AVAST, BERKELEY!

Today I explored some places in Berkeley I haven’t before.

A & W Pottery

On my way to the Ashby BART station, there’s this big lot full of big pots, walled in by high cast iron bars that give it the appearance of a poorly kept and crowded pottery zoo. If the pots were alive they’d all have eaten each other by now. I’ve never gone in because I’m never walking that way during business hours, but today I went when the sun was shining. They have many cool ceramic flower pots, in a wide variety of colors and sizes. I could have drowned in some and served coffee in others, and while I realize that may not represent much of a distinction for some, most of us aren’t junkies. I don’t know if the pots are cheap, per se, because before today I had never bought a flower pot. I bought a red, oval one of moderate size, because I have decided I should have something growing in my room other than my angsty angst.

The Smokehouse

Sometimes I run down Telegraph into Oakland (and then quickly run back out again), and I always pass this rundown fifties throwback shack of a burger joint called the Smokehouse. Well, it’s not really a throwback, since it’s actually been “serving Berkeley since 1951.” It’s sort of a box with a window and some picnic tables. You know the type. They just serve burgers and hot dogs, no avocados in sight. Sounds good, right? Well, it was ok. The burgers were way slim, and way overdone. They had a good charred taste to them, but otherwise unremarkable. Same goes for the fries and shake (yes, I sinned today). It was a decent burger spot, but in retrospect, not actually worth writing about. Oops.

The East Bay Vivarium

SFGate turns out to be a wealth of info for local exploration, and while I was perusing their guide on the Fourth St. shopping district, I noticed a bit on the East Bay Vivarium, purportedly offering “the most diverse selection of reptiles in the U.S.” “Reptiles” was more than enough to make me hop in my car, but “most” made me drizzle saliva all over my keyboard, “diverse” unleashed a steady flow of urine directly into my pantaloons, and “selection,” well, “selection” probably would have had me arrested in most states below the Mason-Dixon line. Not really. But I was planning on driving out to fill my flower pot with something, so I dropped by. This place definitely had the most impressive herp collection of any pet store I’ve seen, better than most zoos, actually. Tons of animals, mostly reptiles. Some very cool monitor lizards, and some very huge pythons. Plenty of supplies, aquariums, and a seemingly knowledgeable staff (or so they seemed, I don’t actually know anything about pets). I bought a little critter box to facilitate photographing creepy crawlies in the field (peanut butter jars don’t always cut it).

Berkeley Horticultural Nursery

For a while now I’ve been meaning to try growing horsetails, specifically Equisetum hyemale, the scouring rush. They grow so well in almost all conditions that they’re often considered a weed, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Also the look weird and come from a very ancient family of plants that had its heyday in the Carboniferous period. Dinosaurs evolved eating these things (well, maybe not). I was going to poach some Danny the Champion of the World style (minus rum raisins) from Strawberry Creek, but when I called the Nursery for soil advice I learned they actually had some, so I figured I might as well be a good person. Also this site said they might be hard to dig up, and I was planning on using my hands. The Nursery is actually very cool. Big selection of stuff, especially native plants. I might even return some day. I’m kind of sorry I didn’t end up poaching. I may still just buy a trowel and go steal some Equisetum arvense though…

That was a long post of relatively nothing. Too bad I didn’t take pictures. I am every blog I hate.