Yesteryear in full bloom

It feels like someone’s backyard, largely because it was. The fruit of the strawberry guava tree was perfect for Alice Pitcher’s compote. The coffee bush? One of her husband’s amusements. And who but a home gardener -- or a young child -- would have the patience for a loquat tree? Such a silly fruit it gives, more seed than anything, just sweet enough to lure another bite.

Today this not-quite-an-acre lot is Pitcher Park, a quiet, timeless place in the city of Orange where bike riding, skateboarding and even dog walking are prohibited. The property, at the corner of Almond and Cambridge streets, was in the Pitcher family for more than seven decades before Alice donated it in the ‘80s for use as a historic civic garden. The home she shared with husband Laurence is gone, but a honey house displays his beekeeping equipment, and a small barn houses a 1907 hand-drawn fire wagon -- one of the city’s first. Stone tables with inlaid checkerboards dot the park. Rest here if your feet are weary, perhaps from shopping in the antiques district six blocks away.

But Pitcher Park is best when there’s no real reason to visit, no reason other than a yearning to recall a time and place when folks were patient enough to make compote with funny little fruits, and the hum of bees was company enough.

-- Dawn Bonker