Upcoming Event Schedule for "Historic Bay Area Visionaries" (And a Few Other Things Too!)

My new book Historic Bay Area Visionaries will be published October 15, 2018 by the History Press.

I will continue to let people know about upcoming book events on Facebook--author talks and book signings--for the the release of Historic Bay Area Visionaries. But, you will always be able to find the full schedule here on my blog. Dates and events change from time to time, and I will keep this current.

Saturdays, September 8, 15, 22, and 29: Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard, 11:30 a.m. "Orchard Entrepreneurs" Orchard Heritage Walks with Robin Chapman for the Los Altos History Museum. Meet behind the Los Altos Library, 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, 94024. The walk will take about 30 minutes, is mostly on paved walkways, and will end at the Museum. Call the Los Altos History Museum with questions: 650-948-9427. 

The Lost Apricot Trees of Los Altos Hills

The view of the San Francisco Bay Area from the hilltop orchard of the late David Packard in Los Altos Hills is something to see.

This is an excerpt from an article I recently wrote for the Los Altos Hills publication Our Town:

Summer is coming to an end and the rolling hills around us are the dusty color of adobe. Aging apricot trees planted long ago will soon begin to shed their leaves. At local markets, you’ll find reminders of the warm days past in the orange, scented, sweet, dried, California apricots: true local treasurers. In Los Altos Hills, the remnants of the apricot orchards that once filled our acres are reminders both of our waning summer and of our history. For, the exotic apricot trees harken back to the time of the Franciscan missionaries, who brought the first apricot seedlings with them as they walked the dusty paths from Mexico into the Santa Clara Valley.