When Andrew and I decided to spend a few days in San Diego and talked about returning to Balboa Park, my curious brain started to wonder, “what are the chances they’ll still be there?” Well it turns out the chances are good…
I’m talking about these containers, on the side of the Balboa Park Club building. They themselves aren’t all that remarkable anymore, kind of sad actually. Although there’s still something about the vignette that pulls me in…
They mattered to me because when I saw them during our visit back in 2014 I had a very strange moment of déjà vu. I knew those containers, I’d loved them, maybe even lusted after them…not in real life, but online, on Pinterest (it was my photo heavy social media platform of choice back then). Standing here in person—in 2014—it took me awhile to figure out exactly why I was feeling that strong sense of déjà vu when I had never been here, never seen them in person. This image is the original / that I’d loved online…
Another photo I took on January 16th 2025…
And one of my photos from December of 2014 that shows the same container, if from not quite the same angle…
This was the first place we stopped during our January visit to Balboa Park, and I’ll admit that while I was initially happy to see the planters were largely unaltered, that emotion quickly changed to sadness. Sadness that nobody had cared enough to spruce them up a bit in the intervening 10 years.
Unfortunately I would feel that same sadness as we visited other areas in the park. That’s not to say there weren’t happy healthy plants and many wonderful things to see, but it’s obvious that plant care is not as high on the list of expenditures as one might hope.
Another photo I took on January 16th 2025…
And one of my photos from December of 2014 that shows the same container, if from not quite the same angle…
This was the first place we stopped during our January visit to Balboa Park, and I’ll admit that while I was initially happy to see the planters were largely unaltered, that emotion quickly changed to sadness. Sadness that nobody had cared enough to spruce them up a bit in the intervening 10 years.
Unfortunately I would feel that same sadness as we visited other areas in the park. That’s not to say there weren’t happy healthy plants and many wonderful things to see, but it’s obvious that plant care is not as high on the list of expenditures as one might hope.
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