9-11-02        Wandering the Heights

I had to drop my truck off to be serviced this morning--luckily only three blocks away--so on the walk home I decided to take the looping route up onto the hillside and down again, so you could see a little more of this neighborhood I live in.  It's old, it's quirky... and that's exactly what we like about it!  No cookie-cutter tracts and plenty of little avocado or citrus orchards tucked away between properties.  Like everywhere else in this town, there's the occasional recent eruption of big, expensive homes, but most of the Heights is still, thankfully, its unique self.

A typical Heights house that has undoubtedly been here for many decades.  It was probably 'out in the country' when it was built.

This area is full of houses three-deep behind others on little lanes.  Here's the undeveloped Heights style, with open space and dirt driveways.

Cactus and bouganvillea frame this view of an old avocado orchard.  A secluded house sits at the back.

At this intersection above my home, you can see the orchard of huge avocados that sprawls behind a rental house.

Occasional parcels, of course, have been sold at heightened prices to people wanting to build their dream homes, such as this one.

Two doors down from the house at left, this view shows the Santa Monica mountains and Satwiwa in the distance (looking south.)

A stone's throw from the fancy house, above, are these tiny row houses, the homes of Mexican workers.  There are four of these duplex units.

In the row house backyards, laundry hangs on lines, chickens or rabbits inhabit home-built cages above hard-swept earth, and residents take advantage of the fruit from apricot and fig trees.

Driveway shaded by avocados leads to a Heights residence about a block above my home.

An example of current trends, until recently this cul-de-sac was a wonderful, overgrown two-acre parcel with several huge old trees.  Now seven large homes share the space.

Driveway leading to our house.  We're at the back, where the tall trees are.  Six years ago, our plot was open, hot and baked during the summer months.  Our (very) quick-growing trees have transformed the place.

Our little 1941 stucco house, later added onto.  It's set on a wonderful quarter-acre with fruit trees and avocados, and room for creative planting or other activities--a haven I'm truly grateful to have.