Silk Floss Shadows

Meet chorisia speciosa, the silk floss tree. They grow all around here. I grew up in Illinois. (Maples. Elms.) Flora-wise, moving to California is like landing on another planet. I wouldn't have known what to call this if I hadn't decided to post this photo, which forced me to look it up.

I found a pair of silk floss trees outside a famous Pasadena property. When we first moved here we marveled at the huge Tudor mansion we saw lording it over the arroyo as we crossed the Colorado Street Bridge. A few weeks later we gaped at the ruins when the home was destroyed by fire. (Some of the links in this article are dead, but there's a good photo of the fire's aftermath.)

Not much is left there now. But the gate house, its windows boarded, still stands, shadowed by two giant silk floss trees.

(click photos to enlarge)

Bragging Rights

Pictured here is the Millikan Library, named for Robert Andrews Millikan, an experimental physicist who joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology in 1917, back when it was still called the Throop College of Technology. Millikan earned the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect."

Before you start thinking Millikan was some kind of big deal, get this: more than one in 1,400 Caltech alumni have received the Nobel Prize. That's better than any other university, anywhere. Them's good odds. (Grammar's not a Caltech specialty.)

Other Caltech Nobel laureates include Linus Pauling (who received two Nobel Prizes: the Peace Prize and the Prize for Chemistry), William A. Fowler, Carl D. Anderson and Edward B. Lewis. Oh and a certain Albert Einstein was a visiting Caltech professor back in the day.

It's possible I could have a future Nobel laureate for a neighbor. Seriously. I already have a rocket scientist living across the street.

When I was in college, nerds were not cool. Times change.

Pasadena Votes

At election time, people often put a sign in their yard or window declaring who they're voting for (and who they want you to vote for). The people who live in this house just want you to vote.

A polling place can be a school, a church or even someone's garage. Late this morning we walked Boz to James Madison Elementary School to cast our votes on a few state measures, and in the presidential primary.

Today was the first time I remember having to stand in line and wait to vote. The poll workers said there had been a steady stream of voters all morning. As I waited, a young man came out smiling. I smiled back.

"My first time voting," he said.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" I said.

"Yeah. Feels good."

"It'll still feel this good twenty years from now," I promised him.

Wireless

Pasadena is well-populated with somewhere around 150,000 souls. We have street lights, telephone wires, strip malls and all the cement you could ever want. We also have more access to nature than most city dwellers do. Not just parks (although there are many outstanding ones) but actual hiking in actual nature. That's one (just one) of the best things about the place.

Looking northwest from the northwest edge of town—so far northwest, in fact, that you have to cross through part of Altadena to get there—you can see across La Cañada-Flintridge to the mountains of the Angeles National Forest.

"Everything north of town (once you cross Altadena) is the mountains of the Angeles National Forest," you say. Yeah, yeah, I know. I just wanted a picture free of cement, street lights and telephone wires.

(click photo to enlarge)

Big Doings

Last Tuesday I posted a photo of the entrance to City Hall and promised more pictures of that building. Today seems like a good day to post another.

It rained a lot last week (the yellow "caution" tape in the photo might be a warning about damp floors in the cloisters), but the day I visited City Hall was a bright day. In the interior courtyard, where the gardens have been newly planted, I caught this bride running after her groom. (As always, click on the photo for the best view). Was he running away from her, or would he be the first to arrive at their appointment?

Consider: high heels on wet sand.

Poppies at Parsons Plaza

Here's one of those places I drive past regularly, but rarely notice. (If we walked more often in southern California, we'd see more.) But flowers recently popped up on the plaza and I couldn't help but notice the place.

The flowers looked inviting, but a big, white office tower shadowed the plaza and a guarded lot was the only place to pull over. I waited until the weekend when there was no guard, to park in the driveway and get a photo.

So here's the plaza of the corporate headquarters of Parsons, 100 W. Walnut. From the "about Parsons" link on their website I learned Parsons was founded in 1944. It's a management, engineering, and construction company, and it's 100% employee-owned. I'm impressed by that. But that doesn't begin to tell you everything about them. The list goes on and on.

Theme Day: When You Think of Pasadena....

The Daily City Photo Blog community is having a theme day. "When people think of my city..." Each blogger interprets the theme and posts a photo.

I didn't manage to get it together in time to participate officially. Check out The Sky is Big in Pasadena, our other local daily photo blog, because Ben did manage to get it together in time. On his blog you'll also find links to the other participating blogs.

So my theme post is unofficial. I asked online friends around the world what comes to mind when they think of Pasadena. These answers always came up: the Rose Parade, the Rose Bowl Game, Arts & Crafts or Craftsman design, and old money.

Hmm. Combine those into one photo? Italianate design doesn't count as Craftsman, but as the former home of William Wrigley Jr. (of chewing gum fame) and the current home of the Tournament of Roses, the Tournament House fulfills the other requirements.

I highly recommend you browse the City Daily Photo Blog website, and give yourself a world tour. I find these sites enlightening, enriching, and more than a little addictive.