Tuesday at Barnsdall

May 27th, 2010. Published under boredom busters, parenting. 7 Comments.

Tuesday of last week was not a very good day for me. The usual motherhood drama had gotten me simmering like a pot of toxic brew. I was ready to erupt at any moment. When I was done with my errands at the Hollywood/Vermont area, I dropped by Barnsdall Park. Stayed there for a couple of hours, hoping to let out some steam. There weren’t a lot of people there: just a man reading the paper, a jogger with a very loud ipod, a couple fussing over a little boy, and a white-haired old man stretched out under a purple tree. Very nice.

I dragged a metal chair to a sunny spot on the lawn and had lunch.

A bottle of root beer and 3 french macarons, which I had bought at the nearby Figaro Bakery and Cafe. Diabetes Delite!

When I had devoured my sweet treats, I walked around. It was pleasantly peaceful on a weekday. And look! There were scrap metal sculptures all around. I breathed all these in. Maybe the art might somehow seep into my subconscious and refine my boorish soul.

That’s the Hollyhock House, designed by a famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The Barnsdall Park area used to belong to an oil heiress. She donated it to the city government, who turned it into a park. That picture above is not a very pretty one. It was a cloudy day and most of my pictures looked awful.

Hey, look! A beautiful flower. I like this better than the building. I wonder what it’s called….

Barnsdall Park is on top of a lone hill in the middle of  busy city streets, sandwiched between Sunset Blvd. to the south and Hollywood Blvd. to the north.  It is small, but very pretty. You have to go up a long flight of steps to reach it. The hillside is planted with rows of young olive trees. I’d like to be here in five to ten years and see how the mature trees would change the look of the place. Up there you get a good view of the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood sign, and the City of LA. I took this picture around 2:45 PM. I was hurrying down the steps like Cinderella. It was time to go and pick up the kids from school. The air was filled with loud and shrill bird songs. Hummingbirds! I knew the sound . They were fluttering and singing among the olive trees. I had to stop and look around. I love the color of hummingbirds.

I was not so lucky so I consoled myself with these flowering weeds. They looked cheerful and delightful.

Picked up some not-so-dandy dandelions. My daughter goes crazy over them. I sat down for a while, taking more than twenty shots of these lowly flowers. Then it occurred to me. How silly I must look, sprawled on the hillside photographing some weeds from many different angles with my camera phone. I went LOL at myself. I know these pictures wouldn’t make it on the pages of National Geographic, but I went home with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.  I felt my life force lighting up by several bars. Bring it on, kids! I’m ready for another day of the usual motherhood drama.