I love going to LA. Everything is so different from the everyday world outside my door- the plants, the weather, the fashion, the people on the sidewalk, the food… Then I come home to see my New England home with new eyes.

We stayed at a lovely Airbnb in Silverlake with a back garden which included-

Also a fig tree and there was an avocado in the next yard, plus a large citrus of some sort.

After 2 busy days of teaching, we spent a day in the gardens at The Huntington. What an amazing place. I have never seen anything like the desert garden. I am including my husband in the pic for scale ;-)

I took a lot of texture photos-

And that is now my new phone screen saver. How about this cactus?

There was loads more that I could show but that desert garden is what I will go back for next time I am in LA.

The next day we drove up to the Mount Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains. We left town and it was 80 degrees. At the Observatory it was in the 50’s and we were freezing!

Next, off to Ventura for something completely different. Unfortunately I spent much too much time in the hotel and not enough contemplating this-

Yep, I am already planning my trip for next year.