Palm Springs 1 - 4 May

   A typical low rise villa in the desert city of Palm Springs.  Many Hollywood stars had homes here, like Elizabeth Taylor for instance.  Some still do probably.  It is very quite at the moment, as the temperature is  heading for around 40 degrees.  However it is a very dry heat, so not too bad.  The "snow birds", as the people who come here for winter are known, have now left for cooler spots.

  The courtyard of our condo.

  Now this is what we call a wind farm!!!  It is the San Gorgonio Wind Farm, the third largest in the world, passed on the way to Joshua Tree National Park.

  Myrtle the Turtle (actually a tortoise) at the town of Joshua Tree, gateway to the west entrance of the park.  

  Our first walk in this desert park was the Hidden Valley Trail.  It is in the Mojave Desert part of the park.  The huge Boulders form a natural corral, making it a legendary hideout for cattle rustlers in the days of the Wild West.  

  The park gets its name from the abundance of these eerie looking Joshua trees.  In 1851 the Morman travelers saw in the twisted branches the upraised arms of Joshua from the bible.

  Being Spring, the desert was a mass of colourful flowers.

  Cactus.

  Mojave Yuccas.

  On the Barker Dam Trail, one of the few spots with any water.

  A cattle drinking trough, we think.

  At Keys View, the view over hills towards Palm Springs was very smoggy as usual,  however we did spot this snake - unfortunately? not a rattlesnake.

  At Jumbo Rocks.

  We continued south in the park through the Colorado Desert, which had much less vegetation. This is the Cholla Cactas Garden.  The cholla is very nasty if you touch the spikes - they have barbs that make them difficult to remove.

 Last stop in the Joshua Tree Park, the Lost Palms Oasis at Cottonwood.

Next day we went to Indian Canyons, the ancestral home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, for another walk.  This time in the very dry 40 degree heat.  It wasn't too bad.  The Californian fan palms here are fed by natural springs from the San Jacinto Mountains.

  

  We took the Andreas Canyon Trail and some of it was though a Palm filled oasis.

  Bill enjoying the cooler spot.

  A lot of the trail however, was in the baking sun.  Worthwhile though, because it was very beautiful.

    Later in the day we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a cable car which climbs 1829 vertical metres up the San Jacinto Mountain in about 14 minutes.

  These cable cars rotate as they climb.

  The temperature changed dramatically and towards the top and we passed snow.

    We took a walking trail at the top, rather scrappy, but did see this deer.

More on Pasadena

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We had a lovely time with Ella, Kirk, Jarrah and Hugo.  Here, we were walking along a trail at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.

  Hugo and Jarrah demonstrate their amazing Lego creations.

  Bed time now.  Ella and Kirk have a really nice art and craft style home.

We spend all of our last day in Pasadena at the fantastic Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.  Henry Huntington (1850 - 1927) made his fortune building a network of trams in Los Angeles and with his wife Arabella amassed one of the most important libraries and collections of 18th century British and French art in the world.  There is also a growing American art collection.  The photo is the outside of the library.

  Inside the library with its collection of manuscripts.

  John James Audubon (1785 - 1851), a drawing from Birds of America.

  The Ellesmere Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales) by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 - 1400).

  The Gutenburg Bible, printed Mainz, Germany 1455.

  More than a dozen different gardens make up the Botanical Gardens, including the Rose Garden.

  The Shakespeare Garden.

  The Cactus Garden.

  Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy, 1770.  The British and French art is on display in what was the Huntington's residence, a Beaux Arts mansion.

  A drawing room in the mansion.

  Edward Hooper (1882 a1967), The Long Leg,  in the Galleries of American Art.

  Mary Cassatt, Breakfast in Bed, 1894.

USA April/May 2017

Pasadena, Los Angeles  27 April -1 May  2017

Here we are in the country of the Stars and Stripes.  Had a good flight over.  We were put in the top bit of the plane in a row with just two seats, great!  The plane was on time, had fairly comfortable seats and reasonable food.  Good old Qantas!

    

View from our hotel room in Old Pasadena, looking over towards the San Gabriel Mountains.  Pasadena is a beautiful oasis in the crazy world of La La Land.

  The Pasadena Beaux Arts City Hall.

   

  Testing the waters in the courtyard of the City Hall.

 

 Bill between the nine foot heads of the brothers Mack and Jackie Robinson, sports heroes and racial barrier breakers.

   The Pasadena Museum of Californian Art was very interesting.  There are three exhibitions on at the moment. One is by Joseph Kleitsch (1882 - 1932).

  Another is woodblock printer Gustave Baumman (1881 -1971).  This is San Franscisco before it was filled with buildings.

  The third exhibition is sculptural.

  Pasadena is the centre of the Arts and Craft Movement, stressing simplicity of design with superior craftsmanship.  The 1908 Gamble House, designed by the Green brothers, is an excellent example and is open for public tours.  It was used as the home of the mad scientist, Doc Brown, in the  Back to the Future movies.

   The stained glass front door.

  A view of the garden from inside.

  All the furniture is beautifully hand crafted.

  Pasadena also boasts the wonderful Norton Simon Museum, with masterpieces spanning more than 2,000 years of Western and Asian art.  This is a Paul Cezanne, Farmhouse and Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan, 1884.

  Edgar Degas, Dancers in Pink, 1886.

An Aristide Maillol work in the sculpture garden.

  Barbara Hepworth, Assembly of Sea Forms, 1972.

  Diego Rivera, The Flower Vendor, 1941.

An  Indian Dancing Shiva.

  It's amazing to see how many Australian native plants are growing here, like this kangaroo paw in front of out hotel.