Tag: trees

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 11, 202411:18 pm

The Festive Palm

We return to “The Menacing Palm” for what should have been a festive visit. His other guises include: “Be Mine“, “Hungry Bunny“, and “The Patriotic Palm“. But when attempting to write this post, I couldn’t access my website, for reason to be determined.

Chrome and Edge served up error: “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN”, which is a fancy way of saying that the domain cannot be resolved. The problem can be generated locally on the computer or elsewhere. Online, at my provider’s admin site, I found no apparent problems with hosting, so I presumed the problem must be with my laptop. But the obvious thing wasn’t the cause.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 23, 20249:31 pm

A Fine Fence

There is a purity to black-and-white photography that can make the mundane more—or at least, not less. The Featured Image, captured with Leica Q2 Monochrom, is today’s proposed proof. I unlikely would have stopped to shoot the fence in color, which would have distracted from the rather plain object.

But B&W draws attention to the straight lines of the wood, and even to the structure’s apparent purpose: To protect the tree, which could attract dogs and their owners willing to let the mutts defecate or urinate either upon the grass or at the trunk. Park Blvd in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood bustles with pedestrians and leashed animals. The simple fence is purposeful.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 20, 202410:40 pm

That’s Not a Lot of Snow

My hometown of Caribou, Maine averages about 279 cm (110 inches) of snow per season, which typically spans from mid-November to late April. But October isn’t too early or May too late for a dusting or meaningful accumulation. Depending on your measure of cold and snow, winter is as long as six months.

But 2023-24 is anything but typical. Snowfall is significantly below normal. According to outdoor enthusiast site Snoflo: “Snowpack levels across the state are currently 35 percent of normal. The deepest snowpack in Maine was last observed at Caribou Wfo [Weather Forecast office] with a snowpack depth of 7 inches [17.8 cm], about 35 percent of normal when compared to it’s 20 inches [51 cm] average depth for this time of year”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 10, 20248:57 pm

Tree Sign

While walking along Madison, just into North Park, my wife pointed out what looked like a branch placed atop a street-sweeping sign, today. She thought kids, then changed her mind on further investigation. A tree had grown up the metal post and come out on the back side.

This was a resilient, living thing—and another example of how conducive is San Diego’s year-round summer climate and fertile soil to growing seemingly anything at any time.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 23, 20249:25 pm

Distant Rainbow

I shot the Featured Image on this date seven years ago, using iPhone 7 Plus. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/1250 sec, 28mm (film equivalent); 3:37 p.m. PST, Jan. 23, 2017. Composed as captured. Presumably, I sought the faint rainbow in the distance.

The view—looking East towards Cleveland Ave. along Monroe in University Heights—could easily be current. Heavy rains pelted San Diego County, yesterday. In response to widespread, destructive flooding, today, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 24, 202310:26 pm

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so as I post, Christmas Day is still officially about 90 minutes away. But why wait? I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image, along Campus Avenue between Meade and Monroe in San Diego neighborhood University Heights.

Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28mm; 9:35 a.m. PST, Dec. 17, 2023. Composed as shot.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 19, 20239:37 pm

Autumn comes to Endless Summer

San Diego’s relatively dry autumn—eh, late Summer—will give way to rain, perhaps heavy, over the next few days leading into Christmas. That’s the forecast; we shall see if this time it’s accurate.

Quite likely, downpour with wind could easily strip the leaves from the tree in the Featured Image. Even in Southern California, some seasonal change can be seen among the great, green growing things. Cacti, palms, and succulents may dominate the landscape, and in seemingly unchanging fashion year-round, but they do not stand alone.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 19, 202310:24 pm

Hanging Houses

A quick, placeholder post replaces the one previously planned. In uncharacteristic fashion, Cali made a bed out of my lap tonight—and I let her. The other musing, dealing with today’s experience at the San Diego Library book sale, must wait.

These bird houses hang from one of two young trees planted where were a magnificent pair of Canary Island Date Palms. A few years ago, the city chopped down both, after the dreaded South American Palm Weevil infected them. Causalities are too many in my neighborhood of University Heights. I still mourn the palm that had been across the street from my office window and which similarly had to be destroyed.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 17, 20238:54 pm

Deciduous Delight

Six weeks or so since my last haircut and sports medicine specialist appointment today compelled me to get a trim yesterday afternoon from the Barber of Seville, who at 80ish continues to cut clients’ mops. His shop is located along the main business blocks of Park Blvd in University Heights.

I was on time, but George was late—focused on another customer who dragged out the cut with conversation. While waiting outside, I marveled at the turning colors of leaves on several trees. San Diego’s mild Mediterranean climate and Southern latitude (for the Northern Hemisphere) typically mean later-year seasonal change for deciduous trees. Leaves bursting with color, and being shed, is something seen in December for sure. November timing grabbed my attention.

Photo by Joe WilcoxSep 3, 20239:42 pm

Scarred Treeline

I am not much of a landscape photographer—lack of interest being one reason and negligible skill the other. The Featured Image won’t win awards, therefore, but it does capture what many Californians fear most: wildfires.

The burned out trees in the foreground are inside Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, where I have been to once—Nov. 28, 2008. The scorching may be from wildfires that raged across San Diego County about a year earlier. I don’t know, just guessing.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 28, 202310:22 pm

Ray of Light

Sigma DP1 returns for a palm shot to which I jacked up dehaze in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to produce the punchy Featured Image. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/100 sec, 28mm (film equivalent); 11:50 a.m. PDT, April 12, 2008. This one is composed as captured.

Looking at the date stamp, my question: Where did 15 years go? And another: Why do I barely recognize San Diego’s cultural and urban landscapes?

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 7, 202310:55 pm

The Swimming Pool

Rising and falling voices coming from outside our front window served as ambient noise as I puttered about the apartment this afternoon. Sometime later, I stepped through the front gate on an errand run, when one of the talkers—a younger woman—approached and asked if she could ask a question. The older lady accompanying her used to live in one of the apartments—50 years ago! The former resident recalled there being a swimming pool, or was she mistaken?

Oh, yes, long ago, a pool was the courtyard centerpiece, but the thing had been retired and filled in decades ago. Where people swam, a tree grows, as you can see from the Featured Image—taken today using Leica Q2—and the companion photo from iPhone XS on Aug. 16, 2019.