The silk floss trees are blooming all across Los Angeles!!! Opening up their enormous shaggy flowers and creating stunning canopies of PINK. Soon the flowers will form pods that will grow larger and larger until sometime in deep winter they will burst open and be devoured by wild flocks of parrots. Nothing, and I mean nothing, thrills me more than spotting a wild flock of parrots flying overhead, squawking madly, flashing green feathers.
Well, nothing that is except for puttering along through downtown last week with my windows down and sunroof open, warm air streaming in, blue sky the perfect backdrop for a sea of pink.
Finding a perfect parking spot with an hour left in the meter. I practically ran out of my car and into this shady oasis. Not for the trees, not for the breeze, or perfect temperature of air, or even the sheer fabulousness of my new discovery. Nope. None of that.
I came for … THE GOATS! Just as I swung left onto Hill, on my new route home, I happened to look up and see an entire herd. Imagine my delight!
Real, live, GOATS! Brought in to graze a steep slope in Angel's Knoll Park.
It's pretty amazing what 100 goats can do in a week's time.
I I smiled and smiled at those goats. And at the people who had come to see those industrious girls grazing away. We all smiled at each other. Everyone happy as pie to see GOATS in the middle of our city.
And even though I got a $75 parking ticket for staying 2 minutes too long, I was not put out. The goats were mesmerizing.
The thorny trunks of the silk floss trees were grand. The steel and glass surrounding the park mirrored the sky. The entire episode a testament to why I love Los Angeles.
Yes indeed.
Silk Floss Tree, Chorisia speciosa
The goats rock! Very cool.
Is that the old Angels Flight????
I used to get to go on that once in a while when I was a kid. Is it still there? Is it still running?
How cool would it be to ride up the hill alongside the goat working away.
Thank you for a memory jolt.
I tell you this all the time, but I love your blog the most of anyone’s.
Your writing makes me taste Los Angeles. Delicious.
See, this is what’s so glorious about your blog. Look at the beauty, the juxtaposition of nature and human achievement.
Love goats. GOATS! Goats and stars. A true shot in the arm.
Have never seen silk floss trees. I must say they are absolutely gorgeous m.a.
And like you and the others, I would have stopped and looked at the goats as well. They are the most interesting little critters to watch. They also will eat everything down to the ground in a very short period of time. My dh tells the most funny story of the goats they brought in for an exhibit at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. An elaborate exhibit with expensive cactus and yucca plants had been built. Then put a pen of goats inside. Within a week they had eaten the entire landscape~looked like a wasteland!! LOL.
Maryann, I love your post today, the wild parrots and goats made me remember my favorite children’s books growing up, the My Fathers Dragon series, they were so magical to me, just like your post today. Thank you!!!
Perhaps, inspired by your view, others will slow down enough to truly SEE their own places. Every place has wonders and delights; we simply have to learn to see them. Now, where did I leave my camera? (No, really, I can’t find it!)
Mary Ann, what a tour guide you are and teacher of sight seeing(space intended there).
You are a one woman I LOVE LA committee! You see things that most people never see… or is it that you take the time to stop and actually look? Goats on Hill? You hit the jackpot!
Lorraine