treed

When I was a kid, we had this gigantic tree in our back yard. We used to sit under it and read comic books or count ants. All my friends from the neighborhood (Roxboro Court, East Meadow, New York) would come and sit under it, too. We loved that tree.
I remember my mom always hated it. It gave off purple berries that stained the driveway. Sometimes, we'd come in the house with purple berry stains on the bottom of our shorts. But we didn't care.

The other day it was sunset. The light was pure gold. And I found myself walking down this street in Temple City I had never been on before. And no, this tree is nothing like the berry tree near my house in Long Island, but it did just grab me and stopped my heart. That is a big tree, I thought.

too much fun

Taking in one of the last rides at the Temple City Camellia Festival, a mother and her young daughter hold on and brace themselves for pure fun.
I noticed that not so many of the kiddie rides were being used Saturday night. Seemed like it was more of a teenaged crowd. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour I was there. Or just that many parents with young children who are new to the area don't know about the festival.
I wonder if the carnival ride folks keep numbers on this ....For me, it brings back memories of church carnivals in my hometown of East Meadow, New York. There was always a ride or a game I wanted to play or get on. It was one of the highlights of living in a small town. Well, like here, a small town amid a big megalopolis.

marched in

 

I unfolded my green chair on the curb, behind the Ralphs. I blew off the dirt. Then I sat and listened. The sounds of marching bands began filtering down Las Tunas Drive in Temple City. The 68th annual Camellia Festival Parade was underway.
The K is for the Kranz Intermediate School band. The school is located in nearby El Monte.

There's nothing more important than a drum major. And here, the drum major is clearly in charge.

 Don't mess with this martial arts school.... another participant in the parade.

 Leave it to the La Rosa Elementary School kids (and parents) to come up with some informative, if not amusing, signs and designs. La Rosa is in Temple City and is part of the Temple City Unified School District.

 No parade would be complete without a dragon. At least not in TC. It is the year of the dragon, yes?

 I'm thinking she's from Oak Avenue in Temple City. Not sure. Great balance.

 Berets?

 All you Pasadena bloggers, attention: Pasadena's PCC band invaded Temple City! Ah, it's nice to have a touch of Rose Parade in the camellia city.

 These next two photos show some determined trumpet and tuba players. Not sure but I think they are from Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park, Ca. Welcome Baldwin Park to Temple City.

Thank you Mr. Jack Taylor and all your associates for the Oak Avenue Middle School marching band. The Royals always are a big hit. They are often ranked as one of the top 5 junior high bands in the state. And you can see why in these photos.

 Precision.

 Concentration.

Having fun.

love a parade

An added bonus:
The Temple City High School March Band (Rams) in their appearance in the Camellia Festival Parade today (Feb. 25, 2012).
So many good bands!
Stay tuned for some photos of the other bands, sights and sounds of TC's biggest event of the year.

just underway

The Temple City Camellia Festival got underway Friday evening at Temple City Park (next to City Hall).
It was fun walking around, seeing old friends. Many that we volunteered with during the time our boys were in the schools are there, working the various game booths.
Here, a carney (worker) straps someone into the Swinger ride.
Let's hope the warm weather stays with us through the weekend, and for today's parade.

lawn ornament

It is either the largest drinking fountain I've ever seen, or it's the largest bird bath.
I spotted this on a front lawn in Temple City.
I am putting my money on bird bath.

insignificant

Celebrate!

sunset city

I was 17 years old when my parents took me to Los Angeles for the first time.
It was scenes like this -- palm trees and sunsets -- that I dreamed of and actually did see. The dreams were real in a sense. But I remember seeing the sunset over the beach at Malibu. I even got a t-shirt with a palm tree shadowing a sailboat and the letters M-A-L-I-B-U in sky blue felt in a semi-arc.

But this scene is actually of Las Tunas Drive in Temple City. It is at the western entrance to the city. And it is looking west, into the setting sun.

You're thinking, why is Steve obsessed with palm trees and sunsets?
Well, know you know.

Temple City Daily Photo: Railway to the sky

Temple City Daily Photo: Railway to the sky: It was Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe who built the Mt. Lowe Railroad above the Pasadena/Altadena area in the mountains. The ru...

Railway to the sky

 It was Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe who built the Mt. Lowe Railroad above the Pasadena/Altadena area in the mountains. The ruins, above, demonstratethe magnitude of the once popular railroad in the sky. Now, it is accessible only by a 3-mile hike with an 1,400-feet elevation gain above Altadena, CA. I made the hike Monday, President's Day.

 The incline railway tracks seen here as they exist today, Feb. 20, 2012, look like they are about to take off into the sky. Of course, the train turned left, hugging the San Gabriel Mountains, taking people from Mt. Lowe to Rubio Canyon. This all happened between 1893-1936 (see the National Register of Historic Places marker below, which is up there among the ruins.)

The large incline used steel wheels and pulleys. Here, a wheel remains of the incline railway. The marker above, left, point to the trail that gets you to the ruins.

My president's day connection?
There is a marker at the edge of the railroad ruins that explains it all. Lowe was commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln to run the Civil War Balloon Corps. This was quite a dangerous feat. The marker says Lowe was the most shot-at man in the Civil War.

Lowe, a Civil War hero (he ran his balloon corps for the Union Army, of course) an inventor and a legendary figure in the history of our San Gabriel Valley. The man who ran the railroad to the sky.

I guess this is the fastest and easiest way to get up to Mt. Lowe and Inspiration Point these days.

Oscar preview

Lights, cameras, ....fake palm trees!
The scene is one under Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles ,well, er,  in Hollywood. It is the Metro Red Line Station. Above ground  is the spot that pretty girls used to go to get discovered by a Hollywood movie mogul.
The Hollywood and Vine Red Line Station becomes the only working station in Hollywood next week, Sunday, Feb. 26, when the Academy Awards come to Hollywood and Highland at the It-Used-To-Be-Called-The-Kodak-Theater. That Metro Gold Line station will be closed all day for the Academy Awards.
We were in Hollywood today attending a taping of the KPCC-89.3-FM radio program with Larry Mantle "Film Week on Air Talk." The special Oscar show featured eight Hollywood movie critics talking about the nominated films and performances. The event was held at the Egyptian Theater, a 90-year-old theater in Hollywood. The show will air on kpcc.org as well on Friday Feb. 24 at 10: 30 a.m. For you non-So Cal readers, you can go to that web site and listen to it (download it, I believe). Listen for me and Karen clapping for "The Artist" as best picture.
That's a wrap.

gate

Sometimes, we all get a bit run down.
This gate was spotted in an alley on Hermosa Avenue in Temple City.

Just divine

My half of the Valentine Dinner. Karen: Je t'aime!
Karen cooked a delicious chicken parmesan with a homemade tomato ragu, spinach (home grown). Served with an Italian wine, Vendemma, I believe.

I followed with a Divine Chocolat Fondant (seen here). I found the ramekins at the Big Lots! on the way home from work. From there it was all egg yolks and chocolate and double boilers. Well, you can read the recipe.
I wrote a story about fair trade chocolate for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Pasadena Star-News and found myself on the website for Divine chocolates. They have a cooperative in Ghana. Karen wrote about it on the Businessweek/Bloomberg small business website so check it out for the whole story.

Last night, we used some organic, 73 percent dark chocolate from Trader Joe's which is the closest we could get to fair trade around Temple City. I'm going to have to go to Ten Thousand Villages and buy some fair trade chocolate and coffee this weekend. Didn't have time Tuesday night...couldn't keep my honey waiting! Dinner was great. We had a great Valentine's Day in.

Anyway, I digress. What was the topic? Oh yeah, love. Whether love was in the air or in the gooey chocolate fondant, I hope you had a good one.

ominous cumulonimbus

Gasoline prices are rising. They say by the end of May, they could be $4.65 or $4.85 per gallon.
Here, the storm clouds gathering over the newest gas station in Temple City, the 76 Station at Oak Avenue and Live Oak Avenue takes on new meaning.

Personally, I want to use less fossil fuel, less oil and less gasoline. But I do have to drive to Orange County once a week to teach. I've been thinking I will probably need a new car soon. My current little Jetta has 106,000+ miles on it. And I don't want to sink more money into another major repair. No, I didn't jinks it, did I? No way. But if I were to get a new car, I'd like it to be electric or plug-in or at least one that gets about 40 mpg.
Suggestions?

sun + parking

 In conversations with energy and water folks, they always say they support solar power. But that it is more expensive than relying on fossil fuels like oil or natural gas. I guess it is the price we must pay to clean up the planet.
Here, above, is a recent shot of the new solar panel parking lot structure at Temple City High School. It is still being installed and not yet operational.
The idea is to create electricity from the solar arrays on top of these structures. The power could be used to run the school's lights, air conditioning, etc. I think there may also be some stations for plug-in electric or hybrid cars, too.

gazebo III

I've returned to the gazebo. The center of Temple City Park.
This was shot on one of our recent warm and sunny day. You can tell from the shadows.

my camellia parade

 Temple City: Home of the Camellias.
If camellias are so honored in town, why are they so hard to find?
Here, above, is a stand of camellia bushes at City Hall. It is really the only grouping in City Hall of these flowering bushes.  How about a Camellia garden, with nameplates explaining each variety, origin, genus and species? That might go along with the new bust of Walter P. Temple.

 I had to sneak onto someone' s lawn here in Temple City to show this camellia bush. I like the red ones. Crimson in color, they are sometimes mistaken for roses from afar.

 White camellias with some red camellias. But here, they are behind a tree. I had to seach and search just to find some to shoot.

 These camellias are under a portico, part of an apartment complex. I forget which street this is in town. But you would never notice they were there unless you went looking for them. And this is in a town that very much celebrates camellias. They are also in bloom now, January and February.

 I had to lift my camera over a fence to shoot these. Why aren't these flowers and plants more prominent?

Just a different angle on these white camellias. I believe these are found on Temple City Boulevard.


So here' s my rant. On Feb. 24-Feb 25, the city will hold the 68th annual Camellia Festival. And at that festival, there is hardly a camellia in site. There is a carnival with cotton candy and all sorts of booths, rides, games, etc. There's a swinging gym ride and a Twister. There's a Zipper. And there's a throw the ping-pong ball into the gold fish bowl. But very little about the whole festival says "camellias."

 I say this year, have a huge area where you can buy camellia bushes. Have a florist or a nursery person on hand to explain how to grow them, feed them, nurture them. Maybe someone dressed in a period costume explaining how all this attention to camellias came about in Temple City. And not just for five minutes, but for the whole festival, so if someone misses the ceremony with the VIPs, they can still see and learn about camellias.

I'd like to put the camellia back into the Camellia Festival.

vault

!

Looks like he made it!
(Future Olympic pole vaulter practices his vaulting skills at Temple City High School Sunday afternoon)

Iconic

 It's iconic. It's very 60s. Help me architecture people. What style is this?
This is City Hall here in little old Temple City. It's brick and concrete "tower" is practically the tallest building in town. But what I love about it is the clock. It works and keeps terrific time.

Below is another view of City Hall I shot with my 200 lens from a nearby shopping center parking lot. And I guess I was wrong above about the tall City Hall "tower." The building directly across the street in the photo below may be the tallest building in Temple City. It houses the Temple City Unified School District offices. I guess in some ways, the photo shows the competition between the two biggest governmental organizations and two biggest employers in town.

a beary happy Valentine wedding

If you are going for cute, you can't get much closer than this.
As seen in a store display window on Temple City's Las Tunas Drive.

Green stories

"Eat your vegetables."
It has always been a call. But who listens to their parents?
So, 50 years later, I'm still hearing my mom and day issue the order.
"They're good for yah."
I like that Michelle Obama is pushing vegetables, healthy eating. She even has a home garden at the White House. While foodyism is in these days, I bet we still don't get our share of vegetables, grains, etc. At least i know I don't. Because bad habits are hard to break. So if you're interested, check out the column I wrote about this in the Pasadena Star-News.

Heavy burden

Just a reminder that there was a reason for what happened here in Temple City, on this block, Live Oak Avenue, and in many other nearby cities here in the San Gabriel Valley, on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 2011. Yes, the fierce winds. But also, yesterday a California Public Utilities Commission investigation found that about 13.4 percent of the power poles were overburdened, too weak to support the lines and equipment added to them, and that they did not meet CPUC safety standards.
That says a lot of things. Perhaps about a sagging infrastructure. An agency that lost track of what is important. It's also a metaphor for an information age that loads us down with too much information. Perhaps so much that we can't handle it all and we snap.(photo by Steve Scauzillo, Dec. 1, 2011).

working together

Watching these kids work on this sculpture at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens was quite fascinating. She seemed to be the leader, perhaps the older sister? Both (actually, there is a third child behind her barely in the frame) are creating, figuring out how to move the shavings onto the magnetic sculpture. It's all in the Children's Garden at the Library.