As I was driving back from the Jackcheese and Motlah East Alhambra
cache extravaganza, I was listening to some Beatles music on the
radio. At a crucial moment, I caught Paul McCartney signing his
“ Come And Get It”, recorded at Abbey Road Studios on
July 24, 1969. The song was given to the band Badfinger and
featured in the movie, "The Magic Christian," which starred Peter
Sellers and Ringo Starr.
I was in front of Arlington Garden at the time, where I had
meant to stop for a while. Inspired, I rushed out and set up this
cache.
Garden designer Mayita Dinos laid out the garden on a gentle
knoll in two segments: Mediterranean and California with outdoor
"rooms." This garden opened July 16, 2005 and has grown and evolved
in leaps and bounds since then.
When it opened, there were about 12 trees. Since then 300 trees
and 3,000 plants have been planted. There's an olive allée,
a young orange grove, a lavender garden, California poppies,
lavender garden, oak trees, birdhouses, walkways and even an arroyo
fashioned to catch the water during the winter.
The garden is on the grounds of the former Durand home, a
50-room, 17,000-square-foot French chateau built in 1905 and razed
in the 1960s. The land was purchased by Caltrans as a construction
staging area (for the 710 freeway extension I presume) but they
finally gave up the ghost. Why the house was razed is a story I
would like to hear.
The cache is a RX container placed in a
cozy niche. Should it disappear, there are lots of other options
for its re-placement in this 2.5 acre garden
