The gardens are lovely.

Easterners are impressed with the specimen sized tropical plants which tower over them. The gardens are lovely with so many lush plants The Inn has a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere. Often guests, indicating the plants and the quiet, say it is hard to believe The Inn is in the middle of a major city.

A variety of birds love to bathe in the baths and fountains that are located around the grounds of The Inn.

In addition to the year 'round green, were to come in the fall, the Chinese Silk Pod tree would greet you with a canopy of pink, orchid like flowers. This is a huge tree at the front of 657 remarkable for its chartreuse green bark which is covered with spiky thorns covering the trunk of the tree. It is called silk pod because after the beautiful bloom the tree is covered with huge leathery pods about six inches in length and three or four in diameter. These pods contain the softest, silkiest material imaginable. The first of January now, these pods are not yet burst open to reveal the silky material inside.

While this tree is a little trouble because it litters the ground with flowers, it compensates because of its unique beauty and its inhabitants. Yes, its inhabitants are wonderfulÑflocks of love birds about 8 inches in length. Particularly wonderful is the birds' color, which is exactly the same as the tree's bark. What a great treat to see the birds chattering away in the top of this monumental tree.

These are not our only birds. Humming birds love the oleander planted in front of the 657 building. Often these delightful little dynamos flit through the yard, stopping at the fountains to drink. They are such intrepid creatures that splashing water daunts them not.

The real kick though, is when the parrots visit in flocks of 12 to 18 or more, colored as the Silk Pod tree and the love birds--that is-- chartreuse. But they visit a different tree, a hackberry, growing in the back of the 663 building. This tree is a real mess. It loses all of its leaves in the winter but not before it drops thousands of little hard berries that track into the buildings and make walking barefoot painful. It drips a sap that covers everything it lands on, even plants growing beneath.

The parrots, though, love these berries, so often they hang upside down as they pick berry after berry. Sometimes the only evidence they were at the tree is the ground covered with partially eaten berries. Because the parrots need the hackberry, it stays.

Usually you hear the parrots before you see them. They chatter and clatter with great and determined gusto. They fly overhead squaking their way through the neighborhood, visiting only the tops of trees. Unlike the lovebirds the parrots are very skittish.

I am trying now, with varying success, to grow my own orchids. So far this effort has been hit or miss but occasionally I have a plant which deigns to bloom so we have its exquisite presence at the breakfast table.

This little info section on the garden has been interrupted by several tasks; the most important of which is finding a racing form for my father. My Dad, who is 100+, has always loved betting the horsesÑSanta Anita, the old Hollywood Park and a few trips to Del Mar in San Diego each year. My Mom was right with him. So I spent a good part of the day darting in and out of South Central liquor stores looking for a "form" because our usual liquor store was out of them.

Two of the Inn's many flowers in bloom.

I am learning, however, to get most of the info about the horses, jockeys and trainers from the internet. It isn't all of the history but it lets my Dad know if he is even interested in getting more info-meaning the legit racing form, incomparable to any other "news" paper.

Today, a sunny one, I spent some time "puttering" in the garden. Puttering means, for example, while walking to the mailbox I see some weeds that are easy for the pulling because of all the rain we have had this December. While pulling these weeds, I notice that the succulents need attention.

Now, the succulents are a variety of plant which never caught my fancy until I saw them at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino which is located 20 miles from here. The Huntington's succulent garden was an amazing discovery as their plants are huge and very architectural in form. The colors found in the plants are unexpected because the delicate shades of blue, turquoise, pink and rose contrast mightily with the massive size of the plants

Because it was spring, the succulents offered a special treat with another entrancing contrastÑthe incredibly dainty, delicate spires of their blooms.

So of course I had to have a few of these formerly disdained plants.

For just a moment I want to comment on "formerly disdained" plants. There are more than a few to whom I have had to apologize. For example, the calla lilly. These simple but elegant plants were everywhere when I was a kid so that I let their seemingly common abundance obscure their extreme beauty. Fortunately I have apologized so that they grow happily here in my garden where I really need them.

Another plant is the oleander. Again, this plant is so ubiquitous in Southern California that I took them for granted and turned to more exotic beauties. They are so hardy that often they are used in the median strips of our freeways. Instead of being grateful for the oleanders' gloriously colorful break in our unrelenting concrete, I called them "freeway plants", there being no greater putdown.

Well, it is clear why they are so commonly used in our climateÑthey thrive with little care. Where most other plants die a quick, expensive and dirty death, these give a grand splash of color with little attention. Especially when I had a couple of trouble spots did I quickly and sincerely apologize.

Back to the succulents. What I love about the plants I have is that they give me a use for some pedestal urns my mother had in her garden. I have six of the theses old cement urns. Though battered and beaten, they never the less flank three of the wide steps that lead to the main entrance to 663.

While I was working on the succulents, lovebirds were fussing in the Chinese Silk tree. Sometimes there will be several pairs in the tree, each in its own area chatting in an amiable fashion. Today, however, the five I counted were all clustered in one spot, really giving each other heck --even charging with wings flapping. Last year I was going to cut down the tree because not only is it very dirtyÑwhich I could standÑbut it tears up the concrete because I didn't plant it correctly. But, because the birds use it so often yet another tree got a reprieve and I found an easy, economical and attractive way to mend the concrete.

After tidying up the succulents--planting a few more and trimming a few--I cleaned up a few spots where leaves have accumulated after several weeks of almost constant rain.

It has rained so much that today's sun was compelling. Those of you who garden know that sense of spring brought with a day of sun in the winter. It is so lovely you just wander from little job to little job as each catches your eye. It's not like those days when you plan major tasks such as weeding or trimming or planting when you spend hour after hour at the job. Today was just a little bit of puttering.

Before I close this little section on the garden, I want to tell you about my Belle of Portugal. The Belle of Portugal is a very old rose that has crossed my path several times.

The first time was when I owned my first home. The rose already existed at the charming old farmhouse, surrounded by more than an acre. I hated leaving the Belle when I moved to Los Angeles to go to law school, especially as I was moving to a small apartment with not even a balcony for plants.

After law school, the first thing I did was buy a modest duplex which had as its main attraction a yard for plants. I didn't realize that right next door and in fact, leaning over into my property, was a Belle of Portugal. All the time I lived in the duplex I enjoyed and was grateful for the Belle of Portugal.

This rose is special because it has a most exquisite bud, which is slender, delicate and elongated. Its color is the softest pink you could ever hope to see. No variation in color, just a solid bud of perfect pink. It opens to a large, languid, casual bloom.

After living in the duplex, I moved to the 657 building. Actually, I moved the 657 building. Originally built in West Los Angeles, I moved the building to the North University Park area because I thought it was such a great location, I wanted to own and live there. Not finding just the right building I bought a vacant lot and moved all six thousand squared feet of 657, cut into 3 pieces, to its present location.

When I started landscaping one of the first things I had to have was a Belle of Portugal. There wasn't a lot of sun so I was limited to p laces where I could plant a rose. First I tried the front of the building, on the West side. Well, really, first I had to find the plant; it isn't a rose that ordinary nurseries carry because it is an old variety with lots of thorns.

Eventually I found it. After trying the West side of 657 for a couple of years, Ireneo and I dug it up (no small feat) to transfer it the East side of the building.

After a year or so there, the trees (the infamous Chinese Silk Pod) and some boundary hedges grew tall enough to keep the rose, a climber, in almost complete shade.

By this time 663 was completed, so Ireneo and I dug it up once again and moved it to the West side of 663. It should have done well there, but just didn't.

Ireneo couldn't believe it, but dear heart that he is, we dug it up again and moved it to its original site, the West side of 657. We did trim some trees and bushes to give the rose more sun which must have worked because the climber is now a growing phenomenon. It sends out massive canes which arch over the 663 driveway to the West but also in the other direction to the 657 building. It has a span of at least 20 feet. I cannot keep it trimmed.

You would walk under its arch at the side of 657 on your way to 663.

The rose blooms early in the year, usually February and March for a short but spectacular few weeks.

You really have to love a rose to plant it four times.

Post script:

Today I was looking out the front window of 663 to check that water running down the gutter from our intense rain was moving without obstruction. ThereÑright in front of the window-was a tight bud of the Belle of Portugal. I can't imagine what prompts it to bloom this early in January, particularly as we have had so little sun. Perhaps the plant is basking in the light of my shared appreciation.