May 13, 2005

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  Photopost "Bloomin' Blue Trees"

  
  

  In any "usual" year, we Southern Californians know that it's "Spring" when the Jacarandas bloom. This has been a somewhat soggy exception to "regular" "it never rains in Southern California" weather memorialized in song and legend, but it is, in fact, "Spring" again, and the storms (I hope) which have been battering us for the past four months are finally over. In 2004 I wanted to "present" some Jacaranda photos on my Webshots Gallery, but I never got the time. This past Monday (the 9th) I did happen to get some shots around Long Beach, where I work, and Lomita, where I live. 

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  This is my favorite Jacaranda, simply because of the shape of the tree and the abundance of blooms. I'm standing on the center divider of Willow Street between Clark and Bellflower Blvds. The trees aren't "blue" but lavender, and I only used "bloomin' blue" in my title because I have heard them called this, and it's alliterative, but the actual blooms, as you can plainly see, are more purple than blue. There are hardly any leaves yet, just flowers.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here is a closeup of the same tree shot against the sky. Believe it or not, it was raining the morning I took these shots. I brought my camera into work (at 5:30am in the morning) and it was dark, and the weather was moderate in Lomita. I almost didn't take a coat or jacket. However, when I got into L.B., it was raining, and it kept up until about 2p.m, when the sun came out. I got most of these shots at around 3:00-4:00pm in the afternoon.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here are two trees in one of the parks off Stearns Street. The blooms are already falling from the tree in the center of the photograph, and the grass has a circular purple tinge to it where the flowers have fallen.

  
  

  

  
  

  There are many Jacaranda trees in the Long Beach area. This is a residential street off the park where I photographed the earlier trees. The complete street is lined with Jacaranda trees. I took what I thought were some better shots than this, but the photos didn't come out colorful enough, and I don't have time this morning to "tweak" them in the Picasa program, so I present this shot of the opening of the street with an older tree which has a somewhat intersting shape.

  
  

  

  
  

  I waited for about seven minutes for the tire swing to "position" itself so I wasn't snapping the side of the tire. This is another residential street off of Stearns which has plenty of Jacarandas blooming.

  
  

  

  
  

  It's really neat to see a single Jacaranda tree in full bloom in the middle of a leafy green tree lined street.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here is an older Jacaranda tree photographed in the town of Lomita, where I live. This is actually about two blocks from my house.

  
  

  

  
  

  Just for kicks, I include this photo which was taken on my lunch hour while it was still raining. I had the camera with me, and since the blooms are already dropping, I wanted to see how shots would come out in the inclement weather. This one show the blooms on the street, and also that's my convertible (the top is up cause it's raining) on the right in the back.

  
  

  

  
  

  The park in which I took some photos is in the "flight path" of the Long Beach airport. Here a jetliner flies above the blooms. L.B. Airport was built in 1941 and is one of the few airports where you still have to cross the tarmac on foot and climb into the planes on stairways. Since JetBlue made the airport their West Coast Hub, there are now 41 flights a day leaving and arriving. Some L.B. residents are against airport expansion. Two jets flew over my head while I was taking photos of the trees.

  
  

  

  
  

  Lastly here is another Jacaranda lined street in Long Beach, filled with "bloomin' blue blooms". Hope you enjoyed this trip to the trees in the Long Beach area of SoCal. Soon the blooms drop, and the leaves grow, and they look like any other tree on any other street. But for a few fleeting moments in Springtime, we Angelenos can enjoy a bit of what the rest of the country calls "the turning of the seasons."

  • 8:15 am
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