Beyond the Creek

Ruth Bancroft Garden
1552 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek
Saturday, April 13th, 2013
10:00am – 3:00pm (9am members) | Free
Members Only Pre-Sale and Silent Auction: 9am-10am
With coffee and bagels. Memberships will be for sale at the door
Public Plant Sale: 10am-3pm
Free Admission All Day
Garden open until 4pm

The Bay Area’s Best Selection of Drought Tolerant Plants for Local Gardens
Be inspired by Ruth’s world-class garden
Learn from expert staff, docents, and nursery propagators
Get everything you need to create a drought tolerant paradise
Support a local nonprofit organization

Members Only Silent Auction Items:
Echeveria agavoides ‘Romeo’
Echeveria ‘Lace’
Echeveria xichuensis
Arctostaphylos ‘Ruth Bancroft’
Agave victoriae-reginae choice specimen
Tylecodon dinteri bonsai specimen
Pelargonium carnosum bonsai specimen
Dyckia ‘Silver Superstar’ specimen
Euphorbia aff. millii specimen
Gymnocalycium saglionis specimen

Featured plants for the Spring Plant Sale:
Agave ovatifolia
Agave ‘Snow Glow’
Agave utahensis var. nevadensis
Agave victoriae-reginae
Aloe capitata var. quartziticola
Aloe ‘Viper’
Arctostaphylos ‘Warren Roberts’
Echinopsis terscheckii
Echeveria agavoides (heirloom hybrids)
Echeveria colorata ‘Mexican Giant’
Echeveria ‘Moon Dust’
Euphorbia esculenta
Dudleya brittonii
Leucadendron ‘Ebony’

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Stock Up on British Food Items at Fresh & Easy in Walnut Creek Before it’s Too Late

April 5, 2013 11:30 am

I’m always on the lookout for interesting food items so being that the supermarket Fresh & Easy is British owned (Tesco), I decided to check them out and see if there were any food items from the United Kingdom that might not be readily available elsewhere. I did find a small section available. As you can see from the photo below they sell Shepherd;s Pie in a jar and various HP sauces among other things.

Since Tesco may decide to close or sell-off Fresh & Easy this summer, you may want to stock up on these British items while you can. Any recommendations on what to get?

By the way, is it OK to call these goods ‘British’? I remember asking someone whether they were British and they replied that they were English, and furthermore, nobody was ‘British’. You could be Scottish, English etc but not British.

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License Plates on View

April 5, 2013 8:30 am

These old license plates are displayed outside an antique store in downtown Lafayette on Mt. Diablo Blvd.

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Walnut Creek Fine Arts & Crafts Festival Apr. 27th and 28th

April 4, 2013 4:30 pm

Walnut Creek Fine Arts & Crafts Festival

N. Main St. & Cypress St, Walnut Creek
Saturday, April 27th & Sunday, 28th, 2013
10:00am – 5:00pm (6pm on Sat) | Free

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Bench of the Day

April 4, 2013 11:30 am

Spotted on Mt. Diablo Blvd. in downtown Lafayette.

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Recently Opened – The Bloom Space in Lafayette

April 4, 2013 8:30 am

The Bloom Space, a vintage collective and DIY workshop has been open since June 8th in Lafayette on Mt. Diablo Blvd. In addition to handcrafted goods from various vendors they also offer DIY workshops including classes featuring Chalk Paint (from England). Check out the classes here. The Bloom Space is located at 3391 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette.

From their website:

The Bloom Space is a vintage collective and DIY workshop. Our collective hosts 12 vendors of beautiful vintage and antique design: home and garden decor, furniture, art work, vintage clothing and accessories, collectables, toys & funky, one-of-a-kind curiosities! If you love mixing vintage with an artistic flair, this is the place to find unique treasures.

Our DIY workshop offers a variety of classes on crafts, decorating, repurposing, refinishing, light culinary and more. At our DIY classes you can “Make It & Take It”, learn new techniques and have fun being creative!

Check out the work of one of the vendors:

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Walnut Creek Restaurant Week April 15th – 21st

April 3, 2013 4:30 pm

Check out this year’s participating restaurants for Walnut Creek restaurant week which begins April 15th and runs through the 21st. I wonder what Ottavio will offer. The Va de Vi menu looks enticing.

From their FAQ:

What is Walnut Creek Restaurant Week?
Walnut Creek Restaurant Week gives local food aficionados and visitors an opportunity to enjoy a prix fixe lunch for $10/$20 and dinner for $20/$30/$40 at participating Walnut Creek restaurants.

How Does a Guest Take Part in Walnut Creek Restaurant Week?
There are no passes, tickets or coupons. Instead, diners simply visit their favorite participating restaurants throughout the week to enjoy the special prix fixe menus. However, it is strongly recommended that diners make reservations in advance by contacting the participating restaurants directly.

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Sculptures of the Day

April 3, 2013 11:30 am

Spotted in front of Maria Maria on N. Broadway in downtown Walnut Creek.

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DayOne Baby Store Closing April 12th in Walnut Creek

April 3, 2013 8:30 am

Photo from DayOne

Thanks to a reader for sending word that the baby store DayOne is closing on April 12th in downtown Walnut Creek. This means within the past four months every single children’s store has closed in downtown Walnut Creek and Lafayette. The Right Start closed in December, Giggle closed in February, and Tulip also closed in February in Lafayette. Is Buy Buy Baby to blame which opened in Pleasant Hill or are there other factors causing baby stores to close? Are people having less babies recently? What’s going on?!

From their site:

We want to thank the Walnut Creek/East Bay community for supporting DayOne for the past five years. It has been an honor and pleasure to work with you and your babies and we hope you will come visit us at our San Francisco & Palo Alto Centers.

Important Things To Note:

-DayOne Walnut Creek Members Will Be Offered Store Credit for Their Memberships On a Pro-rated Basis With an Additional 15% Off All Walnut Creek DayOne Merchandise if Purchased Using That Credit.**

-Class Registrations for Classes After April 14th Will be Refunded With Store Credit With an Additional 15% Off All Merchandise Purchased Using Store Credit.**

-Childbirth Preparation Class will be held on Sunday, April 14th, as scheduled.

-Store Credits Must Be Claimed by April 12th But Do Not Expire Until October 31, 2013.

**Can not be combined with other discounts or offers.

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Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps at Lesher Center Through Apr. 27th

April 2, 2013 4:30 pm

The 39 Steps:

Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
Through Saturday, April 27th

From Wikipedia

The 39 Steps is a melodrama adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film byAlfred Hitchcock. Patrick Barlow wrote the adaptation, based on the original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon of a two-actor version of the play. Barlow had originally intended to portray the character of Richard Hannay, but focused solely on rewriting the original version.^[1]

The play’s concept calls for the entirety of the 1935 adventure film The 39 Steps to be performed with a cast of only four. One actor plays the hero, Richard Hannay, an actress (or sometimes actor) plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements, and two other actors play every other character in the show: heroes, villains, men, women, children and even the occasional inanimate object. This often requires lightning fast quick-changes and occasionally for them to play multiple characters at once. Thus the film’s serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to (and puns on the titles of) other Alfred Hitchcock films, including Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.

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