Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Daylight


In my office at the library the day starts under this somewhat sinister yellow strip-lighting because the sun has not come up yet in San Francisco and the windows are dark. The postcard propped against the monitor has been there for years, a good luck charm long ago embellished by my daughter with drawings and commentaries in silver marker.


Outdoors in the early afternoon with the work day behind me there is a surfeit of October sunlight as I transfer from one bus to another at the corner of Hayes and Fillmore. When I took this picture I did not notice the bull's eye window in the upper right corner, although now it looks to me like the most interesting feature of the whole composition. At the time, I was only looking at the trees.


Crooked Victorians shot in haste on 17th Street near Castro where I am running afternoon errands and cannot pause for long.






The streetcar turnaround at Castro and Market was closed to traffic this summer (a good thing) and enhanced with rows of dubious succulents (they won't survive).


Heading back into the Mission, clutching several useful purchases, I pause on the Dolores median strip to admire a palm tree in sudden propagation mode.


And the Mission Dolores Basilica catches the last of the sun that was not up yet when I started haphazardly recording this day. The green steeple in the background is the German Lutheran church. On Sunday mornings a lady stands on the sidewalk outside that green church and plays the flute in an inviting manner.