Magazine

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
Stephanie Braun, from left, Adam Braun and Marty Braun of Mountain View and Michelle Evans, Chloe Knapp and Kevin Knapp of Sunnyvale swing at a recent Las Madres gathering at Marymeade Park in Los Altos.

A parent is born at the same time as her first child, and remade again upon the arrival of a second.

Her relationship to place changes, too. Wandering down the pavement feels different at toddler speed, and local park proximity jumps from mildly relevant to crucially calculated in minute-by-minute drive time.

Megan V. Winslow / Town Crier

The Los Altos Village Association’s Halloween Spooktacular features trick-or-treating at participating downtown stores.

As the fall and holiday seasons approach, the cities of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View have scheduled an array of events over the next few months.

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
Craig Murray, standing in his personal Los Altos Hills garden, offers up one of the tomatoes he’s famous for.

When it comes to growing flavorful, organic produce, Craig Murray’s a bit of a local rock star.

His Los Altos Hills farm stand, The Garden, offered 14 varieties of eggplants, 50 varieties of tomatoes and 90 varieties of peppers and chilies in its heyday. The sale of the property may have placed The Garden on an impromptu hiatus, but Murray’s loyal fan base is helping him stage a comeback.

Avian species visible at Shoreline Park include American white pelicans, center, and, clockwise from top left, Anna’s hummingbirds, black-necked stilts, song sparrows and Canada geese.
Photos by Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier and Kira gunderson

Early on a recent Saturday morning at Mountain View’s Shoreline Park, bird-watchers were scattered along the marshy shores. Equipped with binoculars and/or cameras, the dedicated regulars were rewarded with the sight of an unusually large gathering of American avocets.

Among the birders was Yelena Fleytman, who has been birding for approximately five years. Shoreline, a 750-acre wildlife and recreation area, is one of Fleytman’s favorite places to bird-watch. She regularly sees willets, Foster’s terns, Caspian terns, black-necked stilts, snowy egrets, great white egrets and herons when she visits.

Gary Anderson/Special to the Town Crier
Seniors sing carols at the Grant Park holiday party. The Senior Commission aims to expand such programming.

Gary Anderson is a former member of the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills Senior Commission. Following is his update on local senior services and plans for expanded programming.

Eliza Ridgeway/Town Crier
Los Altos resident Enid Davis honed her storytelling skills as a children’s librarian and a grandmother. She teaches local seniors to confidently share beloved stories, with a minimum of memorization required.

The elder storyteller has an image - village rememberer, family entertainer, perhaps even the picture book "quiet old lady, whispering, Hush." The idea of storytelling is simple - sharing a narrative without the benefit of notes.

But tale-tellers are often made, not born. When grandchildren finally arrive on the scene, making good on the role requires, for many people, a little initial help.