The Joys of Gardening in California

What a lovely letter. Thank you so much. I am thrilled to think I brought back to you in memory your Great Aunt Ethel and Grandmother Lila, who loved gardening here in our mild Mediterranean climate that really does extend, as you pointed out, from San Francisco on down the coast and inland to the mountains. What a great place this is in which we are lucky to live and garden. It seems to me  that I live in some sort of Paradise. As I drive from place to place, I can look beyond the here and there ugliness and drink in the views of trees, rolling hills, wildflowers, ocean, and the wonderful light that so inspired the California Impressionists of a century ago. Much of what they loved is still here in pockets of land and even preserved on some vast stretches of natural unspoiled landscape, and we can also bring all this alive and preserve this atmosphere in our own gardens, though on a smaller scale. Having lived here since 1944 I can also attest that some towns have increased in charm instead of lost that element and there are many examples one could cite.