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.