Spring

If summer is the main course meal here in Laguna Beach, then we can assume that spring is the ultimate appetizer. It's seemingly just a walk-through, a warm-up of the beautiful weather that is ahead of us in the summer months. However, there is one distinct difference. Especially after a winter of long-period rains. Beyond the beauty of the sprawling green hills above Laguna, you can also see the snow-covered mountains. To me, spring is the ultimate season to spend time in Laguna because you get the best of all the seasons in one. That and the new daylight saving time beginning and what many consider the best sunsets of the year, it just keeps getting better.

The Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot went to the Boys & Girls Club and asked: "What do you like about spring?" "It has nice weather. It's sunny; it's not too hot or too cold. I like to do a lot of sports in the spring." TASHA GONZALEZ, 10 "It's hot, and I like to go to the beach a lot." CAYMAN ELKIN, 10 "I like the weather because it's usually nice. I can hang out with friends outside, and play with friends and my sister." FARON STALKER, 10 "I like when all the flowers [bloom]

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” — Percy Bysshe Shelley Buster’s calendar indicates that gardeners still have 28 days to wait until the official start of spring. Although rain is predicted over the weekend, subtle signs of the change in the seasons are appearing throughout Laguna. Deciduous trees, like the sycamore and crape myrtle, are beginning to leaf out under splendid blue skies, and Catharine’s Mutabilis rose has already begun to display its bountiful blooms.

?To be interested in the changing seasons is... a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.? ? George Santayana ?If winter comes, can spring be far behind?? ? Percy Bysshe Shelley The calendar indicates that we have about five weeks to wait until spring (we have completed 56 days of winter as of today). It has been almost two weeks since it last rained. Subtle signs of the season?s change are appearing. Deciduous trees, like the sycamore and Western Red Bud, are beginning to leaf out under mainly clear skies, and my Mom?

Wow! Spring has really arrived in all its most glorious chaos. The streets are busy and backed up. The beaches are abuzz with people. The goats have munched away much of the early growth of green that arrived after the rains of March, but there is still plenty enough to know that it is truly springtime. A hike in the hills will reveal myriad examples of native wildflowers, and even some just blown in on the wind. There is an energy abounding that is unfazed by economic twists and turns, and political turmoil.

HAPPENINGS Insiders All are welcome to get an inside look into the artists' studios. B1 ALSO: Tom Titus reviews "What the Night is For." B1 "Art That's Small at City Hall" has returned. B4 Check out community events and classes in Around Town. B6 The Garden Fanatic is as happy as you that spring is here. B7 James Pribram wants the studies to stop and the action to start. B7 Laguna High hires new football coach.

STEVE KAWARATANI "It was 10 years ago today ... ." --with apologies to Sergeant Pepper "Spring is about to spring. I welcome thee!" --David Assael "Congratulations!" Catharine said, over a glass of champagne at Patina. "This week's column will mark your 10-year anniversary at the Coastline ... maybe you'll even make the first page of the second section one day." I will admit, my wife looked great in color. Spring is about to spring.

Thomas Jefferson Kitts is inspired by nature. Also, given a choice, he prefers not to rely on memories, photographs or drawings. The result? A prolific 30-year career as a plein air painter. An avid follower of John Singer Sargent, Joaquín Sorolla and Anders Zorn, the Portland resident is driven by the challenges posed by this style of painting. He stands in agreement with Paul Cézanne's words: "Nature is the best instructor. " "It simply comes down to the fact that the world is more complex a place than anything I can make up in my head - I become lost in it as I paint," said Kitts, 52. "It's the closest I can come to God. " Kitts is one of 40 plein air painters who donated original work to the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn.

Dancers will perform en pointe , or on the tips of their toes, for the first time in four years during Laguna Beach High School's spring dance concert this weekend, said Melanie Lewis, dance team booster president. Dancers will honor the high school's graduating class with their performance of "Thirteen," Friday through Sunday inside the Artists' Theatre. Five student and four guest choreographers will organize a variety of styles from hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz and whimsical storytelling.

Folks who can't find something to do in Laguna, or a group with which to do it, aren't paying attention. The Laguna Beach Sister Cities Assn. hosted a reception April 5 to celebrate its new sister city, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version incorrectly referred to the city as San Juan del Cabo. Alicia Cota , director of foreign residences in San Jose, represented the town's mayor at the reception. Gabriel Juarez , a member of the Mexican Tourist Board in Los Angeles, also attended.

A high-end steakhouse planned for the former French 75 site in Laguna Beach by a group that includes Anaheim Ducks' player Teemu Selanne is expected to open later this summer. Jim Shumate, owner along with Selanne and Kevin Pratt, hopes to open the restaurant, now set to be called Selanne's, July 1. The three friends got together five years ago to discuss opening a restaurant, said Shumate, former general manager of the Chart House in Dana Point. The search spanned coastal areas from Laguna Beach to Newport Beach.

A matchmaker meets her biggest challenge in "Hello, Dolly!," the latest production taken on by Laguna Beach High School's Park Avenue Players that opens this weekend. The play, which takes place at the turn of the century in New York, first debuted in 1964 on Broadway and has had the likes of Carol Channing and Barbara Streisand play the lead. This time around, senior Haley Castuera is in the lead role of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widow who matches lonely singles with their "perfect partners.

Slowly, balance comes once again. —Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao The sea was busy after the rains. Roiling and churning, waves pounded the shoreline at high tide. Deeper water farther out rocked and rolled as if boiling up from beneath. There would be no sightings of whales or dolphins in these waters. My eyes turned to the clear blue skies filled with gulls and a pod of pelicans. What a day! Part of me seems to feel busy like the sea — roiling and churning, with lots going on underneath.

If the brilliance of last weekend wasn't harbinger enough that spring is fast approaching, the thick, redolent fragrance of jasmine removed all doubt. As we transition away from our long Laguna nightmare known as winter, we should consider how the mighty Pacific mitigates the gloom - especially this year. For I come not to bury winter, but to praise it. Summer may mean languorous days on our sun-kissed beaches and 70-degree water, but it can never match the magnificence of ocean in winter, when the crisp air and unfiltered visibility is rivaled for clarity only by the ocean beneath.

A Chicago-based private real estate company that specializes in manufactured housing is in escrow to purchase the Laguna Terrace Park, according to a broker familiar with the transaction. Hometown America Communities is "undergoing customary due diligence inspections of the property," Vince Reynolds, a real estate broker with CBRE, said in a news release. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Reynolds expects the deal to close later in the spring, he said in a follow-up email.

Surfers of all ages took part in the Laguna Surf and Sport Spring Fever Surfabout last weekend. Seven athletes won division titles at the 11th annual event, which started Saturday and concluded Monday at Thalia Street beach. Below are the top finishes in all divisions: * Girls: 1. Alisa Cairns; 2. Staci Diggins; 3. Marlee Grosher; 4. Maddy Kristensen; 5. Coco Putnam; 6. Dakota Shyres. Elementary: 1. Bobby Gavin; 2. Tre Lockhart; 3. Colton Gregory; 4. Julian Goldberg; 5. Tai Diggins; 6. Sam Nelsen; 7. Kiko Nelsen.

Just in time for the season's most notorious task, Waste Management has come up with a list of five tips to motivate spring cleaning efforts in natural and safe ways for the environment. Turns out, trading in the chemicals and expensive cleaning products for a little know-how will yield the same sparkling results without releasing potentially damaging toxins into the air, giving you more time to smell the flowers over the ammonia. So often people think that going green is an all-or-nothing decision, but the reality is that we can all make simple changes to our current lifestyles and habits that will make for a better tomorrow.