-
-
Featured eventsBerkeley sites
- 510 Families
- Another Bullwinkel Show
- Bay Nature
- Berkeley Accountable Schools
- Berkeley Afoot
- Berkeley Artisans
- Berkeley Blog
- Berkeley Chamber of Commerce
- Berkeley Community Fund
- Berkeley Council Watch
- Berkeley Daily Planet
- Berkeley High Jacket
- Berkeley Historical Plaques Project
- Berkeley Parents Network
- Berkeley Path Wanderers
- Berkeley Property Owners Association
- Berkeley Public Education Foundation
- Berkeley Public Library
- Berkeley Public Library Branch Improvement Program
- Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board
- Berkeley Startup Cluster
- Berkeley Street Cleaning
- BHS Development Group
- Buy Local Berkeley
- Cal Performances
- Claremont and Elmwood Kids
- Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association
- Déjà vu: down memory lane in California
- Downtown Berkeley Association
- East Bay Ethnic Eats
- Ecology Center
- Elmwood Merchants Association
- Eye on Berkeley
- Fiat Lux!
- Friends of Lorin Station
- Friends of the Berkeley Public Library
- In Dulci Jubilo
- Infospigot: The Chronicles
- Jewish Music Festival
- Lettuce Eat Kale
- Locate In Berkeley
- McGee-Spaulding-Hardy Historic Interest Group
- Mental Masala
- Open Town Hall
- Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
- Rookie Moms
- Solano Avenue Association
- Telegraph Berkeley
- Telegraph Merchants Association
- The Berkeley Blog
- The Berkeley Diet
- The Daily Californian
- The Derringdos
- The Garden of Eating
- The Nature of Berkeley
- Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association
- UC Berkeley Extension
- UCPD Crime Alerts
- Visit Berkeley
- What I Saw in Berkeley Today
Tag Archives: Robert Trachtenberg
Blooming beautiful: Berkeley in the spring
Robert Trachtenberg, a landscape designer who lives in Berkeley, is the owner of Garden Architecture. This photo essay is part of an occasional series in which Trachtenberg brings an educated eye to the beauty of the nature that surrounds us in Berkeley.
It has been several weeks since I took these photos as I was hoping to share these images as soon as possible but life is full of twists and turns. Once again I didn’t have to travel far to catch some magnificent little jewels in the garden. I share a spectacular all white garden designed by my neighbor, florist Devorah Nussenbaum. All the white flowers in this piece are in our garden. Lucky me!
Scroll down for more photographs and extended captions… … Continue reading »
Tagged Berkeley nature, Robert Trachtenberg
Awakenings: Early bloomers in Berkeley
Robert Trachtenberg, a landscape designer who lives in Berkeley, is the owner of Garden Architecture. This photo essay is part of an occasional series in which Trachtenberg brings an educated eye to the beauty of the nature that surrounds us in Berkeley.
After a long hibernation and nearly a year to the day since the my father passed away I have been inspired again to document this burst of beautiful new spring blossoms. With a heavy heart and open eyes, it took a full year for me digest and grieve the loss of someone so important to me, to try to understand how he has impacted my life.
Now with each passing season I have a deeper appreciation for the precious cycles of life and for that I am so grateful.
Tagged Berkeley nature, Robert Trachtenberg
Comal: New restaurant takes a bet on downtown Berkeley
On Friday, John Paluska will throw open the heavy steel doors to his ambitious new restaurant, Comal, which he hopes will become a magnet for local residents and a cultural incubator. “I see it as a big tent that I hope will become the heart of the community,” he said last week as he stood in the expansive, airy space at 2020 Shattuck Avenue, overseeing a plethora of pre-launch preparations.
Comal will be cooking up Oaxaca-inspired Mexican food — masa-based dishes such as Tetelas, memelas, and tlayudas, whole grilled fish, chickens and fresh vegetables -- much of it cooked on an Italian wood-burning range and two “comals” — large round griddles which take center stage in the restaurant’s open kitchen and, says Paluska, also serve to evoke the “hearth as gathering place” ambiance he is seeking to create there.
Chef Matt Gandin, formerly of Delfina in San Francisco, says he wants to explore the complexities of a cuisine that he feels is “waiting to be discovered”.
Spectacular fall colors on view for all in Berkeley
By Robert Trachtenberg
This has been one of the more spectacular fall color seasons that I can remember for a long time.
The lack of rain and recent cool weather has given us a prolonged show of color that has lasted for
several months now. Maybe it is my Pittsburgh PA, roots but the fall season is my favorite time of the year.
When people think about providing color and interest in a garden they typically want to talk to me about the spring time and what will be blooming. But for me the fall season provides the greatest opportunity for color and ever changing surprises as leaves go from green to yellow to brilliant orange and red.
Memories of a fading summer: Shades of blue
By Robert Trachtenberg
It is hard to believe how fast the summer went by. But it has been great having this last bit of Indian summer weather before the winter sets in. I did manage to capture a few moments of summer bloom that I wanted to share.
An all-white garden: serene, simple, sophisticated
By Robert Trachtenberg
Writing this column has been a real thrill for me, as I am now cruising around Berkeley on high alert in search of anything that is spectacular in the world of plants.
I start and end many of days with my camera in hand hoping to come across something special that I can share with my fellow Berkeleysiders. In a world filled with bad news, who could ask for a task any more exhilarating than this?
The Hanging Gardens of Berkeley
By Robert Trachtenberg
I have spent the last month observing and waiting to see what is blooming in Berkeley as we slowly come out of a long, cold winter. Berkeley the Garden City is an incredible place to live, especially if you have a passion for gardens and architecture. In my recent search for plants that are beautiful and distinct, a consistent theme began to emerge. From one end of Berkeley to the other there was an explosion of wisteria blossoming profusely everywhere. I am most captivated by this flowering vine when it is intertwined with history and, in particular, buildings designed by Berkeley architects like Bernard Maybeck.
Strong, sculptural trees bring a sense of community
By Robert Trachtenberg
Despite the fact the calender says that it is spring, we all know that is still feels like winter. The bloom season for many trees such as Flowering Crabapples has been shortened with all of this rain. So I found myself focusing on the structural beauty of trees and how they help create a strong sense of identity in our community.
Berkeley in bloom: Shadow play and winter silhouettes
When I was a young man (9th grade) falling in love with nature and in particular with trees, I was struck by a passage in The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins was walking through a forest and he observed: “Never before have I become so suddenly and so keenly aware of a tree’s skin, neither as a forester nor as a carpenter but in the delight of the living tree itself”. My love affair with trees has grown deeper every year.
Winter is the best time to select a specimen tree for your garden as you get the opportunity to see the naked tree in its true form.
These photographs with extended captions were all taken locally as I make my way through each day noting and observing the beautiful, often architectural shapes and forms created by nature.
Tagged Berkeley in bloom, Robert Trachtenberg
