Cazalea shares a morning routine of servicing his Seiko quartz watches before embarking on an exploration of the San Diego River Garden. His post beautifully intertwines the practical aspects of watch ownership with the serene experience of discovering local natural beauty.
This morning started off a bit differently. While looking in the nooks and crannies of my Seiko watch case, I found three candidates for a new battery. So I stumbled down to my watch bench and opened them up:
I can open it, get IN and back OUT in just a few minutes (if I don't drop something or have to fight with a grumpy bracelet springbar)
That's good. Now to set the date.
Here are all three, date and times all matching to the second -- not so easy to achieve as many of you know.
Now we are ready to hike.
We're still in the river valley, but about 10 miles inland, looking for the 5-acre
San Diego River Garden (which I only learned about yesterday).
This shipping container is the "lobby" of the garden although it is seldom open nowadays due to the lockdown, and never at 7am.
There are paths marked out with stones, and many native plants are labeled. The "parking lot" was chained but there's room for a few cars near the gate.
The weather is considerably worse than the last two days, and we could barely see the office building a half-mile away.
I did notice this guy though, and he clearly was watching me.
There are nice fall colors on the deciduous trees, although for many native plants it's just about time to burst into new growth and flowers.
Although I was wearing my ultra-accurate quartz GS watch, I brought along a back-up, this unusual automatic movement, quick-date, 30-jewel, Seikomatic-R pocket watch in its leather case, dating from 1963.
with see-through back crystal (and leather pouch)
These flowers are literally bursting from the plant.
The river is down this way, but inaccessible due to extremely heavy growth of trees and bushes.
As we rounded a bend in the path, we moved into the cactus section
Just because I could ...
My brave wife extracts a fallen leaf from the center of a dangerous cactus!
The garden was started 10 years ago, so this sign doesn't look right.
I think this plant is called Society Garlic (smells like it). My wife kindly took the picture.
I had to do another zoom on the watch (sorry). I just love the tiny lions on the dial.
We seem to be in the wilderness, but are definitely still in the city. You can hear the freeway and see the shopping center.
When I was a kid growing up in San Diego, this was farmland... luckily the Internet still remembers and provides images to back up my story.
An idyllic postcard scene.
Cazalea
