Monthly Archives: September 2016

Tuesday mid-afternoon is not the typical time for shopping. Compared to the packed weekends, weekdays offer a less hectic shopping environment. With no hassle for parking spots and no mile-long lines, weekdays are the perfect time for fashionistas to do some highly efficient shopping.

The key to any home loan approval is documentation. And the amount of paperwork asked for by lenders these days has never been higher. Tax returns, bank statements, paystubs and 401k statements are just the beginning.

A fast-moving fire helped by remote topography, low humidity and hot weather, scorched 1,500 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains along the Santa Cruz-Santa Clara County border 11 miles west of Morgan Hill. It has burned one house and threatens 300 others.

Everywhere Gilroy Police Officer Mark Tarasco drives, he sees raised thumbs and hears whoops of joy—at least 10 a day.

The Fall Passport event is a perfect weekend for any wine lover. For a flat price, wine tasters receive a passport booklet which allows them one visit per winery over the three-day weekend.

My next door neighbor walked out to her backyard one day and noticed a little green plant that was growing out of the rain gutter above her bedroom window. Upon closer inspection, what she actually had was a small tomato plant. “A gutter tomato!” she joked, as she and her son transplanted it into a large pot.After tending to this and several other tomato plants, she started to get quite a harvest, which she very generously shared with me.And what does one do when they have an abundance of tomatoes that they need to use up? One makes salsa. Or at least one should, because it is so easy to make and so unbelievably delicious when fresh.

I can feel hints of autumn seeping through the last days of summer. We will have more warm weather, but there is a chill in the morning air, and August took a big bite out our long sunlit days.If you are an immigrant from the northeastern hardwood forests, you will understandably scoff at the notion of fall color in California. In all but a few places, our fall foliage is a timid version of eastern forest fireworks. It is a subtle beauty, but beauty nonetheless.Surely, our local wineries have the best fall color in the area.  But if you prefer to explore the back roads and the trails, look for sycamore, big leaf maple, white alder, and Fremont cottonwood. These trees prefer a home along streams, often interspersed among conifers and other evergreens. So, we rarely see them in pure stands. Instead, they scatter flashes of yellow here and there amidst the still-green creekside forests.The sycamore trees in Coe Park's Hunting Hollow seem to have a knack for autumn elegance. Perhaps it is the wisps of lichen dangling from the branches or the way streaks of sunshine backlight the leaves against a shaded background. They seem to have a special glow. Just steps into the hollow, look for one trailside monarch that steals the show. As if thumbing its nose at the law of gravity, a massive trunk rises six feet before making a ninety degree turn from vertical to horizontal. What keeps this tubby trunk from falling? It brings to mind an Olympic gymnast holding the iron cross on the rings—continuously. The strain must be excruciating.I have three favorite spots along the Coyote Creek bike path between Morgan Hill and San Jose where I can step into the riparian forest and forget that Highway 101 is just steps away. Sycamores and cottonwoods light up the trail near the bridge just a short walk from the trail's bottom end in northwest Morgan Hill. A rarely visited spot is at the end of Burnett Avenue beyond Sobrato High School. Farther north, park in the lot just beyond Metcalf Road and walk back toward Coyote Ranch. From each of these spots, you can step into a dome of color.Above the creeks and cascades at Uvas Canyon County Park, the autumn color of bigleaf maples and sycamores light up an otherwise dark and shaded forest. Even along the road to the park, maples and white alders decorate Uvas Creek in a way that invariably pulls me to the side of the road and out of the car.Like the road to Uvas Canyon County Park, Hecker Pass Highway climbs the same Santa Cruz Mountains through stands of bigleaf maple that make simply getting to Mount Madonna County Park a great fall experience. Once you reach the park, look for more color on the Blackhawk Trail.Let your New England refugee friends brag about the fall colors they left behind. Winter is next, and they never brag about that.

SALINAS—Christopher couldn’t get anything going offensively against Salinas and ultimately fell 35-3 to open Gabilan Division play.

Water Polo

If your garage sale sign went missing over the weekend, we know the culprit. It was a Gilroy employee.Complaints about an overzealous city code enforcement officer removing garage sale signs over the weekend have Gilroy’s public information officer Joe Kline doing damage control on social media.It seems some Gilroy residents who participated in the South County-wide garage sale event on Saturday and Sunday were shocked to find signs advertising their location had been removed without a warning. A call to the city found that, yes, some signs had been removed, but no citations, which can run to $100 a pop, or courtesy notices were issued.The annual community garage sale event includes hundreds of residents in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and unincorporated areas in South County, drawing thousands to the region. Residents who sign up get their address published online ahead of time, and in Gilroy, folks received a pdf of all the participating addresses. There was no map, which, according to one city resident who had her garage sale sign removed from a dirt median down the street from her house on a stretch of private property, made it difficult for customers to find sale locations without the friendly markers. She said she wished the city’s code enforcement officer had been a little less diligent during a city-promoted event.In Gilroy, garage sale signs are only allowed at the location of the sale. According to the city’s public information office, some signs and associated items, including an easel, ladder and A-frames were removed and collected by a part-time code enforcement officer over the weekend. Residents who had property removed can get it back by calling the city at (408) 846-0264.