Wednesday, January 24, 2018

A Walk Around the Block

On Tuesday, when I went on my afternoon walk, I took a slightly different route.

I went past the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral:

Former St. Vibiana's Cathedral

Past the large new apartment building next to the former cathedral:



New Apartment Building next to the Former Cathedral
 Past the big parking garage:


Parking Garage

 Then, turn right to go up the street at the corner:
 

Looking Up the Street

And past the recently opened community garden!
 

Community Garden


It was developed on a formerly neglected strip of ground behind a big parking structure and opened in 2016:


I just love the concept of a community garden in downtown

 There was a papaya plant in one of the plots:
 
Papaya Plant


 Along with some pineapple plants underneath:


Pineapple Plants


 (Nathalie, I thought of you!)

 Some of the plants were growing through the railing and reaching out:


Vines Growing Up and Through the Railing

The whole area is fenced off, but visible from the pavement:


A Pathway of Stepping Stones

 And I noticed the succulents growing along the fence, in pots - they are actually dragon fruit plants:

Dragon Fruit Plant

 A few feet away, there was this tree:
 

Street Tree


The lower part of the trunk is that of an actual street tree which had grown through the railing that had been around it!  I am not sure why they cut it (probably to stop it from growing any more), but they have kept the trunk and then, installed the plywood (metal?  I didn't check) "tree" above it!


Real Tree Trunk


 A pity it is covered with graffiti, but that's how it is:
 

Artificial Tree
And then, I continued to walk past the sculptures of the two super tall animal forms at either end of the six bloated "animal" forms I had photographed on an earlier walk, back to the office. 

Thank you for coming along on my walk.  I hope you enjoyed it!





12 comments:

  1. Enjoyed seeing your walk. You are doing so well keeping it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sandy! I am enjoying them, myself. :)

      Delete
  2. Graffiti is a plague, in my opinion, and not "artistic" at all. I would hang all graffiti miscreants by their thumbs. So many actual beautiful places are defaced by those scribbles. Ugh.

    Love the garden you showed! How big was the pot that the papaya tree is growing in, do you think? Mine is in a pot too but I'm assuming I'll have to transplant it and that makes me very nervous. Love the pineapple plants, as you thought I would, lol. The vine leaves look like some sort of squash, pumpkin or cucumber of some kind, doesn't it?

    Thanks again for sharing all the sights that you see when you walk. The variety is astounding!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nathalie, the papaya tree was growing in one of the planters, that was maybe 2 ft. by 6 ft., along with the pineapple plants on either side of it. I think, if you plant your papaya in the ground, it should do just fine. One of the vines that was growing along the railing was nasturtium. I wasn't quite sure what the other one was, but I did wonder if it was sweet potato.

      Delete
  3. Very nice walk.. Love all the beautiful buildings and the garden..

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved your tour and the juxtaposition of the old cathedral and new apartment building. That community garden is sure beautiful and the tree "sculpture" is really unique and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love sharing your walks with you! If I took a walk during lunch (which we don't really get because we have students in and out all the time), my pictures would consist of a field of cows, a couple of houses and some more fields! Life in rural NC! <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would enjoy seeing all those fields, Joy. When I went to university, in Wisconsin, the campus was close to a farm and I would walk past a corn field on my way to and from the apartment (student housing) and campus. There were also cows in a field across the road from the student housing and a red barn. I made friends with the farmer and his wife (the farmer worked on campus as a custodian, as well) and they used to invite me to share dinner with them from time to time. :)

      Delete
    2. That is awesome! I must say, I jokingly complain, but I love the fields, barns, old country churches, the animals and so much more. When my husband and I were dating, he was renting a tiny mobile home located right on the owner's farm. The owners left him buckets of potatoes, squash, collards, etc. on an almost daily basis during harvest season. He didn't know how to cook much of it, so I would cook us up a feast on our date nights. He even received packaged steak, pork chops and other meats when it was that time of year. It was truly the most quaint little place ever!

      Delete
    3. Sounds like he had a pretty good deal going, there! :)

      Delete

Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting. Your comments are much appreciated. Please comment in English. Thank you.