My home is located on a terraced street sliced off the side of a hillside, territory typical of San Diego. Whether I walk the upper side of the street, as my house is situated, or on the lower, I’m in deep debt to my neighbors for their yards and/or hillside plantings. In nearly all the yards, wonderful succulents and cactus not only hold the ground, often being native plants—but in recent years, have also opened my eyes to the beauty and vast variety of these plants, and their seasons.
I took the photograph above on one of many morning walks after rain. Titled “Jeweled Agave,” it’s been on exhibit in in the Exhibition of Photography at the San Diego County Fair and is a tribute to where I live. Also to the idea that you don’t have to travel to find amazing things to photograph: just look around you. Keep looking.
The neighbors are used to me, though recently, on introducing myself to new owners, I said, “If you see me in your front yard, sort of burrowing into your plants, please don’t be surprised or worried. I take a lot of photographs around here.”
During our recent rains, I took hundreds of images. Oh, and the blessedly dripping aftermath! Now I look for whatever I can find among plants which are often literally drawing into themselves and settling into living dry. The local climate being what it is, drought reigns all summer and usually well into the fall. Yet some plants also come into their own season now, even glory.
In my own backyard, too. I am so grateful to the owner and gardener before us, for all they planted over forty years ago. Large stands of succulents, especially the aeoniums, a variety colloquially called “schwarz kopf” or black head for its (sometimes) black coloration. I follow them throughout the year, from their dark ruby/rosy stage in winter and spring. Now, with summer settling in, they’re compacting, withdrawing into what I’d call survival mode. Those languid extended petals now fold in, turned to the increasingly warm sun.
So here are a few more images from the past few months, Come, take a walk with me.
Though—full disclosure— the first image is a calla lily plant; all the rest are succulents.
