Living in a Park

Shari and I live in a park. We have park benches, cleared areas and various tended plantings, paths, different park attractions and follies, and a couple of parking areas.

What's a park? A place someone takes care of. Or, in correct English, a place of which someone takes care.

Attractions we have. There's Coathanger Valley and views from its East, West and North Rims. There's a white quartz quarry by the East Rim.

In the cirque we have a thicket of giant agave americanus and a seasonal creek. When it rains heavily enough, water drains from the scuppers and a torrent flows into the cirque.

The Valley has its arroyo, but it's mostly dry. Someone blocked its natural flow with a house, the cirque, and a driveway, so it takes a lot of heavy rain and drenching for the arroyo to trickle to the creosote flats below. But I've seen it flow and flood several times over the last few months.

We have a much admired and remarkable golden barrel specimen. Not only is it a giant by golden barrel standards, it has morphed into three barrels in one.

We have the garden itself which is a reproduction of the wonderous Hanging Gardens of Babylon — minus the Euphrates.

Tomato plants hang and sprawl over elegant mud-brick walls that contain exotic basils, pasillas, and lemon grass, shaded by canopies and framed with varieties of grape vines and all types of fruit trees: apricot, peach, loquat, fig and pomegranate.

On the garden's east side, there is the ramada which provides shade from the bright but nurturing sun. This is where the Laird and Lady of the Park sit and admire their domain, protected by the Great Fence of San Simeon and its three Gates.

We have areas carefully tended to preserve the natural vegetation of the Sonoran Desert. Creosote, sage, palo verde, acacia, pin cushion, cholla, barrel cactus and agaves are plentiful, six mesquite and four ocotillo are growing, and a quick count reveals over thirty mature saguaros and easily as many babies. The Park ranger is reintroducing native wildflowers including brittle bush and globe mallow.

Like a good English garden, we have follies. The Grand Gate is a prominent feature of our Park, and the broken amphora adds a touch of antiquity to the East Rim.

Then our Park has its grand staircase, its minor staircase, several solitary steps, and two boulder-hop staircases.

Particularly convenient for the Laird, Lady and Park rangers, we have guest quarters adjacent to the Park so we don't have to sleep on the park benches or under the palo verde trees. It has showers, beds, a working kitchen, and dish television. And talk about follies! There's the cement pond, a goldfish pond, two automatic cooking pits, and a tower which serves as an observatory.