Purple Leaved Aeonium, San Diego Botanic Gardens

Spent fathers’ day with my Californian son for the first time in many a year. A double fathers’ day as he has his own son now.

The place we were planning to go to for brunch had closed and undergoing a change of ownership so we we ended up at the Broken Yoke which, as usual was very busy. Too much for me to eat, I had to bring half of my club sandwich home in a box. Mind you we did have a large bowl of porridge to start.

From there we went in to the San Diego Botanical Gardens in Encinitas which proved to be very interesting, well laid out and very well labelled. There’s a growing awareness of and concern for the remaining Southern Californian ecosystems, mainly chaparral and coastal sage, of which almost 90% has been lost through suburban development. I’ve learned to look at the landscape and vegetation with new eyes over the years and to appreciate it more than I had in the past.

In the evening Chris and I went out for dad’s night out touring three of the finest craft breweries of San Marcos sampling 10 of their finest beers and meeting some interesting people along the way.

Today’s blip is of Purple Bloom Aeonium from the Botanic Gardens.