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Tropical Beauty South of the Border
The Glorious Birds of the Boardwalk
Growing up in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, I didn’t know a thing about the visual delight of the Bird of Paradise flower and plant. I’m not sure I even saw one until well after graduating from high school in 1970. My home was not exactly a cultural, nor botanical Mecca.
Several years later and influenced by my more worldly college friends, I started to frequent a popular sandwich shop, specializing in beers and wines from around the world. They also had a floral shop in one corner. Here I discovered not only Birds of Paradise, but also Calla Lilies. To this day they remain two of my favorite flowers.
This is the Malecon along the beach at Playas de Tijuana, just south of the border from San Diego. After spending four months living one block from this boardwalk, I learned just how tropical the climate is. Cloudy and cool, with regular light rainstorms. A fertile environment for my favorite botanical specimens.
After growing up in the desert southwest, these days I prefer a cool and moist climate, with plenty of cloudy days. The soft light is so much more friendly to the kind of images I want to…
