I keep an album of vintage postcards in my studio as evidence of what preceded the Silicon Valley. The mountain views of the Valley of Heart’s Delight are still recognizable of course but these fluffy blankets of blooms now lie like bits of lint intersected by highways and subdivisions. Our last remaining orchard in Los Gatos, the North 40, is now slated for development. It would be bulldozed already if there agreement on what combination of shops and restaurants and housing in required. Maybe a remnant of the past makes for a better future.
My album of old orchard postcards from the Valley of Heart’s Delight.
An orphaned fruit tree caught between the tracks and the Highway 85 in Los Gatos.
Slated for development, North 40 along Highway 17 is the last remaining orchard in Los Gatos.
Sadly, nature & natural surrounding, as well as those fruit tree orchards planted in the last century, will always be diminished, decimated by corporate greed in the name of progress, modernization.
Considering the per sq.ft., almost, price of land values in prime communities like Los Gatos it is a wonder even a patch of undesignated grass, field or swamp is not already spoken for– for development.
So as the lyrics in your Facebook title suggest, “they’ve paved PARADISE to put up a parking lot.” Ranted in the best possible way by Joni Mitchell, long ago, to no avail.
Los Gatos struggles to keep it’s small town character and charm in the face of rampant growth and development and I am grateful for our parks and trails and I love that I’m able to walk to all the amenities but if I had to choose between another salon and an orchard, I’d side with the trees!
Yes, heartily agreed, the very generous benefactors that long ago saw the future of encroachment on natural environments and set aside, bequeathed, or put in place, land usage covenants in perpetuity were wise beyond their knowing of all the pride and pleasure that is today derived daily by all who regularly use, love, and are very thankful for.