Dahlia Dell at the Golden Gate Park Conservatory

Drove into the city to see the Dahlia Dell at the Golden Gate Park Conservatory, and August is clearly the month for it. The beds were at full tilt — cactus types with petals rolled into spikes, dinner-plate reds, a red-and-white one labeled Skip to My Lou on a hand-written stake. The volunteers name everything, which turns the whole dell into a slow reading exercise. I kept circling back to a pale pink one the size of my head.

Went inside the Conservatory afterward. The pond room had purple water lilies standing a foot above their pads, and the orchid section had pink Vandas with dark speckled throats and a mess of Spanish moss hanging off a trunk nearby. The palm room is all neck-craning — fan fronds stacked up toward the glass.

Out front there was a gold sculpture planted in a bed of delphiniums, blue and purple spikes packed so tight you couldn't see soil. The building itself was blinding white against a sky with no clouds in it at all. Fog never showed. Left with a sunburned neck.