The end of summer

Tonight was Halloween.

I thought it would be interesting to consult Wikipedia on the history of the the celebration. The origins of Halloween have been linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which comes from the Old Irish for "Summer's end." It was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. It marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter (or the darker half of the year). It involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food.

This house was ready for trick-or-treaters, but I think I might be too afraid to approach it after dark.

"At first cock-crow the ghosts must go Back to their quiet graves below." 
~ Theodosia Garrison

Sunrise, sunset

This was our sunrise this morning and it looks like there is a sunrise over the upcoming Promenade at Downey. The workers are starting to lay underground stuff for the street that will be going through the property from Lakewood Blvd. over to Bellflower Blvd. That's the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in the background.



Sorry for the chain link fence. I couldn't get my camera high enough to see over it.



This was our sunset tonight. They say a storm is coming through tomorrow or Saturday.



The sunset was Definitely fiery red tonight.

The serenity of nature

We visited Los Amigos Country Club today to practice our putting. I think golf courses are some of the most beautiful places in the city, any city. This is the first tee box and fairway. The tee box is lined on both sides with purple morning glories and the fairway is lined with tall trees.

Another part of golf I love is even if you don't hit your ball down the fairway all the way to the green, which is a good thing, you still get to enjoy the serenity of nature.

And if you're playing with a foursome, you get to smell the flowers and look down the fairway for several minutes. What a massage of the soul.

Ice cream and cookies

Sure, Halloween is about ghosts and goblins and scary things in the night. But let's face it—it's really all about the candy.

But for as long as I can remember, it's been about the wrapped candy. I mean, I always had to throw away anything that wasn't in a sealed wrapper. So cookies and ice cream were never part of my trick-or-treat haul.

But that doesn't stop cookie and ice cream shops from getting into the act. The Ice Cream View (above) and Mrs. Field's Cookies (below) at Stonewood Center are not about to be left out of the fun!

Tie a pink ribbon

Yesterday I showed you breast cancer awareness in the storefront. Today, I promised to show you the city's efforts at promoting awareness.

But then I got to thinking—I really don't know who is responsible for these pink ribbons that line a couple of blocks of downtown Downey Avenue. My usual source of information—Google—turned up nothing.

And I don't know if these ribbons with their cards are honoring breast cancer survivors or breast cancer victims.

Either way, the ribbons do promote awareness, and remind us to take the steps to have a plan to detect the disease in its early stages and encourage others to do the same.

We're stronger together

October is breast cancer awareness month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States (other than skin cancer).

The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign was founded in 1992 by the late Mrs. Evelyn H. Lauder with the launch of the Pink Ribbon, the universal symbol for breast health. This year's slogan is "We're stronger together."

The Downey Assistance League in downtown Downey is doing its part to promote awareness. Tomorrow I'll show you what the city is doing.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

All around the neighborhood, more and more Halloween decorations are starting to pop up. As Pam mentioned in her Halloween post last week, some houses can be a little too scary. In daylight they are fine, but once the sun sets, things can take on an entirely different feel.



"There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch." 
~ Robert Brault

Another view of The View

Here's another view of the colorful affordable living housing called "The View," in downtown Downey. (See The View for the previous view.) This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, so I'm guessing that construction is nearing completion by now.

Peaceful places

This is the intersection of Congressman Steve Horn Way and Caring Way. It is a peaceful set of roads set back from the constant bustle of Imperial Hwy just south. I ride my bike here on my way to and from work. It is much safer than the direct route and easier on my nerves.

Today I noticed something though, a set of three ground boxes for the streets. The first was labeled "streetlights." The second was labeled "traffic signal." And I thought to myself, "What traffic signal? There is barely enough traffic to warrant the stop signs." Then I thought, "They're here for future traffic signals, when the traffic will warrant it." I hope not. I hope it never loses its peacefulness.

The third box read "fiber optic." Downey doesn't have the FIOS fiber optic network, so why do we need conduits for fiber optics?

"I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety." 
~ Psalm 4:8

Signs of the time

In some places you can tell it's fall by the changing of the leaves. Here in Downey we know it's fall by the articles for sale. These dolls, along with pumpkins and other fall decorations, are on display outside of Michael's at the Downey Landing.

Lonely rails

There is something very lonely about this area of Downey. The railroad tracks seem to wind their way past these old buildings.

“All great and precious things are lonely.”  
~  John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Lonely at night

Back to the PIH medical office building for one last visit, this time at night.

At night, the color is gone. (See Shades of Greece in Downey?) Although nicely lit up, the effect is more lonely than welcoming.

Surrounded by geometry

Continuing with the PIH medical office building...

In addition to the colors (see Shades of Greece in Downey), I'm also attracted to the geometric designs that make up the office building.

The diagonals created by the stairs and the shadows, along with the window squares, create a fun pattern.

And above the main entrance, the brushed metallic finish is broken up by a single line of window squares, kind of like a futuristic pair of wrap-around sunglasses.

The Garden of Dreams

Along the corridor that runs from Nelson NICU at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego (where my grandson was staying) was an open area called the Garden of Dreams. It is a beautiful place, intended to offer families a place to go to have a little chance to escape and take their minds off their medical care.

To quote the Children's Hospital website:  The concept of this garden is rooted in our commitment to consistently nourish the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of children, their families and our staff through our healing environment. Our wish is that when visitors leave the garden, they will feel strengthened and renewed.

The path through the garden meanders under huge sailcloth butterflies flying overhead where bugs of all colors and sizes can be found.

The garden is a place of refuge. The theme of nature and art is intended to bring a peaceful feeling to all those who center.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" 
~ Robert Kennedy

Shades of Greece in Downey?

The bright white walls and contrasting blue windows of the PIH medical office building remind me (OK, I know it's a stretch) of the pictures I've seen of the Greek islands. (See this example.)

I notice this every time I drive by, so I finally decided to stop for some pictures.

Lucky 7 art

Yesterday I shared with you my experience of listening to the Downey Symphony. At the same event, the Downey Arts Coalition sponsored an art exhibit titled "Lucky Number 7." Each artist included the number 7 in their work in some way.

One painting I admired had a barefoot woman among 7 trees. The above artwork is by Lindsay Yost, shown standing next to her art. The work is done by placing broken pieces of ceramic in just the right spot to create the image. Lindsay's husband made the frame for her. By the way, the cost of the work is $700.

The Downey Symphony

The Downey Symphony is our local portal into the world of classical music. It is where great talents come together to welcome us into their world of great music via live performances.

This last Saturday, we were drawn into this world by Anthony Moreno, a baritone soloist who started his singing education at El Camino City College and then became a Bob Cole Scholar and a student of Shigemi Matsumoto at California State University of Long Beach. He is now at USC for his Masters. He is seen here with one of his many admirers, Jaiden, who is also a local talent.

And just like all performers, put the spotlight on them and they ham it up.

Check out the symphony's website and come to their next concert coming up on January 24, 2015.

"Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”
~ Maria von Trapp

The "writing" is on the wall

I'm back in San Diego visiting my grandson who was born 6 weeks early about three weeks ago. He is in Rady Children's Hospital. A couple of days ago I met Wendy. She was working on a mural for the wall you see as you enter the Nelson NICU ward.

One of the things I find so impressive about Children's Hospital is how much effort they place on making the buildings (and therefore the experience) welcoming and beautiful. There is a variety of art on the walls, from quilts to pictures to interactive children's activities to murals. It is one of the things that makes their hospitals unique.

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder." 
~ E. B. White

Shadows

Shadows are always fun. So when I saw these shadows the other day on the newly constructed school rooms at Downey High School, I had to stop for a photo op.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Suitable for young children

When my daughter was younger, there were several houses in the neighborhood that terrified her during Halloween. The decorations were great, but a tad too realistic and grizzly.

This house, on the other hand, is more like the Disney version of Halloween. All the characters are the kinder, gentler version—the pumpkins, the witches and scarecrows. I like this version.

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.
~ From Scooby-Doo

Furman is changing

The process feels like it is going slowly, but it does seem like every day I walk through the park, they are continuing to make progress. The new walking path is beginning to take shape. Today, parts of the pathway were already curbed.

As I rounded the corner, the pop of pink from this tree beyond the backstop fence made me smile. I love that Furman has so many different kinds of trees. Not sure what kind of tree it is, but I do appreciate the beautiful patch of color.

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Dusk

One last picture from the top of the Krikorian Theater parking structure. It's evening, just after sunset. The sky is still alight with the last of the sun's rays, but the mountains in the distance to the north are dark, and the streets are dusky.

“Dusk is just an illusion, because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are; there cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel, I remember wondering, to be always together, yet forever apart?”

Close up

The interesting thing about photography is how two pictures of the same subject can be so different in drawing power. I took these flower photographs at the Los Angeles County fair recently. Which do you think is the more appealing? Which one draws you in, makes you want to be there live or makes you stay a little longer to ponder the beauty of the flower?

For me, it's the close up. The detail, the focusing in on one flower or even one petal that makes me stay a while.

I think that's what we do here at Downey Daily Photos. Downey is a great city but if you just drive through, you just see a city. But if you take the time and effort to look close up, you see an individual business or the people who run it or a neighborhood or someone inside one of the houses. That's why I love being a part of DDP, it lets me see Downey close up.

Trees

I love trees. They are so individualistic and you can just see how the environment they have grown up in over the years has molded their present shape. Like they have their own personality. This one, at the Stonewood Shopping Center, seems to have gone through tough times but is stronger because of it.

“Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back.”
~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The lighted way

Rady's Children's Hospital, San Diego. It is night and we are ready to head home. As we walk across the walkway to the parking garage, the way is lighted by a series of lights mounted along the walkway and glowing into the night. We have had a long day at the hospital visiting my new grandson. We are all tired and ready to rest.

The view

My Friday's post was the view to the west. Sunday's post was the view to the southeast. Now, I'm looking directly east from the top of the Krikorian parking structure. From here, one can see the nearly finished colorful affordable living housing called "The View," in downtown Downey.

I imagine it will be very tempting to residents to walk the short block to Porto's Bakery for breakfast every morning.

Reflecting on the sunset

Looking back the opposite direction from Friday's post, one can see the colors of the sunset magnified in the large windows of the CareMore building.

Getting ready to fly south...

I find it so interesting that we find these geese hanging out in Furman Park. I assume they are taking it easy and getting ready to fly south. Clearly, it is not cold in Downey. Since October we have had hot summer-like weather.

“The birds fly south for the winter not because it’s cold, but because they have wings.
~ Jarod Kintz