San Francisco’s Slow Food Nation Victory Garden in Civic Center is finished for 2008.
So, say good-bye to the windmill and the veggies and the exhortation “ALL OUT FOOD PRODUCTION!”
Will the VG be back next year?
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Check the now infamous Bill O’Reilly / Fox News video of San Francisco. Says Bill, in the context of personal safety:
O’REILLY: “No, you wouldn’t go to the Presidio at night in San Francisco. I wouldn’t.”
Check out the white zone up by the Golden Gate Bridge here. That’s the Presidio - it’s completely surrounded by low-crime white millionaire neighborhoods. Perhaps the famous Google Street View Car Incident from earlier this year ranks as the most noteworthy crime in the Presidio in recent memory.
The scariest thing ever in the Presidio seen at night - old school Halloween decorations near Arguello:
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Now, it’s easy to see why Bill might not like the official street signs of Presidio Boulevard, but would that sight prevent him from completing an evening constitution? Or maybe Bill confused this park with another? Golden Gate Park has it’s share of dangerous foxes, coyotes and feral cats.
That must be it. Otherwise, one might think old Bill doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Sure, why not drop by San Francisco Botanical Garden (nee Strybing Arboretum) over in Golden Gate Park? Even in late Autumn, there’s still lots of color around, as this Anna’s Hummingbird shows us.
Check out the Garden’s monthly schedule below.
See you there!
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SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY PRESENTS
GUIDED WALKS & GARDEN TOURS NOV. 2008
SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN AT STRYBING ARBORETUM
GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO
DAILY DOCENT-LED TOURS
Free docent-led tours depart from the Garden Bookstore (near the Main Gate) every day and from the Friend Gate (north entrance) every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead to reserve special-focus tours.
When: Tours from the Garden Bookstore:
1:30pm, Monday – Friday
10:30am & 1:30pm, Saturday & Sunday
Tours from the Friend Gate:
2pm, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday
Cost: FREE
CHILDREN’S STORY TIME & FAMILY WALKS
Join a docent-led Family Walk on the first and third SUNDAY of the month following Children’s Story Time in the Library. Kids and their families can dig into great garden stories, then venture out on a special tour of the Botanical Garden.
When: Story Time begins at 10:30am
Family Walk follows at 11:00am
Sundays, November 2 and 16, 2008
Cost: FREE
MONTHLY BIRDING FOR EVERYONE
This Birding Walk is especially designed for kids, age 7 and older, and their families, and focuses on the birds and flowers throughout the Garden. Participants are encouraged to bring a pencil and binoculars. Species from hummingbirds to hawks have been spotted! All children must be accompanied by an adult. Meet at the Garden Bookstore near the Main Gate on the first SATURDAY of every month.
Co-sponsored by SF Botanical Garden Society, San Francisco Nature Education, and the Golden Gate Audubon Society.
When: 10am–12pm, Saturday, November 1, 2008
Cost: FREE
MONTHLY BIRDING WALKS
Bring your binoculars and head off on a special guided Birding Walk, co-sponsored by SF Botanical Garden Society and the Audubon Society. Species from hummingbirds to hawks have been spotted! Meet 15 minutes before tour at the Garden Bookstore near the Main Gate on the first SUNDAY of every month.
When: 8–11am, Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cost: FREE
FOR ALL TOURS:
Information: 415/661-1316 or www.sfbotanicalgarden.org
Location: San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum
Golden Gate Park, 9th Avenue at Lincoln Way, San Francisco
Well it’s just been announced that the Presidio Trust Board of Directors Meeting skedded for November 13th has been postponed to December 9th, 2008. So plans to put in a museum with a (”b”-as-in-boy) billion dollars worth of art, a museum proposal that has refined art critics such as Kenneth Baker doing cartwheels, will once again get delayed.
See what the Presidio Trust is proposing here.
Check out the last meeting way back in July. Read a transcript here. (C’mon, it’s only 176 pages long.) And get up to speed on the Presidio here.
This is what it looked like the last go around. Click to expand.
It’s easy to get to the meeting.
See you there, you White NIMBYs!
Public Hearing
NEW DATE: Tuesday, December 9, 2008
**Board Meeting — New Date**
Presidio Trust Public Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday, December 9, 6:30 pm
Herbst International Exhibition Hall at the Presidio
385 Moraga Avenue
The public is invited to offer comments on the Draft Main Post Update of the Presidio Trust Management Plan and Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) (read more). If you have questions, please call the Presidio Trust Public Affairs Office at (415) 561-5418.
There will be no board meeting on November 13.
The public comment period will be extended. Please check back soon for the date.
An agitated SFPD police officer invited the driver of this BMW to get out on the freeway if he was in such a hurry. It seems there’s a crackdown on speedy drivers using the park as a shortcut to get across town.
The dog in the passenger seat appeared to sense the tension.
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The driver wasn’t at freeway speeds of course, but he might have “California stopped” (or Oklahoma stopped, either way) through a stop sign.
Let off with a warning, we should all be so lucky…
This is what it looked like the other night on dark, dark Arguello Avenue coming up out of the Main Post near Infantry Terrace. An unexpected river flowing down the bike lane, leaving you with the option of just pushing your rig uphill on the sidewalk (which some people do anyway, owing to the steepness).
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A busted water main or another unearthed spring?
You make the call.
Our National Past Time (The Ball Player), 1889, by Douglas Tilden as seen in Golden Gate Park this morning, complete with hula grass skirt and lei.
A more dignified view here and here.
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“Presented to the Golden Gate Park By a Friend of the Sculptor As a Tribute to His Energy, Industry and Ability”
After all that work on the Immigration Station and all that work getting rid of those darn eucalyptus trees (despite the efforts of P.O.E.T. (Preserve Our Eucalyptus Trees)), a good portion of Angel Island State Park is engulfed in flames tonight.
Click to enlarge.
via the photostream of LeeleFever
But if Tina Turner could rebuild Bartertown after all that trouble with Master Blaster, we can certainly get Angel island back into shape without too much trouble.
Godspeed, A.I.
This is the scene these days at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens (aka Strybing Arboretum). Can you see? It’s Passiflora parritae, the rarest passion flower in the world.
You can spot these vivid orange buds hanging off a Clethra suaveolenstree just south of the Chile area of Strybing.
A closer view:
This is the only animal that can pollinate this particular flower - Ensifera ensifera,the sword-billed hummingbird. But you won’t see this South American bird at Strybing.
Passiflora parritae might not be long for the world. You should try to notice it the next time you visit Golden Gate Park.
Not to be confused with the Disneyesque Farallon Restaurant on Post Street, the Farallones can only be seen from San Francisco on the clearest of days.
Atop Southeast Farallon Island is the Farallon Island Light, barely visible even in this magnified photo.
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There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
