The Walking on Wednesdays group hadn’t visited Christina Schneck to see her beautiful Estates Drive garden since 2022. Swee Ling Chen thought the group would enjoy seeing it again and Christina said she would be happy to have the walkers come visit.
There was a good turnout of over 40 walkers and two K-9 best friends last week. Including Marion Lim Yankowitz, Denny McGee, Claudine Bach, Jim Kuo, Mary Ann Barnes, Tom Lehrkind, Cathy Leymon, Sherry Jacobs, Nancy Henn, Edith Lee, Diane Jimenez, Alissa Quan, Ken Moy, Brenda Ferrero, Judy Sokoloff, Sarah Johnson, Brian Henderson, Mike Gallant, Jasmine Cai, Noemi Alvarado, Jim Kellogg, Liz Dalrymple, Quincy Dong, Bill Ahern, Tina Shum, Dave DeRoche, Helen Dong, Alicia Rivera, Joyce Ahern, Mark Davis, Lauren DuDell-Foley, Vicki Trimbach, Ken Hubbert, Chuck Oraftik, Kat Lang, Cathy Laymon, Minoo Klayman, Bonnie Sherwood with K-9 best friend Zippy, Peggy Shultz, Elane Rehr, June Yee, Lisa Euphrat, Phil Witte, Nancy Henn, Gary Meyer with K-9 best friend Rudy, Nancy DeRoche with K-9 best friend Pepper, Karen Palmer, Melanie Johnston, Julia Chin, Phil Chin with K-9 best friend Rocky, and Dick Carter. The group was pleased Mike Gallant invited Dan Scdoris to walk with them.
Before the walkers got started, it was announced that next Wednesday, May 21st, Nancy Kent, the City’s Parks & Project Manager, will give the walkers a tour of the Dracena Park reforestation project. The following Wednesday on May 28th Piedmont Fire Chief Dave Brannigan will give the walkers a preview of the community evacuation exercise that is planned for the Scenic/Blair Avenues neighborhood on June 14th.
The group started off taking a familiar route up Highland to Sheridan and Wildwood Avenues and through the Hall Fenway to Crocker Avenue and Hampton Road. On Hampton one of Piedmont’s ubiquitous deer dashed across the street in front of them. The walkers came to Hampton’s intersection with St. James Drive, where the street starts, and went down to La Salle Avenue and two, old, white columns. They marked this entrance to what was the St. James Woods development, which was a large real estate project that started about 100 years ago.
There were a number of entrances to this large neighborhood and most have two large, white columns. Larger ones are just up La Salle at Hampton Road. Additionally, all the concrete sections in the sidewalks throughout the development have a brown, four-tile inlay pattern. This original design has been continued to this day when sideways need to be repaired. The group made the long walk on St. James to Corpus Christi Church at Park Way where two more white columns marked this entrance to St. James Woods.
Then it was up Park to Estates and Christina’s nearby house. She was outside waiting for the group and shared the history of the garden she has created.
It started about 35 years ago when she began the transformation of a traditional grass front yard to the impressive garden it is today. It starts with the car strip at the street curb with a quilt-like artwork of different varieties of succulents and other plants.
Christina then led the group around to her backyard where more of her gardening creation was on display. It has alstroemeria, petunia, geraniums, roses, lobelia, many other plants, and trees some of which have 30 years of growth. Tall redwoods and a pine tree provide shade for her plants and a bench gave some walkers a short rest after their long walk. There is also a large, brown vase-like fountain in the middle of yard that attracts fantail pigeons, hummingbirds, blue jays, crows, and other birds. Additionally, there are a number of metal sculptures by local sculptor Mark Bulwinkle, who works in cut steel, that decorate the yard. Christina said she recently installed drip irrigation throughout the garden that cut her water bill almost in half.
It was fun to see what Christina’s years of hard work have created, but the long walk had taken much of the morning, and it was soon time for the walkers to return to the center of town, starting on a hidden, 206-foot set of stairs between 201 and 191 Sandringham that goes down to St. James.
The Walking on Wednesdays group meets every Wednesday at the Exedra (Highland & Magnolia Avenues) at 10:30 a.m. Everyone is invited to join the group and there is no charge. New walkers and their friendly K-9 best friends are especially welcome. Register at https://tinyurl.com/3ethkehu.