Water Walk, 4

Let's finish up our Water Walk with Bellis today, by continuing south along the path below Devil's Gate Dam. There are other wonders to behold, some not easy to see--100-year-old rusted pipes with rivets at their seams, stone walls embedded in the path--but this--what is this?

At last, it doesn't matter that I don't know because Bellis didn't know either, and apparently neither doesPasadena Water & Power.

To give you an idea of size, I'm 5'4" and I'm about as tall as the top of the graffiti on the west side of the tower. You can see a slim window at the top on the south side. It wouldn't be wide enough for an adult to fit through, though maybe a small child could do it.

On the east side of the tower, at the top, there's a sign:

I respect your superior web searching skills. Have at it. I found nothing.

Movie set?

Many thanks to Bellis for a fantastic tour, and to Pasadena Water and Power for the water, and the power.

Update: Here's a nice post on the Zanja walk Bellis took before she took me.

Tomorrow, Zen Monday!
Tuesday, news updates!
After that, I have no idea!

UPDATE: I spoke with Brad Bowman of Pasadena Water and Power, who told me this is a "surge tower." There's a pretty good explanation here. This tower is the "point of release."

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.

**********

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.

Water Walk, 2

Whew! We've just walked through the magical passageway pictured in yesterday's post, just south of the Devil's Gate Dam in the central Arroyo Seco. There's a fresh, cold stream here that flows year 'round from east to west (sometimes it's more full than others). It's in my picture, actually, but so wealthy with reeds at this point that you can't see the water.

And what's this little house? At 5'4", surely I can lean my elbow on the roof.

I would love to tell you that faeries live here, or that it was built by elves, or even that it was once a folly for a turn-of-the-20th-century Pasadena maiden. But it's a mini water treatment plant, or so I was told by Bellis, my guide. We both think it's still in operation, because it sounded like machines were churning inside.

Water Walk, 1

Recently there was a walking tour of the water history of the Arroyo, which I missed. But Bellis went, and the other day she showed me some of the highlights. I didn't write it all down, but I took pictures, which is almost as good. We're still Celebrating Pasadena's Water Centennial, so for the next few days I'll show you some of what we found.

Just now, we've come down the path at the east side of Devil's Gate Dam, where tomorrow we'll enter the trail of Pasadena's water history.

Plus we'll just walk in the Arroyo which is fun, history or no.

Theme Day: Water's Edge

 sometimes the watershed is wet

Conveniently timed with City Daily Photo's theme day, Pasadena's Department of Water and Power**, in collaboration with the Pasadena Museum of History, is launching a free exhibit at the Central Library entitled, Celebrating Pasadena's Water Centennial.

We live at the "water's edge" in Pasadena and that edge is receding, so I'm grateful for this extended opportunity to learn about where we stand.

  sometimes the watershed is dry

City Daily Photo has a new website! I used to give you a count of our worldwide members, but when we lost our previous site we lost our main way of staying in contact. And apparently many of those blogs were not active. Right now, Julie from Sydney, Australia is working with Peter from Sunshine Coast Daily Photo (also in Oz, thanks for the corrections, folks) to put it all back together. As of today's count, they had re-recruited 211* active blogs.


*see Julie's comments
**see Ann's comment

Ferry Across the Vistula

For years there has been a boat ferrying Torunians across the small stretch of the Vistula to see the picture postcard panoramic view of the old town. This is the original Katarzynka ferry which is now a static historical monument. During the summer months you can hop on its replacement which is called originally...Katarzynka II!!

New Tricks

With summer officially here, it got officially hot yesterday. I have no official complaints.

You may wish to brush up on local water use regulations. Pasadena's water shortage has been declared officially over (yay!), but certain instances of water waste are still out of line, baby! Sprinklers are for running through, but not between 9am and 6pm.

That's okay. Yesterday it was good and toasty long after 6:00. Boz and I went for an evening walk and it took us about an hour to go eight blocks. I know he's an older pooch, but jeez. Or maybe it's me. I don't mean I'm an old pooch, but it did feel good to stroll, stop where we wanted to, take a few pictures, smell things, etc. But I didn't pee on anything. Honest. And as tempting as they were, I did not drink from the sprinklers.

Following the Footsteps of Toruń's POWs: Built by the Prisoners

The old railway station built by prisoners. The small holes in the walls

are evidence of where the scaffolding was once placed

The concrete slabs in the walls are examples of bomb protection as stations

were key strategic targets. There was a bomb shelter within the building.

Inside the old train station

The Water Tower

Built by the Prisoners:

For 12 hrs every day the POWs were forced to do hard labour. Both this former railway station and water tower were built by prisoners. The water tower is still fully operational.

Luck and Lush

This is the closest I could find to shamrocks.

Americans love St. Patrick's day. Thousands of other world holidays don't get nearly as much attention here, but we like this one because we like beer and today we give ourselves permission to drink a lot of it. It gets a bit complicated in the Los Angeles area, what with strict drunk driving laws and a public transportation system that's seriously lacking. But Pasadena's got a decent bus system, so drink up!

You might also want to get your lawn soused one more time today, and your outdoor potted plants, too, because tomorrow we begin our ten days of no outdoor watering. This isn't just a warning to save water for the heck of it. We'll have 40% less water beginning Friday, March 18th through 8am March 28th. So please be nice and give up your share. It's only ten days and we even have rain predicted.

Here's more information.

It's a darned good thing we don't have a beer shortage.

Water Rules

Don't freak out, but Pasadena's outdoor watering rules are about to change for the remainder of March.

I know, I know, it gets complicated. But Pasadena's Public Information Office (PIO Ann Erdman, Assistant PIO Linda Centell and Graphic Designer Zack Stromberg) has me on a mailing list so I've got the poop.

Beginning tomorrow (Friday, March 11th) you can water your lawn any day you want to, as much as you want to, for a week--because for ten days after that, from March 18th-27th, you are not allowed to water your lawn at all.

It's only ten days, and it's only March, so like I said, don't freak out. I haven't watered my back yard for over a year and I still haven't been able to kill it.

On February 28th, the Pasadena City Council declared a Level 4 Water Shortage Emergency during the temporary shutdown of a major regional water pipeline from March 18th-27th. "The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which supplies about 60 percent of Pasadena’s water, is planning a seismic retrofit of the F.E. Weymouth Water Treatment Plant in LaVerne and will stop all water deliveries to Pasadena and neighboring cities through its upper feeder pipeline during the project. For those 10 days, Pasadena must rely solely on its groundwater and reserves."

Those reserves (about 150 million gallons) are sufficient if everyone does their part. Outdoor watering is Pasadena's largest use of water. Under normal circumstances we use about 250 million gallons under normal circumstances. It shouldn't be too hard to cut that back. Established plants can go a good ten days or more without water (especially now, when it's not too hot), but horticulturalists recommend waiting to plant anything new until after the watering ban.

More information here, including tips about pre-watering, storing water ahead of time for hand-watering and how the ban will be enforced.

I hope this won't be a problem for you. It doesn't change a thing for me. I'll water the front yard once or twice this coming week, and I've got a couple of jugs of water set aside for the potted plants. The back yard will thrive, even if I take a flame thrower to it.

The Waterfall of Ice

Well twp days ago we posted the photograph of the frozen River Vistula. But nothing compares to this shot...a frozen cascade of water!!! This is the old mill, taken through the window from the bar of Hotel 1231. The water is usually flowing freely but with the recent temperatures plummeting...has been frozen momentarily in time.

A Stream and Two Willows

Taken near Plac Rapackiego looking back towards the Old Town.

Rushing Water and Flowing Beer

This is the wonderful view you get from the bar of Hotel 1231. Sitting in leather backed arm chairs, sipping on your beer and cocktails...and enjoying the cascading water and mill. A unique place to stay and drink.