Retaining the Good and Weeding Out the Bad in Your Garden ... and in Your Life

A simple path from the Palo Alto Garden Club's annual garden tour. Simple is very hard to maintain!

I don't know who weeds those gorgeous gardens I visited on the tour in Palo Alto this week--but somehow I can't picture their posh owners out there wearing garden gloves and carrying a hoe and a can of weed killer. Still someone has to be a little ruthless to maintain a garden.

Thus it is in life. Just as weeds soak up the nutrients and crowd out the flowers you love, so do weedy people. They take up your time, waste space in your heart, and suck up the oxygen you need for your true friends.

Apricot's for All Seasons

I've had apricots on the brain lately, haven't I? Since the recent rescue of the historic J. Gilbert Smith/Los Altos Civic Center apricot orchard in Los Altos, California, I've been pondering: what is the seductive draw of this lovely, scented, peachy colored fruit? And why am I so darned fond of it?

Some of it, I think, is its association with the sunny, dry, California summer days I spent in the open spaces of the San Francisco peninsula of my youth. The rest, I believe, speaks to the richness of the fruit's flavor and the relative shortness of its season. This warm-from-the-sun, sweet, scented fruit is ripe for just a few weeks each summer. And then it is gone.

History in a Top Drawer

My father in the lot amidst the apricot orchard in Los Altos, California, on which he produced the house he had dreamed about.

During the mud and rain and kamikaze attacks and bombardment of the Battle of Okinawa, my father kept his sanity by building a house in his head. Whether stuck in a shelter, or batting bugs away from the light in his tent--he was sketching out plans for the little house he hoped to build, with my mother, "when the war is over."

He was a lucky man. He survived to fulfill that dream. And I've been lucky too: sorting through his memories here, I've grown to understand more about his, and my own, emotional ties to the land where he was able to find peace after the war.

New Trouble for Ms. Gimpy?

Ms Gimpy today. You can see how she is standing on her left leg, and raising her right.

I hadn't seen Ms. Gimpy in a couple of days, when she appeared this afternoon. I think she's been busy sitting on a nest. But today, when she glided over to where I was working outside--to say hello and grab a snack--it was obvious she was having new trouble with her right leg. She was trying to keep her weight off it as she stood to eat.

An Irreplaceable Classroom

Artist Robert Schick in the J. Gilbert Smith Historic Landmark Orchard at the Los Altos Civic Center.

I met Los Altos artist Robert Schick at the Paint Out we organized at Moffett Field last autumn--designed to support the Moffett Historical Society and Museum and to call attention to the demolition of historic Hangar One. 

This spring, he, in turn, supported the effort to keep Los Altos from demolishing its J. Gilbert Smith Historic Landmark Orchard. Today, with the threat abated, he brought his sketching class out to enjoy the recently-reprieved beauty.

The Great Grandpa "Groezrock" Connection

My great grandfather, Frank Latta, at Montana's Karst Ranch with my mother, Faye Latta, about 1934. My great grandfather was quite a horseman. My mother--not so much.

I've reconnected with several cousins--of the once-or-twice-removed variety--through the Internet, and we've enjoyed sharing information about the great grandfather we all share, Frank Latta, of Bozeman, Montana.

What I didn't expect was to hear from some rockers in the Netherlands, who, it turns out, also find old Frank fascinating!

How a City's Historic Landmark Survived

The J. Gilbert Smith apricot orchard surrounding the Los Altos City Hall, on a cloudy April afternoon.

My local city council spent at least $1M in taxpayer dollars--possibly more: the totals aren't in yet--lobbying its own citizens to plough under and pave over one of the most beautiful and historic spots remaining on the San Francisco peninsula. Just so it could build a larger civic center.

After all that lobbying, marketing, and what is known these days as "outreach,"a telephone survey showed that just 22.6% of the voters volunteered they would vote "definitely yes" for such a proposal--no matter how many ways the pollsters asked the question.