Those that hang on burst out in resplendent fiery colors. Those that fall off cushion the ground as crackling covers waiting for the next grounds personnel to pick them up.
With this sudden fixation on the arboreal, the Christmas-New Year’s break provided me the motivation to explore the botanical gardens just across our walls. I was surprised at how oblivious I had been to a resource right at my doorstep.
This garden is particularly interesting as it houses endemic and indigenous flora, and preserves their associations with the indigenous Tongva Indians in the area. Unlike the palm lined boulevards on the silver screen, all contrivances of a rapidly impatient urbanizing drive, these gardens preserve glimpses of what SoCal might have been had it not been for the 49ers and their colonizing successors.
