Fall weather and the crush can only mean one thing: it’s almost pumpkin time! Email your autumnal news to IDlewood 3…” at id*******@hb*****.com. “Hedda Healdsburg” wants to know all.
The latest addition to the Hotel Healdsburg group, Harmon Guest House, opened its glass doors to a town reception on Sunday. There was a steady flow of curious visitors, eager to see the streamlined, four-story concrete and wood hotel. As one local resident commented, “half the town is here.”
The hotel has 39 rooms, three of which were on display. Designed by architect David Baker, the rooms accommodate the long, narrow space of the lot and offer natural light and warm woods. There is a small pool and a pathway to a deck over Foss Creek. On the main level is the valet car park, a Rubik’s cube sort of wonder that can shift 50 cars up, down and over.
The yellow ribbon art in the lobby is by Chris Blum. Rooms have custom furniture, wool rugs, and headboards created with fabric from Lithuania. Want to turn on the lights? Just touch the mirror. Bathrooms have whimsical, painted “portals” by artist Carissa Potter that claim to take the visitor to the Plaza, river or beyond. Leigh Merrill has tweaked local scenes for the rooms’ nostalgic/modern art.
The fourth floor’s Merritt Hall and Rooftop Bar have views of Fitch Mountain to the east, and the hills to the west. This terrace bar will be open in October, ready to serve light food and cocktails.
It was an uplifting reception on the evening of Sept. 8 for “Spirits Rising,” the exhibit and sale at Hopscotch Gifts & Gallery on Matheson Street. Termed “a celebration of our collective healing and positive spirits” after the 2017 fires, the show features 30 local artists. Pinned near each artist’s collection is a heart, with their own expressions of gratitude written thereon. Hope and optimism are expressed through collages, prints, sculptures, glass, photographs, jewelry and paintings. The show runs through Oct. 14.
The same evening, on the other side of the Plaza, the Healdsburg Center for the Arts held a reception for its new exhibit, “Figure Study – Hidden Story.” It focuses on the diverse ways the human figure can be (and has been) portrayed. There were quite a few art patrons enjoying the show, chatting, sipping wine and nibbling munchies. This exhibit goes through Oct. 21.
It was a bit chilly at the Antique Fair in the Plaza, but shoppers still strolled along, past vendors selling everything from a block of Alfred Hitchcock stamps and pachinko game, to old maps and retro oil paintings … among other treats. The real treasure of the day was to be found at the museum’s booth. Star volunteer Pam Vana-Paxhia created pillows from 1800s crazy quilt squares. Each was a one of a kind pattern and oh-so-pretty. The museum may have more for sale at Christmastime.
Puccini, puppets and poems were just part of the fun at the latest Art After Dark in the Plaza. Co-hosted by Healdsburg Center for the Arts and other local groups, the evening event offered entertainment and a sample of all of the arts: literary, visual and performing. Bistro tables and chairs were set up near the gazebo for patrons. There is one more Art After Dark this season, on Sept. 28, 6 to 9:30 p.m.
The Labor Day weekend’s Garden & Art Festival hosted by Healdsburg Senior Living was a fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association. The lush and lavish HSL gardens, the baby of Marketing Director Tony Fisher, were in full harvest bloom. Plump cherry tomatoes, near-fluorescent zinnias, lettuce, squash, ruby beets and sunflowers as high as, well, an elephant’s eye, all preened for visitors.
The resident goats and chickens were be-bopping to live jazz tunes. Tony advised that at the end of the season, the Farm to Pantry gleaners carry away hundreds of pounds of vegetables. Local resident Linda Sproul brought her two grandchildren and her mother, Catherine Cook, to the event.
“It’s amazing,” Linda said of the festival and site. “I’ve lived here 15 years and didn’t know this was here.” Grace Johansmann also decreed, “This is a wonderful event. It’s good to have these for the town and for the residents living here.”
Marie Butler is a freelance writer and a full time Healdsburg resident for over 30 years. Growing up, she spent delightful summers at her family’s Del Rio Woods home and had an Idlewood phone number. She is the author of “Herbie – A Toy’s Adventures in Healdsburg,” and various articles about our area, including the recent “Healdsburg, bikers and bears” (Healdsburg Tribune, June 7, 2018).
