leggy marigolds

[gurdonark]

In a last October burst, all the marigolds in our neighborhood this wet, chilly, sweet October now stand on tall tree legs, and show radiant oranges. The butterflies are mostly gone, but moths flitter about in a last gasp before November sweeps them all in and sweeps everything away. Lots of people seem to have planted mums when I wasn't paying attention, and suddenly every yard has sprouted a witch, a ghost, a tombstone or a scarecrow. I would like to come up with something for our yard appropriately seasonal, but I'll skip the mums. I posted two more postcards of botanical garden flowers out--we all need a few blooms right now. I thought a saw a pathway through the fog, but then it turned out to be Channel 11 on a billboard. I wish I had a few stray plastic skeletons laying around because I'm in a sorta swinging Days of the Dead mood.

Los Angeles' faux Mexican market is Olvera Street, just off Los Angeles street downtown. It dates back to the 19teens or 19twenties, and is a bunch of shops and stalls selling inexpensive Mexican folk art. The prices are usually roughly Tijuana size, which means that it is much more than, say, the Tonala suburb of Guadalajara, and much less than one's average Mexican folk art store in the rest of the country. They always have oodles of Days of the Dead folk arts stuff, the mass produced but nonetheless charming stuff. Our dollar stores here, by contrast, get mostly saint candles, which are cool, and inexpensive, but not quite Dias de Los Muertos. I've never owned a saint candle, and I've never been to Spain, but I've been to Oklahoma, and I'm planning to watch "Angel" on television tonight.

I remember July. It seems long ago now. Welcome, October,
my soul feels a giant forest festival coming on.

Comments

[laruth.livejournal.com]

I love October. It's my birthday month, plus it's the time when the flowers are blooming, the air is generally clear and the skies are blue.

[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

Gurdonark- your writing is beautiful. Dear husband and I rode on the Blue Ridge Parkway this weekend, near Blowing Rock, NC, and I have found myself using words like "pretty neat" and "Interesting" to describe the luscious colors that are beginning to show. I have become boring and repetitive- how horrendous for someone who claims to be a writer...Today I am going to describe what I saw in a visit to Linville Caverns without using my crutch phrases- reading your entry has made me realize I need to work harder, think more and just describe. Fall has so much to tell about. Thanks- Carolinagirl

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The Blue Ridges are so beautiful. I wish I could take a drive on them. We have the Arbuckles and Ozarks nearby, though, and I haven't even had a chance to get up to see the leaves on them yet.

I never find you boring or repetitive, so don't be hard on yourself :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Fall flowers bloom here, but otherwise October here is probably about like April there!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

third time's a charm right?

gremlins keep eating my posted comments

they no longer recognize me as a friendly participant

i LOVE Olivera street

food ain't so authentic but the tchochkes are

right across the parking lot from Union Station (another place i adore) it's a cool place to pass time while waiting for a train

my favorite shop was one all the down in the back corner, mostly empty and very dusty glass cases with hardly a thing in them

stuff there was real cheep

added to my Guad collection that day

i'm glad its fall too

and D O D is a big art event here

i've got some dangly glow in the dark skellies

shoulda sent them with the blue book

if i'd only known

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Olvera street is so hip. We don't have anything quite like it here!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

here we do have the Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town but it is filled with exorbitantly thrice over priced imported wares that tourists and visitors buy not knowing or caring that the crafts men and women who create the goods are paid only pennies a week by the Bazaar's female owner

of course she does award them with a certificate of recognition for their skills

here one can just hop on a trolley and walk across the border to Tiajuana and really get an eye, belly and truck full of stuff

Olivera street is just so much more managable

my next trip to LA i want to cruise Cesar Chavez Blvd...there's supposed to be some cool little shops and places to eat and supposedly it's slowly being renovated by more prosperity