Ascot Hills Park

Ascot Hills Park has boundaries on Google Maps, but no one told the water, air, plants, or animals. Here, nature flows down the hillsides, a rhythmic exhaling of life that breathes out into the surrounding streets and neighborhood. Stronger is the inhale, drawing in joggers, hikers, dog-walkers, insects, and animals, as well as my curiosity and the students I coax to come co-explore that curiosity with transect tapes, insect nets, and well-treaded shoes. I get distracted easily here. Look over there! That’s probably one of my honeybees on the flowering California buckwheat. Have I mentioned this coast live oak tree? I planted it on a date 15 years ago, not long after the park first opened; it was the first tree my now-wife ever planted. This place breathes L.A. Ascot Hills inspires …