Authors are always looking for locations that can inspire them. I’ve been fortunate that my years traveling up and down the State of Maine provided me no end of unique communities that I could draw upon when creating bits and pieces of Windeport; having friends in Southern California gives me a similar excuse now to poke into every corner of Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties, searching for just the right kind of spot that can become a new location in my fictional Rancho Linda. I often treat the search as though I were a location scout for a major motion picture studio; while I usually have a general idea of the sort of spot I am looking for, stumbling across something even better during my travels can lead to a slight shift in tone or theme, giving my book a slightly different shading that I might not have originally thought about. And, frankly, it’s just fun playing tourist every now and then, too.
Case in point: back in February, I spent a long weekend in California with my friends so I could participate in a charitable event for their community. For some time now, my friend had talked about wanting to take me to The Huntington in San Marino; part library, part museum, part botanical garden, it’s an eclectic experience that the long weekend finally gave me an excuse to check it out — and try my hand at using the digital SLR camera I’d inherited from my wife. We arrived mid-morning to an already overflowing parking lot, immediate evidence of just how popular a spot the location is.
Our plan was simple — we knew in advance that there was no way to cover everything in a single visit, so we focused instead on checking out several of the gardens that I was most interested in photographing. We started in the massive glass-and-steel conservatory with an eye toward seeing if it was as hot and humid as Rosie’s solarium; our results were mixed, but then again, the Huntington’s version had to support a far wider variety of botanical specimens than the ones I think Rosie has in hers. Still, I got some great ideas about what other nifty plants might be hiding offscreen that readers may not have yet seen in my books; then again, maybe having a bed of carnivorous plants might not be the best idea.
Next up was the Chinese Garden, guarded by an amazing sculpture. The long, winding pathways added to the sense of serenity, one that became even deeper once we found the reflecting pond at its heart.
I began to understand why people visited throughout the season, for it was clear that the various plantings were designed to add specific splashes of color at just the right part of the calendar. My visit was too early to appreciate the full flavor of the flowering cherry trees and other specimens, but there was enough to let me know it would be well worth my time to come back.
I’ve only recently begun to work with a digital SLR; while I used to shoot traditional 35MM film, my trusty iPhone has been able to take far better quality images for years now. Getting a chance to experiment once more with the various settings a more traditional camera can offer was a lot of fun, and some of the muscle memory slowly began to return. I’m not nearly as good at framing a subject as my wife is, but I’m getting there.
The next stop was the Japanese Garden, a subtle shift that continued to put me into an amazingly Zen-like frame of mind. Koi abounded in the waters, and everywhere we turned, a small waterfall cascaded over carefully placed rocks before happily burbling away down a winding brook. For the most part, voices were muted as people contemplated our surroundings; I found a clarity of mind that I didn’t realize I’d been missing, something that hung around for a few days after I returned home.
Somehow, time got away from us and before we knew it, we had to hustle back out to the car so we could return home in time for other obligations that evening. I know I’ll be back; we barely touched on the wide expanse of the grounds, and now that I know what’s there, I also have a sense of how it would all look under different kinds of light. I can’t wait to return and continue my exploration.
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