Garden

The garden outside Eric and Elisa Callow?s Lloyd Wright home is awash in colors befitting the beginning brush strokes of a Monet landscape. Bright orange, green, red and purple dapple the back yard of the 2/3 acre lot along La Cañada?s Journey?s End Drive, which the couple has turned into a beautiful yet quiet haven of peace and solitude. But the family isn?t keeping its lovingly cared for gardens to itself. On April 12 and 13, the Callows? native plant garden will be one of 38 Los Angeles area home gardens featured in the 5th annual Theodore Payne Foundation Native Plant Garden Tour.

The fourth annual La Cañada Spring Garden Tour, hosted by La Cañada Valley Beautiful, will be held Sunday, April 30, from 1 to 4 p.m. Spend an afternoon strolling through four lovely gardens for just $10. Tickets will be available at participating gardens on the day of the garden tour or from LCVB board members. Refreshments will be served. Guests may start their tour at any of the gardens and enjoy the gardens in any order. 902 Flintridge Avenue : The house on this property was built in 1972.

by Jacqueline Chen In his forthcoming book, "The Year I Ate My Yard", La Cañada native Tony Kienitz is referred to as a "vegetablarian," a title he invented to describe his professional affiliation. From carrots to cabbage, chives to chickweed, Kienitz has spent most of the last decade teaching about and building organic vegetable gardens in homes, orchards, even vineyards all over Southern California. Unlike many backyard farms, aesthetics is emphasized in his residential plots; he mixes flowers and herbs with the vegetables, and sometimes includes inedibles.

Shirley's Sunshine By Shirley DeGrey This is wind weather in La Cañada - not hurricane time, but there is definite movement of leaves, small branches, large branches and total trees from their roots fastened firmly into LCF soil. Seeing a large, leafy tree bend double and sweep the ground is quite a sight. Later in the weather season, those green and golden leaves will have tuend a brilliant yellow, gold, orange and brown, and then they will turn themselves loose from their branches and sail around above our garden plants.

Spring brings flowers and smiles Looking out our kitchen window on this beautiful light-blue spring morning, there are newly-green trees bouncing their bouncing their branches on the breeze, and this spirit of "get ready, there's action ahead" can be noticed instantly, with blossoms coming and fruit to follow. A row of daffodils folds yellow and orange cups up to the sunshine, and each flower seems to smile. Never mind that the garden around this display is covered with leafless tree branches that will soon be green and looking truly "gardenish."

Shirley's Sunshine By Shirley DeGrey Looking out our kitchen window on this beautiful light-blue spring morning, there are newly-green trees bouncing their bouncing their branches on the breeze, and this spirit of "get ready, there's action ahead" can be noticed instantly, with blossoms coming and fruit to follow. A row of daffodils folds yellow and orange cups up to the sunshine, and each flower seems to smile. Never mind that the garden around this display is covered with leafless tree branches that will soon be green and looking truly "gardenish."

This week’s Valley Sun All-Star is a leader, role model and skilled artisan. Matt Whitham, 18, a senior at La Cañada High School, is what many who know him consider a “great kid” with a “great personality” and a “great attitude.” Whitham is an Eagle Scout, co-founder of the La Cañada High School engineering club, and hopes to someday become an architect. Whitham was nominated to be an All-Star by one of his scoutmasters at Troop No. 507, Ron Connelly.

John Lautner is recognized as one of the preeminent architects of the 20th century. This unique and architecturally important mid-century three-bedroom, two-bath residence is situated on nearly an acre of private, park-like grounds atop the beautiful community of La Cañada Flintridge. It epitomizes many of Lautner's technical achievements "...and creates a symbiotic relationship between machine and garden." Its features include expansive views from all living spaces; a great room that has a curved window wall around custom built-in seating to create an open, yet intimate area in front of the floor-to-ceiling fireplace; a dining area that looks out through a glass wall and that opens out onto a private covered patio retreat, garden and koi pond; an original ochre-colored concrete floor that extends outside to the patio and walkways; new custom stainless steel kitchen counter tops that are the ideal compliment to the existing woodwork in the kitchen; original exotic wood walls and cabinetry throughout.

Has it been hot enough for you this past week? The weather people said it was heating up but at first they didn’t say our area would be breaking April heat records that have stood since the late 1800s. It’s been so hot that even the mocking- birds that buzz-dive my dog Lola have been laying low, not even uttering a squawk. However, I have loved the breakfast and dinner al fresco dining opportunities that the balmy weather brings. For the dinner occasions I had to disturb the cobwebs that the garden spiders had so carefully spun around my barbecue during the winter.

CLASSES Beginning Bridge — Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge, 4469 Chevy Chase Drive, offers Beginning Bridge to adults and seniors. Taught by a seasoned bridge player, Beginning Bridge offers an opportunity to those who are interested in joining a bridge group but who may not have the skills or confidence to do so. Lessons are $5 per person. Call the Community Center at (818) 790-4353 to reserve your spot or just show up. Square dancing — Thursdays, beginning Sept.

Former longtime La Cañadan Stephen Galton , a well-known Los Angeles attorney, was recently honored at a retirement dinner filled with stories and reminiscences at Parkway Grill in Pasadena. The dinner was hosted by the Los Angeles law firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, where Galton spent the last three years of his 40-year legal career. Galton's wife of 46 years, Grace , and two of his children, Brad and Lissy , were present. Before joining Burke, Williams & Sorensen, Galton had been a senior partner of Galton & Helm, a business litigation law firm he founded in 1985 with Hugh Helm and Michael Bell . Galton and Helm had both graduated from the USC Law School in 1969, where both also received their undergraduate degrees.

Ah, the "olden days," a time when life was simpler, even food was simpler. We ate less processed, sweetened food, and sugar was a rare treat. Just before the turn of this century, the average American consumed about five pounds of sugar per year. Cut to today, you'll find sugar in cereal, ketchup, bread, crackers, salad dressings, sauces and fast foods — and that five pounds per year has multiplied to 135 pounds consumed each year! Back in those olden days, there were no Krispy Kreme doughnuts (10 grams of sugar)

Nature will be calling people into Descanso Gardens louder than before when spring arrives. For the first time since 1994, when the rose gardens were installed, the botanical showcase is undergoing major construction. The private groundbreaking ceremony for Descanso's new Sturt Haaga Gallery of Art was held Friday. The 2,800-square-foot exhibit hall is being designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners of Los Angeles, and will feature a vertical and rooftop garden. Heather Sturt Haaga and Paul G. Haaga Jr. of La Cañada Flintridge made the construction a reality through a $2.1-million donation, the single largest Descanso has ever received, garden officials said.

About 600 people filled the main lawn at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge Thursday for the first night of its inaugural eight-week summer jazz series. Children danced in the grass, adults sipped wine and the band, Louie Cruz Beltran, entertained as twilight descended "I'm excited to be here after 5 p.m.," said Glendale resident Darcy Wiatroski, while keeping one eye on her toddler. "It is a beautiful time to be in the garden." The music series, titled "The Evolution of American Jazz," was conceived as a replacement for the Pasadena Pops program, which announced last year that it would relocate after 15 years at Descanso Gardens.