A neighborhood walkabout on a sunny afternoon

This skeleton tree produced a good crop this year, I counted at least three or four ready for picking.

A planting like this always gives me pause, especially late in the year. Did they plant these succulents knowing they aren't hardy here? Or are they going to get an unwelcome surprise when the temperatures fall? 
The banana that swallowed half a house...
The loquat that's swallowing a palm...
The ripening persimmon fruit is always a welcome surprise. I usually don't notice it until the leaves have fallen and the fruit is silhouetted against the sky.
So true. 
I don't know how I am going to spend next Tuesday. Will I avoid the news until late in the day? Or will I be glued to every report? 
This planting always makes me smile when I drive by. The shapes and colors are just so right, I don't know. It's hard to explain.
The next series of photos are from McMenamins Kennedy School. Anyone know what this beauty is?

Oh! That's a harsh haircut. I wonder if it was done by the gardener, or someone upset about the sharp leaves?
There is so much spiky goodness at Kennedy School...

It's good to know I can still visit this pair when I miss my Nolina 'La Siberica'.

Poncirus trifoliata, perhaps 'Flying Dragon' as it does seem rather contorted (in a good way).
A nice container welcome by the backdoor.
And the saddest Pyrrosia sheareri in all the land, poor thing. I'd rescue it but that would be wrong (don't steal plants!).
Colletia some somebody (spiky!).
Blechnum penna-marina with Acorus calamus.
I never would have thought this combo—Athyrium niponicum with hakonechloa—would be attractive, but I kinda like it.

Kennedy School has the best Mahonia gracilipes...

Rhododendron makinoi (thanks Roger Gossler for ID) with Calluna vulgaris (I think...they look great together).
New growth on the rhododendron.
I've been watching this leaning eucalyptus, praying it doesn't get so low that they have to take it out.
One of their outside seating pavilions, nicely done up for the season.
Oh my, the tetrapanax is definitely taking over! There are windows back there somewhere. I wonder what it looks like from the inside?
The tall shrub in the middle of this photo is a Schefflera taiwaniana, I remember when it was newly planted and just a tiny thing. It was also very rare and hard to find.
Aconitum variegatum?
I've been watching this Agave utahensis in a neighbor's hellstrip and expecting it to succumb to winter's wet. So far (3 years?) it is not.
Same garden, Agave parryi.
And another!
Our neighbors across the street have been decorating for their annual Halloween party...
They're going all out!
Home now.
This is the time year when it feels like all of the neighbor's dogwood leaves end up in my garden.
Oh, Wednesday and Adam flew in, they've been enjoying the last of the basil.