Beauty in Unexpected Places... Ft. Miley, San Francisco

With my husband's recent hospitalization, I found myself been spending a great deal of time at the VA hospital at Ft. Miley in San Francisco...

Images that the words "VA hospital" raise in the mind are usually none too pleasing but I found some vignettes of true beauty in that place that I'd like to share with all of you...

As on any military grounds, the first thing one notices are the flags flying free in the breeze:

The architectural detail on one of the main buildings of the hospital shows its Art Deco roots:

Just the view from the rear parking lot out into San Francisco Bay would be worth millions if not owned by the military:

To my surprise, I found unexpected little corners of beauty everywhere... Like this stone bench near the east entrance:

The landscaping has all been done in "Xeriscape" which means that all the plants use very little water but whomsoever is responsible for the landscaping shows us that this doesn't necessarily mean one has to sacrifice beauty to achieve it --

As in the case of this dear, little perennial phlox:

These unusual little "sun fuchsias" that resemble little foxes or kitty cats!

And pink colored "pearly everlasting" -- a type of strawflower:

Sometimes one has to look closely to find the beauty in places like this -- but, believe me, it's there -- as in this modest, delicate perennial bluebell:

At the top of my list of favorite plants at Ft. Miley, however, sits this amazing hillside of bright, salmon-y orange passionflowers -- the color almost electric 'neath San Francisco's foggy skies:

(I love that last shot of the passionflower with one stalk of the native/feral oats hanging down over it!)

There are several statues at Ft. Miley but my favorite has to be this bronze eagle on the east side of the main hospital building:

I experimented with that last shot using the "EdgeWorks" plug-in in my PaintShop Pro graphics program and I really liked the result:

Remember, precious Gatherers: If you look for beauty in unexpected places, you will probably find it!  :^)

From the ole singlewide here in the wild hinterlands --

luv,

jean