Having cooked, oh, let’s say forty or more Thanksgiving dinners, I decided last year that it was time to give my traditional holiday dinner some oomph by making a little change to each dish that I would set before my family and friends. The results from that decision were remarkable and so appreciated by those at the table that I will continue with that decision each Thanksgiving.

Submit Datebook items to [email protected] or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 11:00 a.m. Thursday. Entries are subject to editing. Publication is not guaranteed. Please send your information in the format shown below

Guy C. Earl often told his four children—Alice, Martha, Guy Jr. and Eleanor—bedtime stories about his own childhood in “The Enchanted Valley” of the Owens River. ”I had the great good fortune,” he believed, “of spending my boyhood in the midst of majestic surroundings and wondrous beauty —where I walked in Paradise.” “To listen to Father,” remembered son Guy Jr., “one would think that he had spent the major portion of his life in the EnchantedValley.” In fact, his tenure there lasted only half a dozen years.

Submit Datebook items to [email protected] or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 11:00 a.m. Thursday. Entries are subject to editing. Publication is not guaranteed. Please send your information in the format shown below.

 With every rain forecast I hope for enough precipitation to give my garden a good soak. Last Monday I was not disappointed. I heard the pitter-patter of rain on leaves and jumped up in the morning to check the rain gauge. To my delight the last storm dropped 1.67 inches of the wet stuff on my garden in Bonny Doon. The prior three October showers had barely totaled a tenth of an inch. Last year, the hills and meadows were already greening up with three inches of the wet stuff. After this much needed precipitation, the deer are happy, the forest is happy, our gardens are happy, everybody is happy.

Guy C. Earl’s resolve to spend more time with his young family was severely tested by his older brother. One of the first to recognize the potential of shipping California fruit East by train, Edwin T. Earl became a big player in the produce industry when he secured a patent on an improved refrigerator car.

Maddison Taylor, an 8-pound 5-ounce girl, was born to Jessika Renee Bright  and Taylor Robert Wright of Santa Cruz at Sutter Maternity and SurgeryCenter in Santa Cruz. She was born on October 8, 2015 at 2:24 a.m.