Towering Over Valmonte

At 4420 Via Valmonte stands the Gate Lodge Tower, distinct in its rustic stone setting conjuring images of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The stalwart sentry guarding the eastern entrance to Palos Verdes Estates was originally intended to be the guard house for a gated community that was then called the “New Palos Verdes Project”.

Built in 1926 the tower is a two story, 15 feet wide, round construction with 18 inch thick walls of PV Stone. Upstairs is a room with a view, though trees have grown high and obscure its vista. Downstairs, there is a kitchen and living room area complete with fireplace, and over the years this romantic scene has belonged to a few renters.

Overlooking PV’s eastern border with Torrance, the property commanded a majestic panorama over Los Angeles and a part of what was once Frank Vanderlip’s 16,000 acres. As the New Palos Verdes Project progressed, the section of Hawthorne that snaked up the hill was renamed Via Mirlo, reestablishing the guard tower as the “Mirlo Gate Lodge”. Shortly after the tower was finished, the street was renamed Hawthorne and continued on to the golf course. Although the tower has had many names since, ‘Hawthorne’ has never been one of them.

The Great Depression and World War II changed everything; this and many other projects poised to be built in PV were brought to an end and the New Palos Verdes Project became nothing more than drawings on paper.

Over the next decade the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation leased about 300 acres from Vanderlip. Dicalite (diatomaceous earth) was mined from the quarry at the bottom of the Valmonte bluff (now Hawthorne and Via Valmonte) and extended into what is now the Hillside Plaza, a part of Torrance. The mining company wanted to own the land and in 1953 the purchase of 6,800 acres from Vanderlip’s holdings caused the company investors to reassess their plans and the land was developed into a business and residential area. In 1965 Hawthorne was extended up and over the top of the hill to join Palos Verdes Drive South and what was once Via Mirlo became Via Valmonte.

In 1939 the City of Palos Verdes Estates took possession of the tower when the city was incorporated. No longer a sellable piece of real estate, it yet remains a symbol of our piece of the hill - Valmonte. Quaint on its pepper tree lined property, the tower is a quiet reminder of strength, safety and grandeur – exactly what we love about Palos Verdes and for the select few who have lived there, a man’s home actually can be his castle!

Source for this article: Palos Verdes Library’s Local History

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ March 2010 issue,PV tower,Palos Verdes Gatehouse, Palos Verdes Library, Niki Chanel

Zen and the Art of Aquarium Maintenance

by Zen Kent

(I assisted Zen in the writing of this article. ~ Niki )

My name is Zen Kent and I live on Via Valmonte. I am a senior at PV High School. One of my AP marine biology class projects is putting together a salt water tank for another biology class. My dad has had lots of saltwater aquariums over the years and I wanted to try it for myself.

I have a 40 gallon tank at school with a Bio-Ball, Wet/Dry system and when I am finished it will be a ”Touch Tank”. That’s an aquarium that has an open top and is accessible to student’s hands and easy observation.

Salt water for this kind of tank should basically be between 7.6 and 8.4 PH so I buy the water. That way I know it starts out OK for the fish. A gallon of salt water costs about $0.69/gallon. (40 gallon tank of water is about $30.00 to start but I have to keep putting more in because it evaporates.)

To get the microbes to grow so the tank can become sustainable, I need “Live Rock”. The rock is not really alive but lots of micro and macroscopic marine life live on and inside it. The rocks cost about $6.00/lb. A one pound live rock is about the size of a piece of fruit and I have 2 of them = $12.00. I put 40 pounds of live sand in there, too. It helps with the PH and the creatures need an “ocean bed”. 40 pounds of live sand cost me about $50.00.

Tropical tanks are warmer than freshwater ones, about 72º-80º degrees F. The fish that are used to this temperature, I think are more beautiful; fish like the Dragon Rass. My plan is to introduce a Dragon Rass into the environment that I make in the tank. This fish has a lot of energy and an egotistical personality; kind of an Alpha male thing. The other cool thing about this fish is that it sleeps under the gravel on the bottom of the tank. It will spend an hour piling up small gravel to sleep under it. It’s like he can turn out the lights when he wants. I think that’s smart - he avoids predation while he sleeps. I’ve never seen anything else like it. I like how the Dragon Rass changes color throughout its life, and I also like its name. They cost about $20.00 each.

Eventually I want to add an anemones and a Clown fish. Normally anemones sting, paralyze and eat fish but some of them pair up with Clown fish. The Clown is immune to the sting of the anemone so it’s protected from fish eaters while it stays close to the anenome. The anemone is protected from polyp-eating fish because the Clown fish chases them away. They have a symbiotic relationship. We humans have a lot to learn from that. A Clown fish can be from $6.00 to $12.00 and the cheapest anemones are about $25.00 each. The anemone can also eat blood worms which I can buy frozen and mix them in salt water before I add a teaspoon to the tank. The frozen blood worms are about $7.00 a package.

I will need snails, crabs and cleaning shrimp to keep the tank clean and habitable for the other fish and a snail can cost from $1.00 to $5.00 and the cleaner shrimp are $30.00 each. Hermit crabs are also good cleaners. They are about $1.50 each.

People have learned a lot about the ocean lately because over the last 30 yrs that they have been able to enjoy salt-tanks in their homes and observe ocean life closely.

I have a school budget of $160 and I’m almost there. If anyone is interested in helping me learn and teach others about sustainability of an ocean ecosphere, I would be grateful. Donations can be left in the school office for my teacher, Mrs. Kuhn, or for me, Zen Kent or at my favorite aquarium store: Neptune’s Reef at 2851 Pacific Coast Highway (near Crenshaw) in Torrance, 90505. Their phone number is 310.534.2323. Ask for John; he’s the owner and is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the field. He always has some cool thing to tell me about fish or the ocean when I go there. Go have a look for yourself – it costs nothing to look!

Thank you for your support!

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ March 2010 issue,Palos Verdes High School,salt water aquariums,Dragon Rass,Clown fish,living rock,wet-dry system,Neptune's Reef,Torrance,Palos Verdes Peninsula,Zen Kent, Niki Chanel

Comfort with a Cause

Two friends… two angels… June Grossberg, owner of “Concepts in Yarn and Needlepoint” and her very good friend Leslye Borden together champion a program to help turn around the lives of abused women and children through a highly successful volunteer effort called “Handmade Especially for You”. The self esteem of battered souls is often so low they honestly believe an abusive lifestyle is what they deserve.

Enter the “Comfort Scarf”. In 2008 Leslye Borden started knitting sox and hats for underprivileged and abused kids across the country. Her love of knitting evolved into the “Handmade Especially for You”. Later that year she approached June, looking for a sponsor. June offered her shop for the “Knitting Club” and asked her suppliers to donate to the cause. Yarn manufacturers get their name out to potential customers, June’s store gets more business, knitters have a quiet place to create, Leslye’s project gets the support it needs and escapees from abuse are assisted - everybody wins.

Day after day heaps of soft yarn in every conceivable color and design appear on Leslye’s doorstep. Some donors are known, some anonymous; some private while others are in the business. The main contributions come from distributors like Trendsetter Yarns, Crystal Palace Yarns and Knitting Fever Yarns though at least another twenty manufacturers participate. Leslye winds the yarn into skeins and artistically combines several colors into individual ‘kits’ each containing a total of 100 yards (300 feet) to make one 4-5” wide, 60” long scarf. Volunteers use an open-weave stitch to knit numerous pieces and drop them into the donation box at the store. Leslye then sends them to shelters throughout California, helping create chapters around the country. It sounds fun but there is a serious side and a lot of work is involved, not unlike allies in the underground. It is important to have dependable, dedicated knitting members and the need for steady yarn supply is paramount.

The program is built on the healing psychology of gifting and has been proven to start victims on a road to a better life. Some of the women who receive one of the ‘gifts’ have never before been given anything that was just for them; the impact of a stranger donating time, effort, creativity and compassion has a deep and positive effect on their psyches. Many embark on a quest to seek a more nurturing environment for themselves and their children.

Crochet Magazine (crochetmagazine.com) published an article about “Handmade Especially for You” in their October 2009 “Talking Crochet Newsletter” and the response was overwhelming! People all over the States wanted to participate in this volunteer movement. Case in point: Peggy Bomba of Craig, Colorado read about Leslye’s efforts and was inspired to include “Comfort Scarves” in her classes at the Craig-Moffat County Jail where she has taught crocheting for over two years. These incarcerated women, often themselves victims of violence, frequently react to life in an aggressive manner, yet they now crochet scarves for other women in need. The work is calming and the fighting has stopped. Peggy has broadened her endeavors to include other causes and more volunteers – even men enjoy the handiwork! To date, she has sent two shipments of scarves to Leslye. It seems the term ‘corrections’ has taken on a renewed meaning: transformation. It’s a huge step towards healing ones self image. Examples like this prove that the work is worth the effort and the reward, immeasurable.

Crisis centers everywhere need continued assistance from the outside world to demonstrate to victims escaping abuse that life can be different - better. This last Christmas the ‘Scarf Project’ answered that need; the goal was 2,000 scarves yet the two partners were pleased to receive over 2,500 in time for the holiday delivery, a total of 6,500 for the year! They deliver the finished scarves to home offices of the shelters, keeping the safe-house’s actual locations hidden.

Leslye’s success with “Handmade” has been helped by June Grossberg through her store “Concepts in Yarn and Needlepoint”. June supports the “Comfort Scarf” drive by donating her shop and time so volunteers can come in and knit for the project, free of charge. Every Wednesday evening from 5:00 to 8:00pm about eight to twelve volunteers from Palos Verdes, Torrance and Redondo arrive with knitting needles in hand, pick up a free, pre-measured kit and enjoy the evening’s ‘girl time’ while they create a link of love to their less fortunate sisters. Other knitters who choose to craft theirs at home can pick up kits at the shop. June supplies two bins: one for Leslye’s kits and one for finished scarves. Leslye picks up the finished work and tags each one, signed by its maker. Finally, a non-knitting volunteer wraps each scarf with a brightly colored ribbon, ready for the next delivery batch.

The store “Concepts in Yarn and Needlepoint” is located at the end of Via Valmonte on Hawthorne Blvd. in the Hillside Plaza and normal business hours are 10:00am to 5:00pm, though open until 8:00pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. June carries many scrumptious yarn varieties in her shop imported from foreign manufacturers primarily Italy, Japan and Turkey. American manufacturers are not producing designer yarns at this time, but it is a growing industry. Hand dyed silks, Alpaca, Cashmere, Merino sheep’s wool, fibers made from soy milk, Kapok, corn and organics for soft baby items; colors, textures and designs are enough to make you drool! Patterns, buttons, notions and needlepoint supplies all vie for space in this cozy wonderland and if you still can’t get enough there are classes in crocheting, needlepoint and knitting, custom work and Ghost Knitters are available.

Abuse is not exclusive and can appear at any stage in life. It crosses all lines of society; age, race, education, creed and monetary circumstances. Addressing domestic violence involves us all - those in need and those that can fill the need; sometimes the boundaries are blurred. Volunteers are taking up the cause and knitting circles are spreading with new chapters in San Diego, one in Naples, Florida, one in the making in Seattle and approximately fifteen others throughout the country. To learn more about the scarf project, read Leslye’s monthly newsletter on her website at:http://www.handmadeespecially.org

By the way, if you don’t know what a Ghost Knitter is, I can only tell you that it is so secret you’ll have to visit the shop to ask… and bring your knitting needles!

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ March 2010 issue,Palos Verdes Peninsula,Concepts in Yarn and Needlepoint,Handmade Especially for You, Niki Chanel

Valmonte Living ~ Dr. Delio

A local magazine has asked me to contribute so I have taken up interviewing fascinating people near home. This blog is about one such individual.

Dr. Damien Delio : Orthodontist

Brace yourself… here’s an orthodontist that likes kids! Really! His affinity for the youth of Palos Verdes is even evident on his website (http://www.delioortho.com/default.asp) where one can find multiple computer games including “Why Did the Chicken cross the road?” and “Tomato Bounce” for his youngest patients. Teenagers will appreciate the (Rubber) Band Color Chooser to add some fashion to their metal braces. (It’s fun to play with the Color widget even if you don’t have braces!) Links to Nickelodeon and news for youngsters will keep Middle School students occupied.

Why is Dr. Damien Delio so good with children? It might have something to do with being the ninth of ten kids.

Damien was one of the lucky ones; hanging around his father’s office as a child he realized early on what he wanted to do for the rest of his life - when he was just six years old! He wanted to make people smile and to do that he would follow in his father’s footsteps – those of Orthodontics. If we think there may be spinach between our teeth, we hide our smile. If our teeth are crooked, we tend to always hide it. Damien wanted to address that and make a difference.

To that end, like all doctors, he paid his dues in higher education, starting with Palos Verdes High School on Cloyden Road. The next ten years were spent at USC studying Dentistry, then on to special training in Orthodontics. He is a member of the Damon Study Club and the American Association of Orthodontists so he can stay in touch with the newest developments in his chosen field. If he needs additional consultation, he can always ask his dad, Charles Delio, who has been in the business for over forty years. In fact, he worked with his father for seven years before taking over Delio Orthodontics at 827 Deep Valley Drive, Suite 302, in Rolling Hills Estates. Two years later he opened another office in Manhattan Beach, California. That was fourteen years ago and both offices still emulate a family-community business model.

Damien Delio grew up in Malaga Cove surfing, hiking, and interested in teeth. In 1997 he married Renna Philipopoulos, a history student at USC when they met. They moved to Via Solano in the Valmonte area and have two children of their own - eleven year old Natalie and eight year old Noah. Currently he is involved with his kid’s school activities and coaches his children’s sports teams. He says the family tradition of hanging around the dental office is being continued by his own.

But Dr. Damien is not all fun and games. He is serious about his craft. One of his main goals is to educate his community about the importance of dental hygiene. He has been known to lecture at schools about it and has a section on his website encouraging visitors to take up the cause – get into Orthodontics! Try your hand at it by going to the ‘Be an Orthodontist’ tab in the “Fun Stuff” section of his website. It might become a family tradition for you, too.

Damien has two brother-in-laws that are in Orthodontics, two of his sisters are Dental Hygienists and another sister, Connie Taylor, manages the Deep Valley office for both her brother, Damien and father, Charles who still sees patients every other week and enjoys the Indio desert alternate weeks. Damien says he finds himself treating children who are kids of his dad’s patients.

For the Delio family, healthy teeth and gums is a way of life and for Damien, dentistry is… well, it’s child’s play.

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ February 2010 issue,Dr. Delio, Niki Chanel

Valmonte Living ~ Meet the Jordan’s

A local magazine has asked me to contribute so I have taken up interviewing fascinating people near home. This blog is about two such individuals.

Volunteer Spotlight : Stephen Jordan & Margi Braun

If he had it to do all over again, Stephen Jordan wouldn’t change a thing - especially his volunteer work at the South Coast Botanic Gardens on Crenshaw Blvd. His time there is spent weeding and planting and when he’s done one can see the results. He tells me “it’s immediate gratification!”

Originally from Illinois, Stephen and his wife Margi Braun love plants and the out-of-doors. Though they are happy with their place on Via Nivel in Palos Verdes, the wide open spaces of the mid-west have always felt more like home to them.

Stephen enthusiastically tells me the history of the Gardens; it started out as a mine for diatomaceous earth around 1900. The city of Los Angeles took over the shaft and open pit mining to turn the area into a land fill, hoping later to make it part of Parks and Recreation development. For Stephen this is exactly what happened: “The Botanic Gardens is my playground and so much more satisfying than my little back yard.” Nowadays 80+ acres are cared for by 130 volunteers. Last year they put in over 17, 500 hours of loving care – a happy ending for an abused piece of real estate.

Bringing things to life is not a new venture for Stephen as he was a doctor of obstetrics at Kaiser Permanente for most of his career. Correcting problems of infertility and bringing healthy babies into the world was “positive medicine” for him.

In 1985 Dr. Jordan did a year of cancer training, surrendering himself to the practice until he retired in 1995. He continues his positive medical care even in retirement by also volunteering for the Kaiser Hospice as a companion to P.V. souls in need. He feels his ten years experience with these patients led him to the Hospice position. This home-based care program provides a physician, nurse, social worker, chaplain, and volunteer for each patient. As part of this team Stephen picks up medication refills, takes patients to their doctor appointments, relieves other team members and, most importantly acts as friend and confident to the ailing individual. He’s such a nice, genuine guy it’s a blessing to have him on your side.

Margi is a caregiver in her own right by rescuing cats in the South Bay. She acts as ‘foster parent’ to kittens, feeding them, getting them their shots and, yes, sees to it they get ‘fixed’. When the kittens are about four months old the organization, South Bay Cats, is able to put them up for adoption through outlets like PetSmart on weekends. They charge $100 which pays for expenses incurred. Oh, and there is a two week return policy – just in case. Her day job as a computer programmer for website optimization is sometimes interrupted by a friendly face peering over the computer monitor or a helping paw on the keyboard.

Childless by choice, this loving couple has dedicated their lives to things they already loved – plants and animals. If you get a chance to meet them, say ‘thank you’ : )

You can learn more about the Botanic Gardens at southcoastbotanicgarden.org. Investigate the home care by Googling Kaiser Permanente Hospice Program and find out more about adoptable kitties at southbaycats.com.

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ February 2010 issue,Palos Verdes Peninsula,Stephen Jordan,Margi Braun,Botanic Garden,PetSmart, Niki Chanel

Frascati’s Restorante

N2 & Frascati’s

I love receiving hand written letters or postcards. I also like getting announcements for art openings that often come on postcards so I was delighted to receive a card in the mail first week in December. But this card was different.

This card was an invitation to me.

More to the point, it was an invitation to meet my neighbours – all of them! The request for R.S.V.P. was sent by Rick Rizzo, an affiliate of N2 magazine, based in South Carolina. Rick had something to offer us and would we meet him at Frascati’s restaurant for a free meal.

On the 8^th of December 2009, a dozen neighbours from the Valmonte area of Palos Verdes Estates met at Frascati’s Ristorante to enjoy its northern Italian fare. Located in at the Norris Theatre end of the Peninsula promenade it is easy parking and a short walk from the theatre. Owned and solely operated by Enrico Glaudo - you may have heard of him; he was the chef responsible for putting Locanda del Lago in Santa Monica on the map. The food was served expertly with not interference to our meeting, beautiful to look at and simply superb to the palate. Hors d’oeuvres of calamari and scallops, conversation stopper salads, fantastic fish, lamb that melts in your mouth, perfect vegetables and when we were full – desserts! Four of them! None of us had been before and we are all going back! It was truly an extraordinary gastronomic experience.

But back to the new N2 Magazine; its goal is to be a community building publication. It is not designed to replace Peninsula People, rather to support it. The concept is that the articles and photographs will be submitted for the people, by the people and featuring the people of the Valmonte area and the grunt work of layout and printing will be the responsibility of N2 Publications. To start, of course, the first volunteers will be hosting it and once it gets going, the creative ‘work’ will be spread around.

Do we need such a thing? I’d say this is a great platform to connect with your community and neighbours. In just the one meeting we all learned something new about our neck of the PV ‘woods’; some didn’t know we have our own CERT program for disasters, some didn’t know about the monthly Valmonte women’s luncheon while others were surprised to find out there were 1045 homes in the area and all of us found out about this great Italian restaurant! This magazine can help us share our knowledge and our celebrations, while enriching our lives and those of our children. It can do for you what it did for us that night at Frascati’s - we arrived as strangers, we left as friends.

BuzzNet Tags: Valmonte Living Magazine ~ February 2010 issue, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Niki Chanel