Well, knock on wood, we seemed to get past earthquake
prognosticator Jim Berkland’s latest window for the notorious Big
One. Ding, dong the Supermoon is gone as of last Saturday.
For the answerWell, knock on wood, we seemed to get past earthquake prognosticator Jim Berkland’s latest window for the notorious Big One. Ding, dong the Supermoon is gone as of last Saturday. “What’s a Supermoon?” Because the moon’s orbit is oval, there is a point where it is the closest to the Earth, known as its perigee, said Geoff Chester, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. Last Saturday, the moon’s closest perigee of the year happened to occur within one hour of the monthly astronomical phase of the full moon, which together created the rarely seen increased illumination and size. Full moons and animals going missing are a key combo for Berkland’s quake forecasts, but now we’re back to regular moons and …
Baseball. In just one week, I can dust off the old black-and-orange “Beat LA” cap and root on my World Champion San Francisco Giants. Repeating in baseball is fraught with difficulty, so that expectation isn’t realistic, but you never know.
Never knew that I moved to Oregon about a month ago. What is going on? Silva’s Crossing has been shut down more often than City Hall. Every day the weather forecast is dreary … gray and rainy, gray and rainy. Guess the good news is that when we finally dry out and the California sun emerges, our collective spirits will lift exponentially, gas prices will fall, home prices will rise and the wildflowers will leap from the earth.
Standing out among the wildflower hikes will be the one at Pacheco State Park where the Eighth Annual Wildflower Day will be celebrated on Saturday, April 2. Festivities run from 9:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Free Wildflower Day crafts for the kids, a birding walk at 9:30 a.m. and a wildflower hike at 10 a.m. Los Banos’ Hot Dog Heaven will be on hand to provide lunch. It’s $5 to get in. Pacheco State Park is at the top of historic Pacheco Pass: Take the Dinosaur Point Road Exit off of Highway 152, 25 miles west of Los Banos and 23 miles east of Gilroy, and follow the signs.
Follow the signs to the new Interim Center for the Arts in downtown Gilroy. I, admittedly, haven’t, but I’m going to make an effort to get there in the next week to see how the space has been transformed and what exhibits are up. I did get a chance to meet the very enthusiastic proprietor of a new theater company in town, Kevin Heath, who is operating Limelight Actors Theater. Limelight – “theater with a twist” – is operating at the Arts Center and upstairs at Lizarran Tapas Restaurant where the latest show closes this weekend. “One Way Ticket” is advertised as nine one-act plays related to airline travel with wine, cocktails, tapas, flight attendants and laughs. “A wired flight attendant, a business man who lost his plane in mid air, a reconnected couple at the terminal, two strangers in turbulence, a dysfunctional family flying in from a funeral, a “classy” couple in an airport coffee shop, two heroes on a plane you just might recognize …” sounds like the perfect antidote to another rainy night. $18 for a ticket for the 8 p.m. show which leaves ample time to eat downstairs. Ring up 408.472.3292 for a reservation.
No reservations necessary for the Santa Clara Valley Wineries Passport Weekend this Saturday and Sunday. Just hope the weather at least intermittently clears and head out to one of our up-and-coming wineries. If the weather’s dicey, make your first stop at Bubbles wine bar on Monterey Road in Morgan Hill where John and Carolyn will be pouring wines from their Aver Family Vineyard in Gilroy. Then, when the weather breaks make your way back toward Gilroy. More than 20 wineries are on the Passport. It’s $30 a ticket which is also good for the fall Passport, Oct. 1 and 2. There are BBQs, music, snacks and wine discounts just waiting for you.
If you know a senior who’s in need of a helping hand, the South County Realtors Alliance would like you to RSVP to the Realtor Service Volunteer Program. Between May 16 and May 20, local realtors, reports Debbie Corona, will be volunteering their time and labor skills to perform light duty tasks like flipping mattresses, replacing smoke detector batteries, installing carbon monoxide detectors, light gardening, light housekeeping, washing lower level windows and changing furnace filters. Supplies will be furnished at no expense. Lisa Cassara at 408.710.6085 is the one to call.
Joseph Truskot’s book is one to call on if you have an idea that a rose bush and a book would be a nice gift for Mother’s Day coming up. My Mom loved to take care of her rose garden as did her mother before her, so I thought of it when Truskot’s Central Coast Rose Manual: Creating a Personal Rose Garden crossed my desk. The book is centered around growing roses in our neck of the woods, so the advice is pertinent and black-spot on. Truskot, who has won numerous rose-growing awards, has great tips and a breezy conversational writing style that make his book a pleasure to peruse. Not sure if you can find the book locally or have to go to Amazon.com.
Sure you can’t find this arts-centered gem of a magazine anywhere west of the Mississippi, but the title “Garden & Guns” really gave me a chuckle when I picked it up in the Nashville, TN airport. It’s just so Southern and country genteel.
Genteel living for a week in Tuscany, Italia would be grand. So if your mom isn’t into rose growing consider a $100 raffle ticket for a week at a villa in the hills of Chianti, Italy in the wine region of Tuscany. It’s a most worthy benefit for the children’s cancer facility, the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. Only 200 tickets in the drawing – 100% of the money goes directly to Ronald McDonald House. Give Kat Filice a buzz – 408.852.3510 – for a lucky ticket. And, if mom doesn’t win the April 9 drawing, she’ll be happy for the wonderful donation to a good cause and a nice card on May 8.
Sunday, June 5, will apparently be the kick-off date for the weekly Gilroy Farmer’s Market at Seventh and Eigleberry which will get off the ground with the assistance of the Leadership Gilroy Class of 2011. Leadership will run the Gilroy Spice of Life Festival as the kickoff event.
Reach Editor Mark Derry at ed****@ga****.com
