the church windows will have to be replaced. The current windows aren't the originals. They're temporaries that were put in by a Hollywood production company when the church was used for a movie set.

Do you believe I was so star-struck by Heritage Square itself I didn't think to ask which movie?

12:50 PM
POST UPDATED!
Brian just sent me this photo of an original window. What do you think? Worth restoring, eh?

Heritage Square: Enchantment

The Hale House.

When John and I were first dating we once stopped by the Heritage Square Museum. It was closed, but we always meant to go back. A peek down the quiet avenue was a glimpse into history.

Every time I drive by on the Pasadena Freeway and see the Victorian spires peeking out over the rooftops of Montecito Heights, I wonder: What's in there? Last Sunday I found out. If I were allowed only one word to describe what's in there, I would say "enchantment."

Heritage Square Museum is a mini-neighborhood of eight buildings, all built between 1876 and 1899 and all moved from their previous locations. (Plus there's a pretty cool old train car.) The five houses, one train depot, one carriage barn and one church are in different phases of preservation. Some are fully restored and furnished, some are still being studied and planned, almost all can be toured. Most of them are examples of Victorian and Edwardian architectural styles now rare in southern California.
Close-up of the train car, a recent museum acquisition.

Originated in 1969 as a haven for the last two remaining structures from Bunker Hill, Heritage Square Museum serves "to preserve, restore and interpret" structures that were saved from demolition and transported to this spot. Three of them (the Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House, the Carriage Barn and the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church) are from Pasadena.
Looking toward the Valley Knudsen Garden Residence from the porch of Hale House.

The original Bunker Hill buildings are no longer there. Just seven months after they were moved to Heritage Square they burned in a vandal's fire. (I encourage you to enjoy the Bunker Hill links. They are amazing.)

I took 271 photos on my tour. I'll post more over the next few days. I promise not to post them all.

How many times have you driven by Heritage Square Museum and wondered? Just go. Be enchanted. And I recommend you take a date.
Part of a collection of antique manhole covers at the museum.

Zen Monday: #60

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 provocative or, failing that, at least something odd.

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).

Things the Light Does

I like this--the light in its variations, the way it slants this way and that, almost blinds you in one spot yet you'd almost miss it in another spot if you weren't looking.

I went to two parties yesterday. One was a memorial for the mother of a friend. I didn't know my friend's mother. I just wanted to be there and it was good to see some folks I knew and to meet some folks I didn't, and to just be part of the support. My friend held up pretty well most of the day. I think a couple of visitors surprised her. A card or two, with handwritten notes, blindsided her.

The other party was a festive, front yard birthday celebration for our neighbor. His wife made cupcakes and homemade ice cream. The kids performed a "Happy Birthday" parade, playing the music on tambourine and drum. They had to do it twice because the birthday man missed it the first time, taking a phone call from his brother overseas. The birthday man and his family are moving away soon. I'll miss them terribly.

Another of our neighbors is leaving as well. I already feel the empty spaces their departures will create.

Artful Life

With beauty imperfect and uncontrolled; this is how I want to spend my weekend.

Recycling Efforts

I saw my friend and neighbor Linda Centell at the District 3 block party. You may remember Linda; she works with Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer. At the party, Linda introduced me to Gabriel Silva. Linda thinks the world of this guy and now that I know more about him, I do, too.

Gabriel is Pasadena's Environmental Programs Manager. Do you want to guess what that involves, or should I just tell you?

It'll take too long to get a consensus. I'll just tell you.

The Environmental Programs Manager is responsible for the following recycling programs: residential curbside, green waste, used oil, large venue/special events, compact fluorescent light bulb/battery, sharps (needles, syringes, etc.), e-waste (like the free collection events), composting and of course all those Christmas trees. His duties also include: elementary school education/outreach, household hazardous waste disposal, coordinating the Greening the Earth Day Festival, annual outstanding recycler awards, developing new programs to increase the City's waste diversion, managing several state grants, and reporting.

I know the above is true because I got it from Gabriel. Though it seems like a lot, a paragraph still doesn't give you the scope. Think of each of those duties as containing other duties. For example: did you know that a single Rose Bowl Game (large venue/special event) can generate as much as six tons of recycling trash? Someone has to pick up all that stuff. And sort it. Eeuw.

Silva doesn't collect all those cans himself. He coordinates the effort, though, by teaming up with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to employ 50 to 80 young adults to help at UCLA Home Games, the Rose Bowl Game and the BCS Bowl Game.

I'd say something about how well he delegates his staff, except if I understand it correctly there's only one staffer to delegate. So I have to assume Gabriel does a lot of the work himself. When Linda introduced us, we interrupted him collecting the trash bins from the block party. It was a Saturday, but these things have to be done and when you don't have underlings to do them for you, you do them yourself.

Just take another look at Gabriel's list of duties and think about that.

Ow. My back is killing me.

Here's more information about recycling in Pasadena.

Empty Mailbox

In attempts to save paper I've set most of my bills to arrive electronically. I pay them that way, too. Via the U.S. Mail I receive a lot of stuff I don't want--advertising, mostly. I can't remember a time in my life when I've purchased a product from a direct mail ad; all that stuff goes directly into the recycle bin.

Snail mail hasn't lost its value for me. Until my employers give in and choose direct deposit, I still receive my paychecks that way. And I like my mailman. To keep him working, I mail the occasional greeting card.

But I can't remember the last time I received a hand-written letter. Nor have I written one, sealed it in an envelope and mailed it to a friend.

Win Yerself a Quality Pasadena Tee

What building is this?

First one to answer correctly gets a Pasadena t-shirt (size small, that's all I've got). The shirt's an attractive navy blue with sophisticated gold lettering. I'm in possession of this nice, new shirt partly thanks to the generosity of Ann Erdman, Pasadena PIO, and partly thanks to the fact that I don't know what size I wear. (Well, now I do, and it ain't "small.") Answers will be accepted only in the comments section for this one.

John, Boz and I are going to the dog beach today. I'll announce the winner when we get back. But you guys'll all know by then anyway. Good luck and thanks for playing!

Big Bang University

Locals will recognize NASA's Caltech/Jet Propulsion Lab, which looks like a college campus. I remember being surprised about that when I first saw it. I think I expected something high-tech and sleek, like from a sci-fi movie about a "jet propulsion lab," because I didn't know what a "jet propulsion lab" was. I still don't.

My neighbor is one of the geniuses who developed the Planck Space Telescope. It just started collecting data last week. On its mission to "collect light left over from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe," this telescope is looking to help scientists like my neighbor answer the question of how the universe came into being.

I live across the street from that guy. He's nice. How does he even have a conversation with me?

If you enlarge this photo you can see the birdie.

Zen Monday: #59

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 provocative or, failing that, at least something odd.

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).