by Clair Handy | Sep 16, 2020 | Events, Fire, Home improvement, Los Gatos Events, Safety
The Los Gatos Library will host an online class, Landscaping for Wildfire Protection
Coming up Thursday, September 24th from 6-7pm Pacific.
Does your garden fight fires? With fire season growing longer and fiercer each year with devastating losses, you might be wondering what you can do to lower risks and protect your property against wildfires. Especially if you live near one of the Bay Area’s beautiful greenspaces! Join the Los Gatos Library with speaker Barbara Hunt, UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, to learn about how wildfires spread and how to landscape to protect your home, from hardscapes to fire-resistant plants. This is a free lecture aimed at California homeowners but open to all.
For more information and the Zoom link, please view the event page.
Join the event on Facebook and set a reminder.
Want to learn more about fire in Los Gatos? Check out some of my other posts on this topic:
Los Gatos Fire Risk
Wildfire Evacuation Route Signs Being Installed (2016)
Fighting Fire With … Wine
A History of Los Gatos Fires and the Los Gatos Fire Department
by Mary Pope-Handy | Nov 25, 2019 | Los Gatos Events
December is almost upon us, and with it comes all kinds of holiday events and activities in beautiful Los Gatos.
Keeping up is half the battle with so much happening this December! To make your season a little less stressful and a little more jolly, I have organized a list of holiday events and activities going on in Los Gatos. Below you will find two lists – one with unique events you might only have a day or two to enjoy, and a separate list of ongoing events you can join in all December long. These lists do not include religious services, so please check your preferred place of prayer for those schedules.
So get ready for carriage rides, the Fantasy of Lights, the tree lighting ceremony, the Los Gatos holiday parade, crafting, caroling, cookies and more! (more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 20, 2016 | Food & Drink, Los Gatos Businesses
If you have been meaning to visit the new See’s Candies at 15466 Los Gatos Blvd., Los Gatos, tomorrow is the ideal day to do it. It is National Lollypop Day, and all See’s Candies are giving away one lollypop (or lollipop)* per person. The Mercury News says “Their “lollypops” come in four flavors — Chocolate, Butterscotch, Cafe Latte and Vanilla.” Buon Appetito! (All See’s are participating, by the way!)
Oh and it’s not a bad idea to visit the Sees.com website as they are also running a contest: enter to win a year’s worth of lollipops or a $50 gift card.
*Apparently, both spellings are correct: lollipop and lolypop
References:
http://www.sees.com/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/eat-drink-play/2016/07/19/free-candy-sees-lollypops/
by Mary Pope-Handy | Aug 4, 2015 | Events
From 10:30am to 2:30pm on Friday August 7 2015, stop by the Los Gatos Public Library to pick up your free water saving devices courtesy of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. If that date doesn’t work for you, you can go to the Gilroy Public Library on Thursday, August 6 or the Mitchell Park Libary in Palo Alto on Wednesday Aug 6 during the same hours.
The SCVWD is giving away shower timers, aerators, low flow shower heads, hose nozzles, moisture meters, buckets to collect shower water, and more. It’s free, so stop by and increase your water savings!
Los Gatos Public Library is located at 100 Villa Avenue, Los Gatos, adjacent to the Civic Center and close to Los Gatos High School. Beat the drought, conserve water, and get a helping hand from the water district!
Learn more at http://www.valleywater.org/droughtgear/
by Mary Pope-Handy | Aug 30, 2014 | Parks
Something is always happening at the big and beautiful, 150 acre Vasona Lake County Parkand adjacent 12 acre Oak Meadow Park (belonging to the Town). These sister parks are connected and share the Los Gatos Creek, meandering trails, the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad at Oak Meadow. The parks enjoy beautiful scenery, both within the many acres and also looking up at the coastal range that separates this valley from the Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
It’s a wonderful place for a family or company picnic and is often the site for beginning races, walk-a-thons, and other charitable causes, and it’s also the location for many cultural festivals throughtout the year. Most recently, there was an enormous, two day Iranian/Persian New Year’s Festival called Norouz that drew several thousand people from all over Silicon Valley. The San Jose Mercury News covered it and had a great little video on their website on this event, take a look! As you can see, Vasona and Oak Meadow aren’t just a couple of nice parks, they’re places for the community to gather, enjoy themselves and nature and to do it in a gorgeous spot.
Here are some of the regularly scheduled, annual events at Oak Meadow and Vasona that invite us to enjoy some recreation time there:
June & July: Vasona Vibrations (free concerts Saturdays 5-7pm)
July & August: Shakespeare in the Park
August: In the Park After Dark Movie Week
Saturday evening on Labor Day Weekend: Los Gatos Park Dance (begun in 2013)
September: Screen on the Green
October: Halloween Train Rides (Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad)
December: Fantasy of Lights
And because these are parks, there are great learning opportunities and classes available there too. The Parks and Recreation Department offers sailing lessons – as you can see from the pic, my kids enjoyed these a few years ago (and may teach there this summer too). Paddleboats can be rented in summer as well. A hands-on approach to introducing kids to nature is provided by the extremely popular , which recently enjoyed an expansion at Vasona.
Historically, these parks are interesting too and there are some things you might not know about them. (more…)
