I got a Descanso hybrid called 'Lavender Lady' and it's blooming in Berkeley right now. Smells divine, light purple flowers in small cones. I'm thinking of trying 'FK Smith' with white/pink flowers, also a Descanso hybrid. The lilacs here will probably not be the lush, giant plants you encounter back east, though. The descanso hybrids are your best bet, but one needs to adjust one's expectations for lilacs here! Good luck!

@mrrogerscardigan -- I see the others hit your other questions. If tile and art ceramics are interesting, there are many choices. Yes, there is another SF location, at 18th and Alabama, in the Mission (and Tartine Manufactury!). There is the street food park nearby, next to Costco, filled with permanent food truck installation. OffTheGrid is on Friday nights at Fort Mason, Sunday mid-day at the Presidio. Regarding your vegetarian resto question -- the city (and California) is very vegetarian and vegan friendly (DH went veg five years ago). Almost all restaurants will have one if not more options - plus the Italian, Indian and other southern Asian restaurants will have plenty of choices, often a whole sub-menu that is veg and vegan. For Mexican, you might consider Gracias Madre in the Mission (purely veg) or for vegan sushi, Shizen (have not been, but have heard good things). It certainly beats your average nut burger for variety. At the high end, some top rated places are either veg-forward (Al's Place) or sometimes even have a complete tasting menu for vegetarians. I sometimes think because the SF restaurants are so veg-friendly (and rents so high) it hurts the success of veg-only restaurants (many have closed, including ones we went to). For example, Coqueta (tapas, famous chef, on the water) has so many veg tapas on the menu a mixed table is always happy. On pizza, Delfina is a great choice. I'm also partial to the pinsa (a Roman crisp rice crust variant) at Montesacro (in one of the gritty mid-Market corners). I've been to a party at the home featured in the "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" documentary. The parrots can now be found everywhere, but the place the protagonist lived at is near the top of the Greenwich steps.

>>similar comments as to fire risk during drought years because the grass/weeds/underbrush had become tinder dry. I'm not sure which is right, is risk higher after dry winters or after wet ones? - Elmer F.>> As far as I know it's held that the risk is slightly higher after wet winters because it encourages new green growth in the hills that simply dies when summer comes and the rains stop. In a Mediterranean climate native plants go mostly dormant in summer. The other six Mediterranean regions of the world share our pattern of wet winters and dry, high fire danger summers. One of the comments my niece made when she visited us for the first time, in a July or August, was "Wow, I thought CA was green all the time! How come everything's brown and dried up?" Being from Chicago, everything IS green in the summer, LOL, so she was puzzled by endless hills with nothing but dead grass and a few scattered stands of evergreen bushes/trees. The danger in dry winters is not so much an occasional dry year, but when there's an entire succession of them as there has been during our last drought. It stresses the evergreens and makes them very vulnerable to bark borer beetles (there's a variety of different ones). Thus, photos of the Sierras around Tahoe and Hwy 80 show a terrifying number of dead trees after 7 yrs of drought. When a fire starts up there - which is inevitable, it's part of the ecosystem - it may well dwarf anything we've seen in the Wine Country. There is simply no way for CalFire to fight a major firestorm when it's inside impassible canyons and chasms. All they can do is pick defensible spots and try to hold them to minimize loss of life and structural damage. Getting back to the Wine Country fires, SF Chronicle had this photo on a slideshow today, by Paul Chan/Chronicle:

I'm so jealous ! The pictures & videos I see on tv & online of cali are gorgeous!! Mountains & thin roadways but also city and beaches with rocks! Ppl often compare Florida to California but even our beaches look completely different ! I don't think we're anything alike! Florida doesn't have mountains & big rocks . We're definitely not dry either ! The west side of the US has dry air compared to the south east - its so humid here! i step outside and my shirts drenched within minutes & i can't cool off bc it's too humid it's horrid ! I love the beaches here but cali has more of a wild look to it - it's so pretty !! I'd love to visit ! .....Annie talks about plants she grows and how well they grow even in the humid fog but I'll purchase these plants & they die within days of being subjected to our high heat & humidity :( I've tried growing many pants of hers that are more native to the west but they hate our climate here on the east. I just got a shipment notification from her! I ordered the California cream cups!! I bought them last year and they literally melted in our humidity within 3 days!!!!! I cried! but I'm praying I get to see one bloom before this happens again just one bloom & ill b happy it's really cool to b able to purchase plants I've never Seen before in my life & get to see them bloom! Half don't make it and it is a waste of money but I don't get to see these flowers otherwise bc they're not common on our side of the US. Maybe I'm crazy but I love seeing new flowers! My first columbine flowers where from annies! Never seen one before - they grow north of us in TN & GA but not in Florida. I have some now I'm waiting to bloom in spring but then out summer rains will rot them & I'll repurchase them again next fall. It's sad but it is what it is! One day -If hubby retires, I'll move somewhere I can grow these flowers without the high humidity killing them off ! I love the fountain grass! It's a mix of tan, purple & a rosey pink - you've got me searching for grasses at lowes!! lol they're beautiful! I want the restios!! Where did u purchase yours from ??! And thanks SOO much for the link!! Ur awesome. :)