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So here we are—in the middle of graduation season in the South Valley. From preschoolers who look so cute in their hats and Hawaiian leis to Gavilan College graduates, someone, somewhere is starting a new chapter in their life.

Most people would probably like to speak a second language, for practical reasons or just to enjoy the ability to communicate with more people. And there is little doubt that languages are easier to learn at a young age.

I was recently honored to receive two design awards at the Decorating Den Interiors 30th International Dream Room competition at its 45th annual conference held recently in San Diego.

This is a salute to all the soldiers who go to war, ordinary men and women, some who return home and some who don’t. This is in memory of two brothers near and dear to Wanda Lewis, a longtime resident of Gilroy. She recalls them both with great fondness and love and has never forgotten how great these “ordinary” men were.

Award-winning Morgan Hill artist Janet Vanderhoof creates figurative as well as landscape paintings with the common thread being bright, powerful, vivid colors and her blend of Fauvism and Impressionism, originating what she calls “Modern Impressionism.”

Local wild salmon season is in full swing. With the increase in salmon’s popularity, the methods for preparation have increased as well. This week, I present a unique and elegant salmon preparation well-suited for a dinner party or an individual.

The first show that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote together was a 20 minute cantata for the St. Paul's Junior School all boy choir in England. Julian, Andrew Lloyd Webber's brother, was attending the school and his choir instructor asked youthful teen Andrew to create a pop cantata for the school choir for the Easter concert.

Go back to the 1940s when Hollywood was churning out movies and script writers were used up and spit out like stale chewing gum. (A typical line from that era.) Here we have the time frame and plot for “City of Angels.” Producer Peter Mandel brings this inventive and complicated musical to Morgan Hill’s South Valley Civic Theater.

This installment of Barn Again! is about probably the most historically significant barn in the region—that red barn surrounded by a fence on the ranch side of Christmas Hill Park.  While a search continues to find a deed or building permit, or other official document to settle the matter, many are quite sure this barn was built by Henry Miller.

When we flip through maps looking for destinations with scenic beauty and solitude, we generally find places with proper names and boundary lines that define them. Yosemite National Park, Henry W. Coe State Park, Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve and the John Muir Wilderness are all distinct regions carefully defined on a map.