Magazine

The following events are scheduled through the Los Altos Senior Program and Avenidas.

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
Architect Malika Junaid designed the ultramodern steel-and-glass Los Altos Hills showstopper she and her family call home.

Junaid Qurashi stood atop his SUV on a wooded hillside to get a better look at the San Francisco Bay view his wife, Malika Junaid, said was there.

Tanya Kucak/Special to the Town Crier
Woolly Blue Curls flourish in the arid area of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont.

If you’re in the mood for some road trips, immerse yourself in an atmosphere of beautiful plants and enthusiastic people by attending the Going Native Garden Tour, now in its 17th year.

Sponsored by the California Native Plant Society in association with the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, the tour offers an unparalleled chance to talk with gardeners and designers, view gardens of different types and compare gardens planted a year ago to those planted a couple of decades ago. More than 50 gardens are scheduled to be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 4 and 5. Gardens in San Jose and other southern Santa Clara County cities will be open May 4, while May 5 will feature visits to northern gardens from San Mateo to Sunnyvale, including Mountain View. No Los Altos gardens will be on display this year.

Courtesy of Lauren Edith Andersen
Celeste Randolph's kitchen island features a potted hydrangea inside a pewter champagne bucket her mother gave her.

With spring in full bloom, it is fun to brighten any home with fresh flowers. From the farmers’ market to the grocery store, flowers are easily accessible. There are really no rules that apply. Arranging flowers is up to the eye of the beholder.

Michelle Isaac/Special to the Town Crier
Local gardener Michelle Isaac created a Pierre de Ronsard bouquet with apricot-colored roses and sweet peas from her garden.

It’s possible to have romantic, beautiful roses growing in your own garden. And it’s possible to create unique bouquets out of your homegrown beauties. While a rose is a rose is a rose, deciding which kind of rose is right for you is easier said than done.

Photos by Tanya Kucak/ Special to the Town Crier
Antonio Flores, above, plays traditional Native American tunes on his elderberry flute. The “blanks” for elderberry flutes are approximately 8 inches long, cut from a dead dry branch.

In the 1944 movie "Arsenic and Old Lace," the elderberry wine served to old gents was spiked with several poisons. If the murderous aunts had simply fed them unripe blue elderberries, or red elderberries, their victims may have felt sick after a while, but they would have lived.