Water Walk, 3

Bellis and I continued south on the path along the east side of Brookside Golf Course. This lovely little entrance to the zanja (water ditch) continues the classical architecture theme from yesterday. To the left and right of the pipeline are the original stone walls. Above it is Rosemont Avenue.

The little green leaves in the foreground are poison oak, upon which I barely escaped rubbing my calves, thanks to Bellis' warning. She knows well enough not to go crawling in ditches wearing shorts.

Water is rushing through there right now. You can go hear it for yourself, but wear long pants.

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Tomorrow is City Daily Photo's theme day, in which I'm a participant. We'll do Water Walk 4 on Sunday, then yup! Zen Monday. 

Tomorrow evening, you might want to stop by Webster's Fine Stationers in Altadena at 6:30 pm to hear Margaret Finnegan read from her hilarious novel, The Goddess Lounge. Not every writer is a good reader. Margaret's fab.

Die Hard

At 3pm, wisps were blowing up from the mountaintops. By 4pm, if you were in the car you were driving with your headlights on. If you were walking you might have had a mouth full of grit.

It's what's left on the ground in the mountains from the Station Fire, now known to be "the largest fire in the recorded history of the Angeles National Forest." There's no vegetation to hold down the thick layer of ash when the Santa Ana winds pick up. The winds were expected to get up to 70mph in the mountains last night.

For some people this is a plus. If you don't mind a bit of eye sting you can have a golf course to yourself. For our part, we enjoyed a lawn furniture ballet as dinner entertainment, and our back yard has been nicely landscaped where it wasn't before.

Summer Course

I need a break from dreary skies, so I looked through my files for a sunny picture. We're supposed to have sun today. Fingers crossed.

I took this shot a couple of weeks ago, peeking through the fence at Brookside Golf Club north of the Rose Bowl Stadium. The stadium has been known to use the course as a parking lot.

I couldn't find much history of the course itself, but it's part of the Brookside Park complex, a Pasadena crown jewel containing the Rose Bowl, Kidspace Museum, miles of hiking trails and more.

Got any golf stories to pass the time until summer finally shows up?

If I haven't been to visit your blog lately, please give me some time to catch up.

Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer, added some terrific information in the comments. I quote her here:

Some history because I can't help myself:
With 36 holes (two 18-hole courses) in a beautiful, natural setting, Brookside Golf Course is continually listed among the top golf courses in California and among the top municipal courses in the nation.

Many people mistakenly call it Brookside Country Club, I presume because it as un-municipal-looking as a golf course could get. But it's owned by the City of Pasadena and membership is not required. In fact, if you live in Pasadena, you get a lower rate than outsiders if you play there.

It's also known as one of college football's greenest parking lots. In the areas where vehicles park during Rose Bowl games and major concerts, the irrigation pipes are situated much deeper under the ground so they don't get crushed. There's also the obligatory and very special turf management as a result of the parking. 

The first of the two courses was designed by Billy Bell and constructed in 1928 at a time when organized recreation was becoming more and more popular in the Arroyo Seco. Since then, of course, the goal is to protect the Arroyo Seco from further development.

The PGA had a Pasadena Open at Brookside annually from 1929 to 1938, and the 1968 L.A. Open was at Brookside. 

Since it is a publicly owned course, you can go into Brookside Clubhouse any time and look around at the memoriabilia, visit the pro shop and have a nice lunch in the restaurant with spectacular views.

The 3.3-mile Rose Bowl Loop goes around part of the property, intersecting between the two 18-hole courses. Walk around the loop with Mayor Bill Bogaard and special guests the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 a.m. (meet at Rose Bowl Stadium's Gate A).

Zen Tuesday: #6

Zen Monday (and in this case, Tuesday) is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what the photo's about.

As I post each new Zen photo, I'll add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary (and if I know what it is).

Update, 6/7/09: this tunnel goes under Oak Grove Drive, connecting the hiking trails from the Brookside Golf Club to Devil's Gate Dam and Hahamongna Watershed Park.