So, yes, January is a very early time to see cherry trees start to blossom but what you’re actually seeing are plum trees.
Now both kinds of trees are pretty much the same thing, so no biggee, but plums come out earlier than cherries – global warming doesn’t have anything to do with that.
Oh, here’s what they look like, rather a bit more pink than cherry, in my experience.
Near Clay and Davis, Financial District:
And here’s a nice shot from Flickr:
See this giant hulking building?
Check out the old-school artwork in this 12,000 square foot structure straight outta 1916:
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Sixteen beetles, sure (why not), but what’s that coming out of the back of the car?
See?
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My campaign to get area residents to call plum trees “plum trees” is picking up steam. Now, remember back in aught-eight, when some people called mountain lions “cougars?” Good times,* right? Well, those days are history. And, similarly, tout le 415 will be calling cherry trees “cherry trees” by January 2014 at the latest.
You’ll see.
*”Cougar corners St. Mary’s Hoopster in Danville” – that kind of thing.
Don’t have an illustration of a blue turtle dream so this shot will have to do.
If you don’t recognize these planes, this bridge and that bit of land, well then welcome to San Francisco, stranger:
Click to dream
OK then. Now what about Five Star Rated The Dream of the Blue Turtles from a quarter-century ago? In it there’s a song We Work the Black Seam,* which is about the glories of coal and coal mining unions and the evils of nuclear power. Which is rather the opposite of how many look at things these days.
Take a look below if you wish.
And if you’re old enough to be familiar that tune, well then check out this version from a decade earlier. Wow, that’s heavy, man.
*In which Sting riffs on William Blake’s Jerusalem,** among other things. And it’s not this kind of black seam, it’s this kind.
** Speaking of the old days and unions and the Golden Gate Bridge, wasn’t it the workers of the GGB who started up labor actions rather than work side-by-side with black people about four decades ago? Yes. I don’t remember it myself, but it was during my lifetime.***
***And I’m not that old – my grandmother just bought a Hyundai and she plans on outliving it…
This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It’s hard for us to understand
We can’t give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation’s soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen****
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
The seam lies underground
Three million years of pressure packed it down
We walk through ancient forest lands
And light a thousand cities with our hands
Your dark satanic mills
Have made redundant all our mining skills
You can’t exchange a six inch band
For all the poisoned streams in Cumberland
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
Our conscious lives run deep
You cling onto your mountain while we sleep
This way of life is part of me
There is no price so only let me be
And should the children weep
The turning world will sing their souls to sleep
When you have sunk without a trace
The universe will suck me into place
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
****Uh, not really Sting, but anyway.
First started noticing these blooms a couple of days ago:
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Some people think they are cherry blossoms. Check it:
Well it’s late January in San Francisco so it’s time for our sidewalk plum trees to begin blossoming. Yeah, they look a lot like cherry trees and that causes people around town to start talking about how global warming / climate change is making the cherry trees of April wake up three months early or something.
You can double-check with the Friends of the Urban Forest if you want, but I’ll tell you, those flashes of pink you see brightening up the otherwise-dreary Streets of San Francsico these days are early-rising Prunus blireiana, aka Flowering Plum trees, or something similar.
Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with real cherry trees in March – check out the sked at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
If this January blossom is cherry, I’ll eat my hat:
This will be the scene in the Financh in a couple of months – our wild parrots love all kinds of prunus blossoms of course.
Take heart, Spring is just around the corner…
Well it’s late January in San Francisco so it’s time for our sidewalk plum trees to begin blossoming. Yeah, they look a lot like cherry trees and that causes people around town to start talking about how global warming / climate change is making the cherry trees of April wake up three months early or something.
You can double-check with the Friends of the Urban Forest if you want, but I’ll tell you, those flashes of pink you see brightening up the otherwise-dreary Streets of San Francsico these days are early-rising Prunus blireiana, aka Flowering Plum trees, or something similar.
Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with real cherry trees in March – check out the sked at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
If this January blossom is cherry, I’ll eat my hat:
This will be the scene in the Financh in a couple of months – our wild parrots love all kinds of prunus blossoms of course.
Take heart, Spring is just around the corner…
I don’t know, these polar bears at first looked to be part of some art installation, but it turns out that that’s just the way the managers of the buildings at 555 and 575 Market Street decorate for Our Winter Holiday.
O.K. fine. But Chevron’s an oil company, right? Most of the employees shipped out to San Ramon a while back, but are there a few left up there?
Oh well. Presenting the Bear of the Decade and Symbol of Global Warming, Ursus maritimus:
This one looks a bit weasly (or ferret-ty), huh?
Enjoy your polar bears, workers at Chevron Towers….
This man, recently seen on Franklin Street, has sworn he will never drive his Mazda 626 LX-V6 more than 60 MPH. Why? Cause he’s a part of the Pledge 60 Movement. Check out the sign that he printed at home (or at work, let’s hope, considering the cost of replacement printer ink, “starter cartridge” don’t get me started):
“I pledge 60 MPH max to save U.S. gas $“
Fair enough. Not sure how this would work on the nascent Trans-Texas Corridor where they’ll have an 85mph limit, or for that matter Montana where teen-aged girls on narrow highways will pass you in their tiny three-cylinder cars going 90+, but oh well.
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The Sierra Club has/had a similar campaign – “I Can Drive 55 (or whatever the limit is).”
Pledgers should keep to the right (avoiding those carpool lane-stickered Toyota Priuseses going 80+ on the I-80) and they’ll be fine.
Pledge on.
(These kinds of pledges probably will have a higher success rate than those chastity pledges that don’t seem to work.)
Well the arrestees had already been hauled away by the time I passed by the global warming protest in the Financial District at California and Kearny yesterday. So that left about 50 to contiune the rally until 2:30 PM. By that time, there were more cops in the area than protesters.
The kids don’t like banks funding projects, particpating in carbon exchanges and opposing legislation – thoses are the beefs. Anyway, here’s the big site that explains why they went after BofA on November 30th and here are a few local accounts. The Chevron HQ on Market is the next target so look out on Pearl Harbor Day,
Hi mom:
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A “parachute” the protesters played with. At least one ‘chutist was a passerby who joined in with glee.
After the arrests, there were cops everywhere, all around the building:
The mise-en-scene
See you next time.
Well, Earth Hour was marked in San Francisco last night with a whole mess of people scrambling up Twin Peaks to see the lights go out at 8:30 PM. Some expected the whole city to go dark, but that’s not the way it works. This photo of the Bay Bridge from last year shows how things operate.
See what Earth Hour 2009 looked like for yourself with a this time lapse video – City Hall, normally quite a bright building at night, is on the left. Watch it flickr off about ten seconds in. Click to play.
Now here’s the view from Twin Peaks just after 8:30 PM. City Hall is the black void at the bottom. You can see that the people at Pepsi, 505 Montgomery and the unnamed dome to the right got a late start on EH09 (assuming they participated at all). Click to expand:
Many bars and restaurants were lit just with candles. See a list of some of the participants after the jump.
See you (dimly) next year!
