Mythological Beasts in Hollywood
Topic: Oddities
Mythological Beasts in Hollywood
Los Angeles can be a tad hallucinatory at times. You think you see something, then you decide you really didn't see that, but, if you have a camera with you take a shot and you have your evidence. The griffin (also spelled gryphon and, less commonly, gryphen, griffon, griffen, or gryphin) is "a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Often, griffins are depicted with a pair of prominent ears, traditionally termed 'ass' ears.' Since the lion was considered the 'King of the Beasts' and the eagle the 'King of the Air,' the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. Some traditions say that only female griffins have wings. The griffin is generally represented with four legs, wings and a beak, with eagle-like talons in place of a lion's forelegs and equine ears jutting from its skull. Some writers describe the tail as a serpent."
Here's one or two at Edmon Stone Galleries, down on Melrose Avenue. This is an odd, block-long business, specializing in hand carved wood and cast stone mantles designed to customer specifications - for the mansions in Beverly Hills and for movies sets. It's a niche business, but they do very, very well. And their building features griffins.
All day long they stare at this ...
Photographed Thursday, April 13, 2006
Squirrel's Foot Fern (Davallia trichomanoides)
Topic: Color Studies
Squirrel's Foot Fern (Davallia trichomanoides)
A sign of spring Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - a frond developing on the balcony. Squirrel's Foot Fern (Davallia trichomanoides) should not be confused with Rabbit's Foot Fern (Davillia fejeensis). The later have gray-white rhizomes, those hairy growths that resemble and feel like a bit like a rabbit's foot. On Squirrel's Foot Fern the rhizomes are brown. On both they sort of crawl down the side of the pots. Some find them a bit creepy.
This specimen of Squirrel's Foot has been on the shady balcony here for the last fifteen years, cut back to the root each March. There are new fronds by mid-April, and an umbrella of wide full fronds by June. Harriet-the-Cat likes to lie under them on the cool concrete in the summer, with narrowed eyes, waiting for the real squirrels to drop by, as the sometimes do.
The Rabbit's Foot Fern (Davillia fejeensis) just below the other.
By June you'll see things like this, snapped June 19, 2005 in Carlsbad California. Mimosa - but Mimosa is a genus of about four hundred species of herbs and shrubs, in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the legume family Fabaceae, and all have evenly bipinnate leaves. So which is this?
