My Monday hike

On Monday, I hiked Fryman Canyon, a 3 mile loop around the Hollywood Hills.  It was the perfect weekend for a hike as the temps were in the mid 70's and the Santa Ana winds were in full effect...(a sincere apology to any of my cold climate friends.)

Fryman Canyon is an intense hike for the first mile or so, but once you are at the top of the hill, you get a chance to take in the beautiful view of the San Fernando Valley...um, minus the smog :)

During the last leg of the hike, the trail takes you through a beautiful neighborhood tucked away in the Hollywood Hills.  The neighborhood is full of distinctive homes where you can't help but fantasize about who lives there and what's inside.

When I was a little girl, I loved to draw.  For my 10th birthday, my mother and father bought me a fancy drafting table.  My father worked in the printing department for the University of MN, and always brought home large tablets of paper, and even an adjustable ruler for my drafting table.  For years, I would draw houses and outline the details for each one, including how I would furnish it.  I daydreamed about what my perfect house would look like and probably drew it over 100 different times. I could still tell you exactly how it looked.  I was set on being a corporate lawyer at the time so my desired profession more than justified the immense size of my future house.

Although I no longer spend hours drawing my fantasy house, the drafting table I once sat hours in front of is now stowed away in my father's basement and I'm far from being a corporate attorney, I still find myself fantasizing about fancy houses similar to the ones I used to draw.

 Each house on my hike was distinctive, and well maintained.  Even during the month of February, the trees and shrubs were green and trimmed to perfection as if it were summer.  One house in particular had this beautiful Soulangeana Magnolia Tree in the front yard. A Soulangeana Magnolia is a deciduous tree with beautiful blooms of either white, pink or purple flowers.

Near the end of the yard where this tree stood, sat a man who was tending to other shrubs.  I approached him inquiring about this tree and he shared with me all the details on why this tree is so rare.  The lady who owns the estate in which this tree lives on is a retired Botanist, who is well into her 70's.  She used to travel all around the world studying flowers.

Each flower, tree and shrub in her yard had been carefully selected by her before it was planted.  From her eucalyptus trees to her Zoysia Grass (Korean Grass) her yard was manicured to perfection. Oh, how I would have loved to have met her.  I bet she is a very interesting lady.  In fact, the man was telling me she was having a dinner party later that evening and hired him to come by and make sure her yard was presentable.

I continued to walk through the rest of the neighborhood taking in all the beauty of the unique houses, the plants and trees that decorated each of them. Here is a sample of some of the other trees and flowers I saw.  I think next time I'm gonna skip the hike altogether and just stake out some interesting neighborhoods to walk through. 

Whose in?