Strictly Business | AI in Small-Town America: A 3-Part Series
In today’s fast-paced world, the term AI is buzzing everywhere. Curiosity about AI and its various tools has led me to explore how AI, ChatGPT and other AI technologies might benefit our Valley’s business owners and industries (myself included).
I would like to share some...
The Mountain Gardener | Awesome Grasses
Outside my front door are several Overdam Feather Reed Grasses that are spectacular when backlit by late afternoon sun. What’s not to love about a stunning variegated grass with white and green stripes? During the summer, pink flower plumes sway above the foliage. Now...
Plain Talk About Food | Pierogi for the Holidays, With Love
My hubby Norm and I had been married for one year when he announced that it was time we spent Christmas in Chicago with his parents, whom I had yet to meet. Now being away from home at Christmas didn’t sound like a great...
The Mountain Gardener | Plants Add Fall Color to Halloween Garden
It’s beginning to look like Halloween in my neighborhood with chrysanthemums and pumpkins on porches, skeletons and ghouls decorating front doors and posts on Facebook about tarantula sightings as the spiders go about their fall mating ritual. It’s the plants that get my attention...
TherapyWorks | Physical and Emotional Signs of Depression
October is Depression Awareness Month. Depression is a silent battle that millions of people face. It's a complex mental health condition that doesn't discriminate. It can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, background or circumstances. While depression is a mental illness, its impact extends...
The Mountain Gardener | Controlling Erosion the Right Way
Not long ago I got a call from a homeowner with a very bare, very steep slope behind his house that was in dire need of some kind of erosion control and he needed it pronto. In the rebuild process after the fire, the...
Guest Column | The ‘Why’ Behind Measure W for a New Fire Station
This month, the voters of the Scotts Valley Fire District will be asked whether to invest $22.2 million into a new fire station and multipurpose administration/disaster support building to improve community safety. The District currently operates out of two fire stations: the 22-year-old Glenwood...
Plain Talk About Food | Oh Them Apples!
It was many years ago…I believe it would have been in late September, when Sister Agnes Marie corralled me, telling me to put on my “long pants” for I was going with “old” Joe, the tramp who had made a home for himself in...
The Mountain Gardener | Japanese Maples in the Fall
I’m starting to see the beginning of fall color on some trees. It’s an exciting time of year. My friend, Kate, in Bonny Doon has an Autumn Moon Japanese maple that’s always in color, no matter the time of year. On a visit to...
Guest Column | New Police Officers Join Scotts Valley
Scotts Valley works hard to maintain a full complement of community-oriented police officers. This article introduces recently hired Police Officers Seavana Patzke and Vitani Harrison. It was my great pleasure to recently spend time getting to know these two individuals.
Seavana Patzke
Officer Seavana Patzke previously...
Paddy Smith Park blooms with new garden at Santa Cruz County...
The beautiful Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds are growing even more beautiful thanks to a colorful landscaping project at Paddy Smith Park.
Jeff Rosendale, with Sierra...