Nature

Local photographer Peggy Zane Martinet has creativity in her blood. Her father was a photographer and her grandparents were part of one of the first traveling circuses in the United States. Using the world around her as a backdrop and adding a bit of her own style, Martinet, a wife, mother and grandmother, has taken her passion for photography and combined it with her love of nature and stop-and-smell-the-roses attitude. Her latest works are currently on display at Penelope's Café in La Cañada Flintridge, featuring images from her travels around the world and some subjects that she finds in her own backyard in Glendale.

Children sit in a tree or rove around the play area. They stop to beat a drum or strike the keys of the marimba. A few children pause to make temporary artwork ? which is recycled for future endeavors ? at an art table with pool table-style pockets filled with pine cones, seed pods and small branches. Other children dip their fingers in the water of a small aquarium or congregate at a circle of tree stumps. It?s a typical Monday afternoon at the Child Educational Center?s nature explore classroom in La Cañada.

Driving back to my house in the hills of La Cañada the other night, I couldn’t believe my good fortune of living so close to nature. The day started with a doe and her two fawns greeting me as I fetched the morning paper. I knew they were probably the culprits who had been eating my roses, but I didn’t mind. And later, as I turned the corner onto my street that evening, a skunk dashed in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes, but laughed it off. “That was a close one, buddy!

Children can explore how they are connected to the world and its natural systems during Green Week, a celebration of environmental awareness taking place daily, March 13-19, at Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena. Experiential, interactive, and fun programs unique to Kidspace will increase children's understanding of how they can positively interact with nature in their day-to-day lives. Activities will include the exciting debut of the Eco-lympics relay exploring recycling, alternative energy, and the ecology of diet, and a new Kidspace short program on photosynthesis, entitled, "Why Plants Are Green" taking place in the outdoor Stone Hollow Amphitheater daily through the week.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think it so. And if that be true; let me tell you what I saw when ten little girls from LCE, Brownie Troop, 889 went on a nature walk at Descanso Gardens with docent Vicky Olson. By a cursory glance, you'll see nine little Brownies following Mrs. Olson through the flora and fauna of Descanso, La Cañada's natural treasure. But you must look close to see the hook?the first sign is the beginning of a string, and at the far end?

Katica (Kathy) Sotany, 89, passed away on June 4, 2009. She was born on the Island of Rab, Croatia on Feb. 21, 1920 in the town of Kampor, as the daughter of Ante and Milka Vidovic. Kathy was married to Joseph Sotany for 52 years. He preceded her in death in 2001. She came to the United States from Germany in 1949 and settled with Joe in Pasadena, where she resided for over 30 years before moving to La Cañada, where she lived for the remaining years of her life. She is survived by her sister Marija Miscak of Rijeka, Croatia, as well as nephew Mladen Miscak and niece Davorka Miscak of Croatia and Italy.

One morning I became lost in thought. I walked without purpose amid a dark green canopy ablaze with a palette of color: reds, whites, purples, yellows and greens. They were all present and beckoned me to step deeper into a labyrinth of soul-scented ancient earth smells, of humus mole made exquisitely of leaves, needles, flowers, rain and twigs. I discovered a small meadow, a quiet pond filled with koi and a trickling brook with a bench asking me to sit. The air, saturated with fragrances reminiscent of a Persian market, was filled with an orchestration of some ancient sonata reminding me that the birds were going about their daily work.

The garden lay fast asleep appearing silent, heavy, and drifting aimlessly, resting on its oars. The landscape was overgrown, dormant, and dull; even the birds wouldn’t stop at this oasis but would simply pass on by. Where was the “Vita Nuova” that Dante spoke of the new life? The casual observer couldn’t see the potential. One had to look deeply to see that all the Harvest Garden really needed was some old-fashioned, tender lovin’ care. Hannah Wiggins, a former teacher, is the new director and has just the gentle hand needed to induce this transformation.

So far, she “owns” four orangutans and 6.5 acres of Costa Rican rain forest. She hasn’t yet decided on next year’s acquisition, but, whatever it is, you can be sure 9-year-old Kylie Johnson’s next birthday party will provide another altruistic benefit for animals or nature around the globe. Kylie, a fourth-grader at La Cañada Elementary School, is this week’s Valley Sun All Star. She was nominated for her self-sacrificing nature and sincere desire to help others.

Roughly 40 years after starting a trail and just a few months after finishing it, a handful of La Cañadans have been recognized for their role in creating a one-of-a-kind feature for residents and visitors: the 12-mile nature trail that circles the city and connects to trails in county and federal parklands. The California Trails Conference Foundation, a nonprofit that works with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, offered its Award for a Project (Construction), a top award, to members of the La Cañada Flintridge Trails Council at the 27th annual California Trails and Greenways Conference last month.

The vehicle for all of life's variety and complexity has found a new driver in La Cañada's Frances Arnold. In her laboratories at Caltech, Arnold is harnessing the evolutionary process to create new proteins and enzymes that have the potential to wean the world off of fossil fuels, advance doctors' understanding of disease and addiction and solve other pressing social problems. Like an animal breeder working at the molecular level, Arnold manages the growth and reproduction of microscopic life-forms to reshape them for practical scientific purposes - a yeast that could effectively convert plants into jet fuel or plastics, for instance, or a microbe with the power to help map the human brain.

Dear Santa: With very few exceptions (and they know who they are), most of us here in La Cañada Flintridge have behaved ourselves all year long and join together in making this Christmas request: Please see if you can put a bug in your friend Mother Nature's ear on our behalf. Ask her to tone down her behavior until such time as our hillsides, laid bare more than a year ago at the hands of a still unknown arsonist (surely not one of us!) can regroup and regenerate. Really. That's all we need, Santa.

Local photographer Peggy Zane Martinet has creativity in her blood. Her father was a photographer and her grandparents were part of one of the first traveling circuses in the United States. Using the world around her as a backdrop and adding a bit of her own style, Martinet, a wife, mother and grandmother, has taken her passion for photography and combined it with her love of nature and stop-and-smell-the-roses attitude. Her latest works are currently on display at Penelope's Café in La Cañada Flintridge, featuring images from her travels around the world and some subjects that she finds in her own backyard in Glendale.

Residents affected by the Station fire and subsequent winter debris flows could receive significant tax relief under a bill by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino that passed a key committee last week. The "Disaster Relief Bill" — co-authored by Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) and Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries (R-Lake Elsinore) — would provide state property tax breaks to homeowners who have to repair or rebuild in the wake of natural disasters. "When people suffer property loss in their homes, that's an emotional assault on one's place for safety," Portantino said.

Several dozen La Cañada Flintridge homes were damaged by debris flows Saturday morning after a heavier-than-expected rainstorm dumped 4 inches of rain on the foothill burn areas. At least one family became trapped and had to be pulled from their house by Los Angeles County Fire Department Search and Rescue. No serious injuries were reported. The Paradise Valley neighborhood, located at the top of Ocean View Boulevard, was ravaged when the Mullally Debris Basin crested at approximately 5 a.m. and sent mud and rocks rushing onto Manistee Drive and down Ocean View Boulevard.

Katica (Kathy) Sotany, 89, passed away on June 4, 2009. She was born on the Island of Rab, Croatia on Feb. 21, 1920 in the town of Kampor, as the daughter of Ante and Milka Vidovic. Kathy was married to Joseph Sotany for 52 years. He preceded her in death in 2001. She came to the United States from Germany in 1949 and settled with Joe in Pasadena, where she resided for over 30 years before moving to La Cañada, where she lived for the remaining years of her life. She is survived by her sister Marija Miscak of Rijeka, Croatia, as well as nephew Mladen Miscak and niece Davorka Miscak of Croatia and Italy.

The garden lay fast asleep appearing silent, heavy, and drifting aimlessly, resting on its oars. The landscape was overgrown, dormant, and dull; even the birds wouldn’t stop at this oasis but would simply pass on by. Where was the “Vita Nuova” that Dante spoke of the new life? The casual observer couldn’t see the potential. One had to look deeply to see that all the Harvest Garden really needed was some old-fashioned, tender lovin’ care. Hannah Wiggins, a former teacher, is the new director and has just the gentle hand needed to induce this transformation.

So far, she “owns” four orangutans and 6.5 acres of Costa Rican rain forest. She hasn’t yet decided on next year’s acquisition, but, whatever it is, you can be sure 9-year-old Kylie Johnson’s next birthday party will provide another altruistic benefit for animals or nature around the globe. Kylie, a fourth-grader at La Cañada Elementary School, is this week’s Valley Sun All Star. She was nominated for her self-sacrificing nature and sincere desire to help others.