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Santa Cruz County has long been the gold standard in innovative programs that have become models for the others. Our Probation Department and the Sheriff’s Office have been recognized time and again.

Who knew that in 1937 Lawrence and Ruth Lane, recent transplants from Iowa and the new owners and publishers of Sunset Magazine, also bought the Quail Hollow Ranch in Santa Cruz County that same year?  Sunset Magazine and its publishing brand would go on to achieve great success in the decades ahead, and from the patio and kitchen of the Quail Hollow ranch house the Lane’s would develop many of the ideas that would later become famous as the “California lifestyle.”

Spring might have officially started mid-March but judging from the wonky weather it was hard to tell. We did experience a “Miracle March” complete with a pretty good dose of needed rainfall along with some very cold weather. You never know what to expect in March around here.

The other day I stopped by historic Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto. I had some free time before my eye appointment and Sherman, my dog, wanted to stretch his legs. You can mark time with the events in the botanical world and this garden is packed with good examples. School kids were tending the vegetable starts and beneficial-friendly flower beds. Volunteers were looking after the formal rose garden and tulip beds. Visitors like me and Sherman just wanted to take in all the early spring beauty.

It was Easter oh so many years ago when my son Kim was 8 years old that he discovered yet another one of life’s reality lessons, ‘there is no cure for the facts of life.’

Several residents of the Dearfield neighborhood adjacent to the soon to be opened Glenwood Open Space Preserve had something to say about a trail map under consideration by the Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation Commission.  

“We’ve chosen our dance partner…. and we’re entering into a courtship that marks the beginning of a long journey together,” was how Scotts Valley Mayor Jim Reed characterized the choice of Palisades Builders, Inc. for the massive Town Center Project at a standing room only meeting of the City Council on March 21.