This was a special day in so many ways. Jerry was going to drive several freeways to the Huntington Gardens. It would be a bit of a splurge. The admission is a bit spendy and the gardens have a formality and organization lacking at most of the other SoCal gardens. Do your gardens have the original Blue Boy by Gainsbourough? Didn't think so.
Few people know this but after closing hours the groundskeepers round up the stray peacocks and bulbuls and put them on a bus to the arboretum. Keeping up appearances.
I took a beat to decide what to wear. Usually the decision is easy. Consider the weather and then consider what is clean. I even thought about wearing a nicer pair of boots. Black boots that show the dirt. I think I've worn them to a funeral once. Anything fancy was voted down. I turned my shirt backwards so the bit of a bleach spot wouldn't show.
We had 3/4 of a nice sandwich and a box of power bars in the glove box as a backup. Our plan was to indulge in lunch at one of the atmospheric restaurants.
It wasn't meant to be. We were greeted by signs stating the garden was sold out. Just our luck to arrive on the one day a month that garden entrance was free if you could score tickets via the internet.
We did have the option of buying a family season pass to gain entrance. A fine choice if you live nearby. It boiled down to not wanting to be in a crush of humanity.
So we had to devise a Plan B. Descanso Gardens would fill the bill.
Not terribly expansive and lovely in its own way. The day was overcast and the sun was trying to burn through. Warblers, woodpeckers, and a variety of tiny birds were flitting about the tree branches. Suddenly we feel a big bird swoop closely overhead. A cry goes up. Lookit lookit lookit!!!! There is a term in bird watching: GISS. "GISS stands for General Impression, Size and Shape. a military term originally. also variously known as jizz and gesalt. GISS to birders means learning the art of identifying and mastering birds by their (usually)species-unique quirks, shapes, sizes, antics, behaviors, etc....the impression they give you...." not sure where this quote came from...
Big. Silent. Green. Hey! That's a parrot!
"According to the research of the California Parrot Project, founded by Kimball Garrett of the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, there are at least 10 species of parrots that have become naturalized throughout Southern California, from San Diego to the northern reaches of Los Angeles and east to Redlands. An estimated 2,500 feral parrots are living freely in California."OCRegister
