Students prepare their equines before lessons at Red’s Riding School. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

Healdsburg High graduate, Anna Levinger, turned small piece of property at the bend of a quiet rural road into a thriving riding school. The paddocks are filled with ponies, students pepper her with questions, and horses trot playfully in the training ring.

While the single mother straps her three-month-old daughter Monica Anne into a front pack, students arive for lessons. Shy children run up and quietly ask her what they are supposed to do. She sends them off to groom and tack-up ponies or horses for their lessons.

Anna Levinger, owner of Red’s Riding School, demonstrates the proper technique to life an equine’s leg. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

“We work on problems solving skills – if you can ride a horse successfully, you can be successful at anything,” said Levinger, 34. “We learn ‘adaptive communication.’” She’s talking about the interspecies communication between rider and horse, where words aren’t always enough.

The helmet-clad students learn to care for the horses, as well as ride them, evidenced by three little girls picking horses hooves and running currycombs over coats.

“Move closer to her, run your hand down this tendon,” says Levinger, demonstrating. “Then you can pick up her hoof easily.” She explains to the child that the horse is heavy and force isn’t going to get the job done. She’s relaxed and moves around the horses and the kids with confidence.

Levinger teaches English, Western, bareback and vaulting (gymnastics on horseback) skills to her students.  She teaches competitive English riding, as well as hunter and dressage. She has a goal of fielding a gymkhana team. In addition, she offers endurance classes that include a fully comprehensive horsemanship course.

Beyond offering classes, Levinger takes on a few private clients each year.

Levinger, born and raised in Healdsburg, has a long history of riding. Her whole family spent summers in Santa Cruz, where her mother’s family kept backyard horses.

As the old cliché goes, she started riding before she learned to walk.  Her family moved to Healdsburg in the 90s and she met the Grooms of Shady Oak Arabians. The stables turned into her second home until they sold the property to Deloach Vineyards.

“It was a sales barn, so the loss of horses was part of the deal,” she said. “But I got to help the trainers, though I couldn’t afford many lessons. It worked to my advantage and I got lots of life lessons.”

The tack room at Red’s Riving School. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

She learned horsecraft from Lorrie Cook (Brady) and got to watch her break and train “amazing horses and learn the trade.”

As an early teen she now believes she probably was less helpful than she thought she was, she admits.  She also said she didn’t fit in very well with her own family, describing herself as a “duck among swans.” She was high energy, always busy, but the same traits also helped her do well at the stables, always “pulling my own weight.”

The Grooms – Harold and Marlene – gave her one of their ranch-bred horses, Tyson, when they closed the business.

“I’m deeply indebted to the Grooms for Tyson. I rode him from Los Amigos to Arata Lane then on Old Redwood Highway to Windsor Stables, where I boarded him for a year,” she recounts. She developed a lifelong friendship with the Grooms, as well as with the horse.

Levinger rode Tyson “who would do anything but jump” in barrel racing, though he was a show horse, as well as hunter, country pleasure, and more. She characterized him as “fast and light.” He succumbed to age last November.

“I didn’t have that same connection until I got Bear, my big paint,” she continued. “We connect one-on-one.”

Levinger’s father moved to Oregon when she was 15 and she was able to work at a guest and cattle ranch, whose owner was also the leader of the local pony club. That’s where she added three-day eventing to her competitive skills.

Horses in the pasture and training ring at Red’s Riding School. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

She came back to Healdsburg in 1996 and was “bit by the English bug.” She was 16. She started looking for a jumping horse, as Tyson didn’t enjoy jumping. She found a “paint with no spots and funky conformation but a solid feeling.”

Though the horse did not prove to be as intelligent as Tyson, they appeared in the Future Farmers’ Twilight Parade in Healdsburg and jumped until he got hurt in the summer of 1998, the year she graduated from Healdsburg High School.  In 1999, Levinger was badly hurt ended her competitive career.

She and her “non-biological brother” Jerry Bottini were able to strike a deal for the property where she created Red’s Riding School in 2009.  The property once belonged to Bottini’s family. She now has 19 equines that include eight ponies and 11 horses. Before opening her own school, she worked as a coach based at Chalk Hill Ranch.

“I wanted to call it ‘Little Red’s Riding School’ as a play on Little Red Riding Hood but marketing strategy told me that I shouldn’t use the word ‘little,’ so I settled for Red’s Riding School,” she said. The school is located at 775 Magnolia Dr.

She specializes in working with children, though she does offer lessons to some adults. She currently has a roster of 93 students, with an age range from four to 68 years of age.

Curious horse at Red’s Riding School. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

Prior to 2004, she’d coached swimming, gymnastics, water aerobics and dance. That year she started coaching horseback riding while working in “non-foods” for Safeway. She worked at the store mornings and coached all afternoon. Then she got an opportunity to work and ride in Ireland.

Levinger’s friend Edward “Rasher” Widger worked in Ireland, and while on a trip to the U.S., he offered her a job in Waterford as a sports horse broker. “But in true Irish fashion, I never worked for him,” said Levinger with a laugh.

The girl she was going to replace didn’t leave the job, so he “offered me to the guy down the road,” his friend Mark O’Sullivan. She didn’t meet him until she landed in Ireland.

The position in O’Sullvian’s stables was “a dream come true, I just didn’t know it at first,” says Levinger. She worked for him from June 2004 and returned to the U.S. in February 2005 and she learned early on that he was one of Ireland’s top riders.

When she met him, she recalls how she watched him in amazement, as “he brought a horse off trailer…the stallion went vertical, fell and O’Sullivan didn’t move a muscle,” she said. The horse got up with the rider still in the saddle and they carried on with their business. At the end of the show jumping season, she moved on to Adare Manor Equestrian Centre to take American tourists on trail rides. She was “pulled to the barn to teach a pony class” when an instructor quit.

“They were the sweetest kids with the sweetest ponies,” says Levinger. Now she makes her living doing the same work.

Riding was her passion and she did most of her competing during her years in Oregon.  She said that horseback riding competition isn’t the same here as it was in Oregon. Though she admits she’s recently returned to competition.

“If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it the best I can,” Levinger states. “I ride so I can coach and my students and my horses come first.”

Levinger’s friend, Sondra Ottenstein has worked with Levinger for two years. They met at a ranch in Alexander Valley and she coaches four or five days a week at Red’s.  “I like what I’m doing here,” Ottenstein said.

But, while it’s a business that is making ends meet, it’s not making Levinger rich. She stays just above the poverty line because of the overhead with so many animals. She also tries to keep her classes affordable, always shying away from becoming “elitist,” and unaffordable.

“My clients are my family, my community,” said Levinger. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

To learn more about Red’s Riding School, visit them on Facebook facebook.com/pages/Reds-Riding-School, or call 478-5110.

California poppy. (Photo: Dianne Reber Hart)

The golden petals of California poppies are unfolding across Sonoma County, just one of hundreds of species now in bloom in local parks and nature preserves.

Not all wildflowers show off like the poppy or yellow mustards. Others are more obscure, the reward of attentive hikers who spot them in diverse ecosystems throughout the county. Better yet, join a guided wildflower walk led by a seasoned docent.

Learn more about Sonoma County wildflowers at Pepperwood Preserve’s free Wildflower Festival 9 a.m.-4 p.m. April 13 at 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Road, off Franz Valley Road in northeast Santa Rosa. pepperwoodpreserve.org, 591-9310.

Or watch for these five flowers this spring, recommended by Sonoma Ecology Center, California Native Plant Society and Sonoma County Regional Parks. All can be found on docent-led walks.

1. Chinese houses. The name comes from their alternating white and purple petals grown in a pagoda-style formation. Look for them in the dappled shade of woodlands of Jack London State Historic Park, a 1,400-acre national historic landmark in Glen Ellen.

A wildflower walk is planned there on April 12, with longer hike April 13. jacklondonpark.com, 938-5216.

2. Chocolate lilies. These bowl-shaped flowers droop over from erect stems, a rich chocolate-brown color that is sometimes mottled with green or yellow. Often found in mixed woodlands, they are among the species spotted at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenwood, where 25 miles of hiking trails extend through the scenery.

Walks in Sugarloaf are scheduled for March 29, April 6 and 19, May 3. sonomaecologycenter.org, 996-0712.

Lupine. (Photo: Dianne Reber Hart)

3. Lupines. These flowers range from light blue to deep violet, rising skyward in pea-flower-shaped formations. Seas of blue lupines can be spotted in sunny meadows, often found in abundance at the 211-acre Foothill Regional Park in Windsor.

Sonoma County Regional Parks has hikes throughout the county, including Foothill on April 12. Walks through other parks are March 29; April 5, 19 and 26; and May 3. 565-2041, parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov.

4. Monkey flowers. Look for their bright yellow, snapdragon-like flowers growing in showy clusters. Notice the petals, which are thought to resemble a funny faced monkey. They can be found along stream banks within the 535-acre Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen, a nature sanctuary with 350 species of flowering plants.

Bouverie Preserve’s backyard naturalist wildflower program is March 29, with nature walks on April 12 and 26 and May 3. egret.org, 938-4554.

5. Soaproot plants. The bulb once used for soap by native people sends out a long central stem that features flowers with six petals and six protruding stamen. It’s a member of the lily family and can be found in mixed woodlands like those of the Van Hoosear Wildflower Preserve, a private 163-acre nature reserve at the base of Sonoma Mountain.

Walks are scheduled at Van Hoosear on March 27 and 30; April 5, 10 and 12, reservations required. sonomaecologycenter.org, 996-0712.

— Dianne Reber Hart

The Healdsburg Museum. (Photo: Courtesy of the museum)

Healdsburg is listed in the Smithsonian Magazine’s April issue as #2 of the 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2014.

Here’s how the magazine describes Healdsburg: “Poised between Calistoga and the wild Pacific Coast with damp morning fog and blistering afternoon sunshine, the place is so fertile anything grows.”

Read more at smithsonianmag.com.

Sargam Griffin in her Healdsburg studio. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

When Healdsburg artist Sargam Griffin came to the United States from Rintela, a 15th century German town, she believed in endless possibilities, and though the love that brought her here didn’t last, her belief in those possibilities never wavered.

Now her reality includes international recognition as an artist and two large art pieces commissioned by Sutter Hospital for display at its new facility under construction just north of Santa Rosa.

Griffin’s home is dedicated to simplicity and minimalism with white walls to show the colors and textures of her pieces. She also created an airy and light-filled converted garage workplace. There you can find her playing primal music to help get her past “inhibition and hesitation.”

Sutter Hospital employees wrote wishes on the back of the art piece by Sargam Griffin. (Photo: Mike Little)

“Every time I stand in front of a blank canvas, it represents endless possibilities,” said Griffin.  The two canvasses that will hang at Sutter are contemporary abstracts that include a 5×7-foot piece that will hang near the birthing center called “Luminism 3.”

The other piece, measuring 5×10 feet, is known as the “employee painting” and named “The Gift.” It carries the signatures and wishes of many hospital employees who have written on the back of the canvas. The 800 employees also took part in the artistic process by choosing the qualities they wanted the painting to represent.

Now “The Gift” has more than 40 layers, Griffin said, and she will do whatever it takes to fully represent the people who work and heal at the hospital. Griffin says the colors and symbols keep changing as she works on the piece.

The painting is an invitation to touch, protected by an epoxy resin.  “I welcome people to touch my pieces,” Griffin said.  The tactile paintings combine rough and smooth and sometimes bumpy surfaces.

Sutter employees wrote good wishes to patients on the back of the canvass. (Photo: Mike Little)

When Griffin finishes these pieces, she’s commissioned to create art for a KRCB-TV set.

“Opportunities are coming my way,” she continued. “Sutter knocked at my door, but I take nothing for granted. I’m a work in progress, too.”

For the employee painting, the hospital “will hang employee blessings on the wall.” Employee messages include, “I love my job,” “Blessings to all our babies” and we wish “The best to our patients.” The painting has taken on a life of its own, and she keeps the idea that she is the conduit for the employee voices. “It’s a meaningful piece,” she concluded.

The first piece is ready and the second will be ready in April, though the hospital will not open until the fall of this year. Floating frames are being built for each large piece. In addition to Griffin’s two pieces, 300 pieces of art will hang at the hospital.

Griffin also teaches art. Her schedule takes her to a private facility for the mental disabled, where she facilitates patient and staff artwork. “For them, it’s wonderful to have a different kind of attention and to have something exciting in their lives.

“They’re interested and they achieve the energy to do something together,” she summed up.

She is well known for her “art doors, where art and architecture meet,” she says. The work combines painting and practicality in fully functional doors.  Each door takes months to complete and they sell for thousands of dollars.

Sutter employees offer well wishes to patients. (Photo: Mike Little)

Griffin was showing art in both New York and Berlin, “then Sandy happened.” It was difficult to travel during that time and the natural disaster made her decide to focus locally.

“Doing the works for the hospital is coming full circle for me,” said Griffin. She’s had several surgeries, suffered lead poisoning from the paints and even spent time in a wheelchair before regaining her health.

After the lead poisoning episode, she researched everything about lead and , though she continued working with oil-based paints, she started taking ventilation, using a respirator and gloves more seriously and started leading a healthy lifestyle, as well.

Then, in 2013, she found the business side challenging, and she even considered stopping for a short time.  Upon reflection, she understood she needed to pass the business management  to an expert. When she did, she found her “artwork took on a new life.

“Good things happen,” she said, “It’s about staying to what’s true. When you experience great disappointment, you just step up, brush yourself off and keep going—it’s an energy that propels me.”

Griffin’s large abstracts range in price from $6,800 to $15,000, and small paintings can cost in the $500 range. She has recently decided to offer a line of limited edition prints that will allow her work to be enjoyed by more people.

“Being a painter is my life’s commitment,” Griffin stated positively.

For more information, visit sargamgriffin.com.

Dianne Smith will teach “Monkeys, Fossils and Mother Nature.”

At 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, the Healdsburg Regional Library features a comedy improve workshop for teens hosted by Bridget Palmer from the 6^th Street Playhouse. Students from grades 7-12 are welcome. 139 Piper St. For more information, call 433-3772.

From 3-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, beginning March 25, the Osher Lifelong Learning at SSU begins its next set of classes for seniors.  Classes include “The Supreme Court: The Cases, controversies and perspectives that shaped American history,” with Eric J. Williams; “Great Cities: Cities of intrigue” with Bruce Elliot; and “Monkeys, Fossils and Mother Nature” with Dianne Smith. Each session runs six weeks. $80 for one class. Villa Chanticleear, 1248 North Fitch Mountain Road. For more information, call 664-2691, or visit sonoma.edu.

From 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, March 27, the Healdsburg Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs will hold a HYPE Mixer at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts, 130 Plaza St.  Spend the evening with the emerging artists currently exhibiting their works.  $20.  For more information, visit healdsburg.com.

At 7 a.m. Friday, March 28, Toastmasters will hold an open house and demonstration meeting for the public at Adel’s Restaurant, 198 Dry Creek Road. Toastmasters teaches effective communication. For more information, visit  toastmasters.org.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, March 29, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 30, St. John the Baptist Catholic School presents the “Little Mermaid Jr.,” with magic, mayhem and fun under the sea performed by children in grades 4-8. Performances continue April 4-6 at the Raven Theater, 115 North St.  $12. Tickets available at the door, or by calling the school at 433-2758.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, March 29, the Healdsburg Jazz and Wine Club will have a party at Zizi, 334 Healdsburg Ave.  Tickets are $25 and include wine, light fare and music by the Tiffany Austin Quartet. For more information, email info@healdsbjazzwineclub.org or call 433-4644.

From 3-6 p.m. Saturday, March 29, the Healdsburg Grange offers an Umami workshop. Sonoko Sakai teaches participants how create a complete meal using two Japanese seasonings, demonstrating four dishes. $95. Healdsburg SHED, 25 North St. For more information, visit healdsburgshed.com. Purchase tickets online at brownpapertickets.com.

Then from 6:30-9 p.m., eat a Japanese supper created by Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soba. The family style menu will feature dashi and koji with handmade soba noodles. $75. Healdsburg SHED, 25 North St. For more information, visit healdsburgshed.com. Buy tickets online at brownpapertickets.com.

Three Healdsburg area roads are among those slated for some tender loving care by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in the 2014 Pavement Preservation Program. The board is meeting today to approve an $8.6 million budget for summer road improvements that includes:

–Westside Road, 6.7 miles between River Road and Sweetwater Springs, $1.8 million, vital to tourism and agriculture because of wine tourism.

–West Dry Creek Road, 7.44 miles between Yoakim Bridge and West Dry Creek Road at Pine Canyon Bridge, $1.585 million, also vital to wine tourism.

–Dry Creek Road, 2.6-mile chip surface repair to Skaggs Springs Vista, $275,000, primary road network.

The Sonoma County board is prioritizing investment in transportation infrastructure “to enhance safety for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.” The money will come from the general fund. This is the highest level of funding in recent history, with the supervisors stipulating $8 million of general fund money for each of fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014.

For more details about the summer road improvements program, read Matt Brown’s Press Democrat story.

Rusted bike on “Bike’s Peak.” (Photo: Shannon deRutte)

Fifteen-year-old Shannon deRutte used to ride his bike around Healdsburg. He spent time on Fitch Mountain, rode over to Digger’s Bend on the Russian River and just wandered, enjoying his mountain bike. One day, he took a more northward direction and found himself on a plateau with discarded bikes in the bushes.

That day in 1995, he started pulling the bikes out of the weeds, and decided “what the heck, why don’t I start setting them up?

“They were cool looking old bikes,” he said. “Even then, they had a unique value—they looked retro or vintage.

“The first day, I did the majority of it (setting them up), the second time, a little more,” said Derutte. “I set them up in a half-moon. Then it became a destination spot for me and my mom.”

Shannon deRutte took daughter Emily and son Wyatt to “Bike’s Peak.” (Photo: Lindsey deRutte)

DeRutte is a 1999 Healdsburg High School graduate, and now lives in Fulton, with his wife, Lindsey, and children, Emily and Wyatt.

Over the years, his mother Janice Lorraine, would remind him of bike hill. He kept photos of the site in his room until he went off to college.

Some years at Christmas, Shannon DeRutte, who is a carpenter by trade, would help a client on Palomino Court hang lights, and he would wonder about the bikes. He could see Fox Pond from the lofty height, but he didn’t take the time to walk up the hill to see if the bikes were still there. He assumed they’d been hauled away, until he read about them in the paper.

On Sunday, March 23, deRutte, now 33, took a journey into his past to see what is now dubbed as “Bike’s Peak” or “Bike-Henge.” He took his wife and children with him.

DeRutte reports the bikes are now set up differently.  He found the rabbit cages he originally stuck in between the bikes and decorated with bike parts off in the bushes, now smothered in poison oak. There were only a few houses, with the freeway off in the distance in 1995. Now, Parkland Farms subdivision covers the area below.

“It’s a nice little area,” he said.

Bike’s Peak, circa 1995. (Photo: Shannon deRutte)

Summer Sebastiani and Todd Fernandez welcome customers at Summer’s Market on Powell Street. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

Chef Summer Sebastiani has arrived in Healdsburg, bringing a cheerful countenance and healthful ideas to a historic neighborhood market.  She, together with husband Todd Fernandez, purchased the old Powell Avenue Market, renamed it Summer’s Market, and are busy setting up a health-conscious deli and neighborhood market.

Sebastiani, 39, graduated from the California Culinary Academy in 2000, moved from pastry chef to executive chef at All Seasons Bistro & Catering in Calistoga, where she worked for 14 years. She’s a distant cousin to the famous-in-the-wine-world Sonoma Sebastianis.

Summer’s Market will carry locally sourced produce. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

The store “fell into” a soft opening on March 12, when people started showing up to buy goods. The deli wasn’t ready, but the state of the art cash register was up and ready to go, and some of the store was stocked.

The store, forever known as the “little market,” was established in 1949, and has served generations of Healdsburg students on their way to and from school. Sebastiani encourages the new generation of youngsters to visit the store and she’s on her way to knowing many of them by name.

As she rang up orders, she asked students where they go to school. The children responded with shy smiles and seem eager to share.

“Though we have no children, I want the store to be the cool spot the kids remember when they’re grown,” she said. “I want it to be safe for them to walk here and that it becomes a neighborhood hangout.”

Summer’s Market, 557 Powell Ave. in Healdsburg. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

As she said that, three young boys returned for their second visit of the day. They are 8, 9 and 11 years old. She and Todd engaged them in conversation as they made deli sandwiches to each youngster’s preference.

“I didn’t really understand that the market would become part of the community,” said Sebastiani. “Community members want this market to thrive.”

She said they have been getting nothing but positive feedback, and even a thank you note or two. She feels nurtured in the neighborly support.

They currently have just one employee, Gwen Robenson, a 17-year-old junior at Healdsburg High School. She’s on her first job and Sebastiani and Fernandez act as mentors, as well as employers. They offer training, as well as education, with a lot of encouragement thrown in.

“I have a stack of resumes from students,” said Sebastiani. “They’re coming in every day.”

Sebastiani’s plans for the store include a picnic area on the east side of the market. She’s serving Flying Goat coffee and homemade ice cream. She plans to add dairy-free frozen treats, as well as ice cream and sorbets.

Her mantra is to source as many products locally as she can.

The deli includes Molinari Salame and Fra’Mani turkey and ham that are uncured and have no nitrites. Fra’Mani  is based in Berkeley. She sources fresh organic fruits and vegetables from Six Oaks Farms in Healdsburg, as well as from her mother, Lynn Vollman’s, commercial garden in Annapolis.

Costeaux French Bakery delivers bread and pastries daily. For those who are gluten intolerant, the store carries a large number of gluten free products, including sandwich bread for the deli. Many of the gluten free products come from Pamela’s Products in Ukiah.

Chocolate is already a favorite product at Summer’s Market. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

She also has a separated pastry case, so she can have gluten free and conventional separated for those with allergies.

Summer’s Market also carries standard neighborhood market items like candy, chips, sodas, as well as dog food, condiments, cake mixes.  Those sit across the aisle from upscale truffle and olive oils.

“I’m surprised by the kids these days,” she said. “They make healthier choices than I did. They choose natural sodas and baked chips. They understand their food choices.”

Other local brands include Spindrift sodas, Yerba Mate drinks, Sonoma Cider and Bear Republic products. They store will not sell cigarettes. They will also stock organic and conventional dairy products.

Last year, her lifelong friend and Healdsburg resident, Hannah Falberg, told her the neighborhood market at 557 Powell Ave. was for sale.

When she checked into it, though, she found that only the business was for sale and didn’t include the property. She scheduled a meeting with the owner, Denise Dodini, through Healdsburg Realtor John Torres. After the meeting, because she supported Sebastiani’s ideas and plans for the market, Dodini agreed to sell the property to the couple.

They closed on the property and got the keys in July, then Sebastiani and Fernandez got busy gutting the interior. They did much of the demolition work themselves. Other steps included getting approvals first from the health department, then the city.

They laugh when they talk about the “speed of construction” and how, when they understood how it worked, things went smoothly.

Part of that smooth sailing was facilitated by a “round robin” meeting they had with the City of Healdsburg’s various departments.  “We asked what we could do and what we couldn’t,” she said. The knowledge helped as they made plans for the store, as they were able to avoid areas that would cause them problems.

“We had no idea about the massive amount of time involved in the construction,” said Sebastiani. “While we did a lot of work on our own, we had to have a specialty contractor to take out the asbestos tiles.”

In addition, they had to make the front door ADA compliant, and the store was rewired, re-plumbed and re-floored.  All together, they’ve spent several hundred thousands of dollars, not including the price of the property.

Sebastiani uncovered intricate old steel beams in the ceiling and instead of recovering them, scrubbed them with a wire brush and sealed them.  In the coffee nook, recycled redwood from her father’s barn, cover the walls creating to a modern rustic look.

That look continues through the produce department where the fresh fruits and vegetables are showcased in wooden crates.

Bicyclists rubberneck as they ride by, soon they’re back and coming through the door.

“There’s no fighting downtown traffic here,” commented Fernandez.

Their official grand opening will be held in the next couple of weeks.

The market had gone through several recent changes, including one by lifelong Healdsburg resident Ann Bigham, who opened the market in 2012 and ran it until her death.

By DIANNE REBER HART / Towns Correspondent

Breakfast at 101 Casino. (Photo: Dianne Reber Hart)

Sonoma County offers a smorgasbord of dining options, from popular neighborhood dives to a select few restaurants with Michelin stars. Some eateries even offer meal deals with discount pricing.

For those stretching a paycheck or simply looking for a good deal, there are plenty of early-bird specials and dinnertime offers available.

Here are a few to consider:

1. The Singletree Café in Healdsburg. It’s a family-friendly diner with an early-bird breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays: $2.95 for two eggs cooked to order, home fries and toast.

Singletree Café, 165 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 433-8263.

2. The Villa in Santa Rosa. With its hilltop setting, The Villa offers expansive views along with its traditional Italian cuisine. The early-bird dinner menu, served 4-6 p.m. daily except holidays, includes pasta, meat and seafood selections. The salmon piccata is $16.95; 12-ounce ground sirloin steak with french fries is $12.95; lasagna with Bolognese sauce is $13.95. Each comes with soup or salad.

The Villa, 3901 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa, 528-7755, thevillarestaurant.com.

3. 101 Casino in Petaluma. Try your luck at the 101 Casino, but save a few bucks for meal deals at its City Limits restaurant. The $7 early-bird breakfast is served 6-9 a.m., featuring biscuits and country gravy; hot cakes; breakfast burrito, or the Casino Breakfast with two eggs, hash browns, toast and ham, sausage or bacon.

The early-bird dinner is served 4-5:30 p.m., with $12 selections that include spaghetti and meatballs, and prime rib for $15, all with soup or salad and an ice cream cup.

City Limits at the 101 Casino, 5151 Montero Way, Petaluma, 795-6121, the101casino.com.

4. The Terrace Grille Restaurant in Santa Rosa. Visit the landmark Flamingo Resort for a meat-eaters’ deal. Fridays and Saturdays are rib nights, with baby-back ribs with barbecue sauce available 5-9 p.m. in three sizes for dine-in or take-out. The quarter-rack served over Asian slaw with an appetizer plate is $8; both the half-rack ($14) and the full-rack ($23) come with a choice of fries or salad.

Terrace Grille Restaurant at the Flamingo Resort, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 545-8530, flamingoresort.com.

5. The Breakaway Café in Sonoma. This spot delivers comfort food in a comfortable setting morning, noon and night. Locals start their day with the $5 breakfast special served 8-11 a.m. weekdays: two eggs made to order, home fries and a choice of toast or pancakes.

Breakaway Café, 19101 Higwhay 12, Maxwell Village Shopping Center, Sonoma, 996-5949, breakawaycafe.com.

6. Main Street Bistro in Guerneville. Time your Russian River visit to coincide with live music at this downtown restaurant and cabaret, and take advantage of the daily pizza deal. Between 4 and 7 p.m., and again after 9 p.m., a slice of artisan pizza (typically pepperoni or cheese) is $3. Add a draft beer or soda for $2. Check online for the schedule of musicians, who range from jazz and blues to Celtic and Motown. No cover.

Main Street Bistro, 16280 Main St., Guerneville, 869-0501, mainststation.com.

7. Dinucci’s in Valley Ford. Beachgoers heading home from Bodega Bay or Dillon Beach can stop at this historic landmark for a bar special available beginning at 4 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. Served only in the bar, the Italian dinner includes the evening’s special entree, a side dish and soup or salad for $12.95, with entrees varying from seafood to lamb shank to steak. Dinucci’s was built in 1908 as the Depot Hotel when the Northwestern Pacific Narrow Gauge Railroad ran through the village; today’s diners are part of its long history.

Dinucci’s, 14485 Highway 1, Valley Ford, 876-3260, dinuccisrestaurant.com.

8. Stormy’s Spirits and Supper in Bloomfield. This is destination dining at its best, in a roadhouse 14 miles west of Petaluma that was established in 1854. Stormy’s offers supper specials beginning at 3 p.m. Sundays and 4 p.m. Thursdays. For $18.50, diners get deep-fried prawns, chicken breast saute or New York scaloppini. For another $2, they can have New York steak. The specials include clam chowder, garden salad, potato, vegetables and french bread served family-style.

Stormy’s Spirits and Supper, 6650 Bloomfield Road, Bloomfield, 795-0127, stormysrestaurant.com.

Did we miss your favorite? Tell us about it.

Spring irises at Russian River Rose Company. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

“Fools Night Out,” a black-tie celebration of community volunteers and five years of service by the Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary Club, runs 6-10 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, at Shone Farm, 7450 Steve Olson Lane, Windsor. Tickets are $125, with Will Durst as emcee and Chef Douglas Keane the culinary director. Reception, dinner, entertainment. Seating is limited. For more information, email jfbrenton@gmail.com or call 331-2410.

From 5-9 p.m. Monday, March 31, and Tuesday, April 1, “The Nomad Dinner Series” continues at Spoonbar Restaurant, 219 Healdsburg Ave. Chef Louis Maldonado features the cuisine of Asia with “contemporary Vietnamese, Korean and Thai interpretations.” Creative cocktails.  For reservations, call 433-7222.

From 8-9 a.m. Thursday, April 3, the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce hosts “Good Morning Healdsburg: Monthly Round Table” at the Healdsburg Community Center, 1557 Healdsburg Ave.  Get the latest information about what’s happening in Healdsburg and how it will affect your business. Complimentary coffee.

At 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, “Nunsense!” will open at the new Raven Theater Windsor, 195 Windsor River Road. The musical comedy is directed by Joe Gellura. Tickets are $35. For more information, visit raventheater.org.

From 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6, learn “How to have a happy garden”  at Russian River Rose Company, 1685 Magnolia Dr. Gardening demonstrations at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nursery open. No picnics/no pets. For more information, call 433-7455 or visit  russian-river-rose.com.

“On the Bridge.” (Upstairs Art Gallery.

From 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, Denise Fielder will host “Animal Collage Portraits” at Healdsburg SHED. Using vintage books and newspaper, Fielder will “create a lively likeness of the light of your life.” Pets – domestic or farm animals – on a leash are welcome. Or bring a photo. Free to attend. 8 x 10 collage $150.  25 North St. For more information, call 431-7433.

“Shadow Selfies,” autobiographical paintings by Donna Schaffer, will be on exhibit through April 27 at Upstairs Art Gallery, 306 Center St., open daily 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call 431-4214 or visit upstairsartgallerysite.com.

Also at Healdsburg SHED, from 8 – 10 p.m. Saturday, April 5, Upside Dance presents “STRUM” with composer Mark Growden. Tickets $20. Contemporary dancers perform with the world-renowned composer and the “Calling All Choir.” Dancers and musicians interact.  Performances at 2 and 8 p.m. Sunday, April 6, as well. Reservations suggested. For more information, visit upsidedance.com, To purchase tickets online visit,  brownpapertickets.com.

From 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, April 5, the “I ‘heart’ Wine Walk Healdsburg” celebrates National Walking Day. Thumbprint Cellars hosts, 102 Matheson St. Thirty-three “world-class tasting rooms” around Healdsburg open their doors for tastings. $15. Proceeds benefit the American Heart Associations.  For more information, visiwinewalkhealdsburg.com.

The 22nd Annual Future Farmers Country Fair Dinner and Barn Dance is from 5:30 – 10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Soda Rock Winery. Tickets $50. The money supports the Future Farmers Country Fair and students in 4-H and FFA. For more information, visit healdsburgfair.org. To purchase tickets online, visit brownpapertickets.com.

The Healdsburg Dog House is sponsoring “Zinny” an adoptable cat under the auspices of Sonoma Humane’s new Healdsburg location. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

Sonoma Humane and Petaluma Animal Services opened a mobile shelter at 14242 Bacchus Landing Way, on Tuesday, April 1, with an “unleashing” event. Local writer Stefanie Freele stopped by at 9 a.m. to check for kittens.

Kayak and canoes on the Russian River.

The 4^th Annual Great Russian River Race will go on despite drought conditions this year. However, there will be several changes to the race. The event is limited to 200 racers.

Event host Russian Riverkeeper announced the registration is open for the Saturday, May 3 event, which is expected to sell out.

Changes to the event for 2014:

• ·       Because of low water conditions on the Russian River, organizers will not offer the 15-mile race, and professionals will be encouraged to use plastic boats and to enter in the 5-mile pro division.
• ·         Registration is $40, a $10 reduction from last year’s fee. Boat rentals are an extra $20-$30.
• ·         Up to 5% of the race may include portaging the boats.
• ·         Shoes will be required, flip-flops not allowed.
• ·         There will be no metal canoe rentals. Only kayaks, both double and single, and stand-up-paddle (SUPs)will be available for rental in limited numbers. Entrants may use their own boats, plastic boats are recommended.

The race is a fundraiser for the Russian Riverkeeper organization. The event raises money for the “Clean Campus Clean Creeks” education program. It is also a way to increase the numbers of people enjoying the river each year.

The event is one of the SPLASH series events sponsored by the Waterkeeper Alliance. The organization is building “a sustainable movement to protect watersheds worldwide for future generations.” Some of the proceeds are geared toward drought-related endeavors to help the river.

The after-event party will take place at Memorial Beach with live music, beer, wine, food and kids’ pursuits.  There is also a costume contest and a grand prize winner will be announced during the party after the event.

In addition, booths will offer demonstrations, tips and giveaways related to water conservation.

The organizing team for the event is also calling for volunteers. Course marshals, safety crewmembers, runners and more volunteers are needed for the event.

To register for the event, visit eventbrite.com/e/great-russian-river-race-drought-edition-registration-10595390097.

To sponsor the event or to volunteer, call 433-1958. Donations are tax-deductible.

Healdsburg District Hospital lab interns from Healdsburg High School. (Photo: Shelley Anderson)

The Healdsburg High School internship program seeks panelists to listen to the students’ final internship presentations. Panelists are needed from 6 – 8 p.m., Thursday, April 24. Presentations will take place at Healdsburg High School, 1024 Prince St.

Junior internships that took place over a five-week period from February 4 through March 4. The presentations are part of the students’ English final for the year, and a required segment of the internship program. Students journal and take photos to include in their presentations.

One hundred fifty-one juniors participated in the program, according to Shelley Anderson HHS’s internship coordinator. Ninety-five percent of the students got their first or second job choice.

The program, initiated three years ago with a pilot class of 30 students, has grown. Last year, three English classes encompassing 100 students participated, while this year every junior was included.

Students go through a months long process leading up to the internships. They spend two months in career assessment, gathering information on various career pathways. The process is included in the junior year English curriculum. Students are interviewed individually and given tips on how to make eye contact, give a firm handshake and dress for the business world. Students create error-free resumes and learn how to write cover letters. Even students who plan to attend college participate in the internship program.

Healdsburg High School junior, Kyle, served his internship at Anderson Family Construction. (Photo: Shelley Anderson)

At the end of the five-week period, students are required to do self-evaluations.

“Most of the students say how they loved meeting people,” Anderson said. “And that they felt like grown-ups for the first time.”

Shyness is one of the hardest obstacles many of the students face. Anderson said that teaching them to make eye contact is one of her jobs.

Healdsburg High School was the first school in Sonoma County to institute the program, now Anderson receives calls from as far away as South Carolina asking for tips to create their own programs. The program is funded by the Healdsburg Education Foundation.

The connection between Healdsburg High school and the business community is stronger than ever since the implementation of the program according to Anderson who took over the reins of the program in the fall.

This year there were more requests for interns than there were juniors participating. Some businesses take multiple interns. Healdsburg District Hospital spread 15 interns through various departments, from the laboratory to x-ray to the offices at Healdsburg Primary Care, the emergency room, wound care and surgery.

McConnell Chevrolet accepted seven interns—one for each master mechanic in the business.

Student interns worked throughout the community and some even went further afield with internships in Geyserville, Santa Rosa, Alexander Valley and Windsor. The school provides transportation to students who need it, though only ten students needed to use shuttles to the workplace this year.

“We’re connecting the real world with what they learn at school,” said Anderson. “They are using math, English, and learning the soft skills, as well.”

Chuy did his internship at a radio station. (Photo: Shelley Anderson)

The new common core standards connect to the business world by preparing students for the workforce. It’s something business owners have told her is missing for students. Now, some of the students are hired to work directly from an internship. Others will go back and work for the same company during the summer.  Healdsburg District Hospital invited all their student interns to volunteer during the summer.

Anderson says the internships are a valuable aid in helping students determine career paths.  Sometimes students come back and say they learned they need to change paths. One student decided he didn’t want to become a firefighter because the boredom while waiting at the station was too difficult for the active young man.

Another student was terminated for refusing to do a job. That student will explain how it was a learning experience during her presentation.

The final step of the internship program is to present their findings before a panel of community members, parents, teachers and administrators.

To volunteer as a panelist, email Shelley Anderson at sanderson@husd.com by April 10.

Fossville in 1877, showing the hotel, horse barns, and a six-horse stage just arriving. The road to the Geysers winds over the hills in the distance.
From Thompson’s Historical Atlas of Sonoma County. Courtesy of the Sonoma County Historical Society

By ARTHUR DAWSON / Towns Columnist

Fossville, in Knights Valley, never quite became a town, though many tourists once stopped there. It was named for Clark Foss, known as “The Most Famous Stage Driver in the World,” who could make a U-turn in a city street with six horses running full speed, without tipping over his stage.

The big draw for Sonoma County’s first tourists was not wine but the hellish landscape of The Geysers, in the Mayacamas northeast of Healdsburg. The ground was a palette of white, yellow and gray from chemicals released from the earth. The sounds of hissing steam and bubbling fumaroles filled the air, which stank of sulfur, iron, magnesia and ammonia.

Clark Foss 1873. “A famous ‘whip’” is handwritten on the back. Taken in Calistoga by Bradley and Rulofson Photographers, San Francisco.
Courtesy of OurHealdsburg.com.

Coming from Fossville, about 5.5 miles northwest of Calistoga on what is now Highway 128, Foss began making the 20-mile trip from Healdsburg in the 1860s. The road, which in one spot was only seven feet wide, ran for miles along a ridge top nicknamed “the Razorback.” One passenger compared it to a rooftop that fell away “several thousand feet to the ravines below.” Foss regularly ran his stage over it at a full gallop.

Descending into The Geysers, the road dropped 1,600 feet and made 35 turns. Foss would tell his passengers to check their watches, crack his whip and launch his six horses downhill like slalom skiers, reaching the bottom in under 10 minutes. On the final hill, he would let out “a yell to wake the dead.”

Many found riding with Foss a bigger thrill than The Geysers themselves, perhaps akin to shooting big rapids with a daredevil river guide, and his fame spread far and wide.

Eventually, Foss set up a way station called Fossville. In its heyday, it boasted a post office, a huge horse barn and a 25-room hotel with plush red drapes and crystal chandeliers. Its guests included railroad barons, General Grant and William Randolph Hearst.

For 20 years, Foss lived a charmed life. On the day his luck ran out, Foss’s team ran right off the edge and plunged into a deep canyon. One passenger died, and six others, including Foss, were seriously injured. Badly shaken, Foss handed over the reins to his son Charles.

Charles ran The Geysers stage until about 1910, just as autos were beginning to venture there. Apparently learning something from his old man, he was said to always be a careful driver.

Fossville is now just a wide spot in the road near Zukowski Vineyards. Just big enough, perhaps, for the “Most Famous Stage Driver in the World” to turn six horses around at a gallop.

Contact Glen Ellen-based historical ecologist Arthur Dawson at baseline@vom.com.

Sonoma County and the Civil War exhibit continues at the Healdsburg Museum. Kyle O’Brien is a Civil War reenactor and volunteer at the museum.

“Emerging 2014,” the newest exhibit, continues at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts through April 27. Nine young Northern California artists show their work at 130 Plaza St. Open daily 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. A “diverse and engaging collection of work by a group of accomplished creators in the early part of their careers.” For more information, visit healdsburgcenterforthearts.com.

The “Sonoma County and the Civil War” exhibit continues at the Healdsburg Museum. See the connections between the Civil War and local residents.  Authentic Civil War weapons, uniforms, accoutrements, photographs and letters on display. 221 Matheson St.  Open Wednesday – Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. For more information, call 431-3325.

From 5 – 7 p.m. Monday, April 7, Gianfranco Norelli and Suma Kurien, will be in a ‘fireside chat’ to discuss their film, “Finding the Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California.”  Healdsburg Regional Library, 139 Piper St. Tickets $25. For more information, call Julie St. John at 800-836-3894, or email julie@pedroncelli.com.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9 at the Healdsburg Regional Library, 139 Piper St. AARP Tax help continues. Seniors targeted. No reservation necessary. For more information, call 433-3772.

At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 11, Babatunde Lea will return to Healdsburg, along with Operation Jazz Band, at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts, 130 Plaza St. Music by Miles Davis and John Coltrane will be featured. Wine by the glass, home-baked desserts. Tickets $25. To purchase tickets on line, visit healdsburgjazzfestival.org/wordpress/buy_tickets. For more information, call 800-838-3006.

At 6 p.m., Friday, April 11, Relish Culinary Center presents a “Festive Greek Supper” with food writer and chef Lia Huber. Her Greek-inspired menu combines easy techniques with the fresh ingredients. $99. 14 Matheson St. For more information, visit relishculinary.com/class_schedule.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, the Lego Club meets at the Healdsburg Regional Library, 139 Piper St.  Ages 6 – 12. Join others in using Legos to build. Parents encouraged to join their children. For more information, call 433-3772.

From 6:30 – 9: 30 p.m. on Saturday, April 12 at Hotel Healdsburg, 25 Matheson St. Jazz in the Hotel Lobby presents Kevin Fitzsimmons Quartet, piano, acoustic bass and drums. For more information, call 431-2800.

From 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, April 12, visit the Quilt and Doll Show at Healdsburg Senior Living Community, 725 Grove St.  Guests Marie Gardyne, dolls, and Julie Silber, quilts, will speak. For more information, or to enter a quilt or doll, call Liz or Tony at 433-4877. For more information, visit healdsburg-senior-living.com/2014-quilt-doll-show-healdsburg-senior-living/.

From 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, Trione Winery, 19550 Geyserville Ave. will present a Wedding Showcase. Early bird tickets $20/couple. Local vendors. To purchase tickets online, visit eventbrite.com/e/wine-country-wedding-experience-showcase-tickets-10457876791.

At 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 13, a Sausage Workshop and Supper with chef Anne Cornell at Relish Culinary, 14 Matheson St. Learn how to make two different kinds of sausage: pork and lamb, then eat the sausage paired with local wines. Each participant will take home a half-pound package of each sausage. $99. For more information, visit relishculinary.com/class_schedule.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, April 13, New Horizons Band, “Senior musicians making music for all ages,” will appear in concert at the Healdsburg Community Church, 1100 University Ave.  The concert is free and donations are welcome. For more information, call Lew Sbrana 433-3413.

“Finding the Mother Load: Italian Immigrants in California” is a film that captures the state’s part in Italian immigration, including interviews with locals Peter and Ed Seghesio from Seghesio Winery; Jeff Collins of Cellar # 8 at Asti Winery; and Jim Pedroncelli from Pedroncelli Winery.

Gianfranco Norelli and Suma Kurien, the husband-and-wife filmmaker team behind the film, will be at the Sonoma County Wine Library on Monday, April 7 from 5 – 7 p.m. for a “fireside chat” about the movie.

The filmmakers show the experience in California bears a marked difference from the Italian experience on the East Coast. The film demonstrates the economic and social mobility possible in California. The California Italian immigrants found their “mother lode” in farming, fishing, commerce and winemaking.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at Event Brite. A percentage of the proceeds will support programs for the Sonoma County Wine Library and the North Bay Italian Cultural Foundation.

The Healdsburg Regional Library holds the Sonoma County Wine Library at 139 Piper St.

For more information, call Julie St. John 800-836-3894 or email her at julie@pedroncelli.com

The Progressive Club at Healdsburg High School will hold the 15th Annual Earth Day Festival from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, April 26, in the Healdsburg Plaza.

This year’s event is scheduled to take place “between Earth Day and May Day (International Workers Day) to draw the connection between justice for the planet and justice for the people who live on it,” according to their press release.

Speakers from the Russian River Watershed Cleanup Committee, Project Censored, the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, as well as Cropmobsters, KBBF and Andy’s Youth and more are slated to appear.

In addition, 30 booths will fill the plaza with information about various local causes.

High school and professional bands will provide live music. Bands include Zephyr from the Sun, Coincision, as well as Hoytus and One Heart, De Colores and Happy Accident. 100 Thousand Poets for Change will read and The Unit Dance Crew will perform.

This is the final Earth Day Festival sponsored by the Progressive Club. They invite the community to take over the event.

Ceanothus (California lilac) a native wildflower in bloom. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

Its’ the 58th Annual Pancake Feed by the Healdsburg Kiwanis, from 7:30 a.m. – noon Sunday, April 13, at the Villa Chanticleer, 1248 N. Fitch Mountain Road. Tickets: $7, children $4, at Brandt Insurance, 250 Healdsburg Ave., or call Bob Taylor 953-7242.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, April 13, chef Anne Cornell hosts a Sausage Workshop and Supper at Relish Culinary, 14 Matheson St. Learn how to make pork and lamb sausage, then eat it paired with local wines. Each participant will take home a half-pound package of each sausage. $99. For more information, visit relishculinary.com.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, April 13, New Horizons Band will appear in concert at the Healdsburg Community Church, 1100 University Ave.  The concert is free, and donations are welcome. For more information, call Lew Sbrana, 433-3413.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, teens in grades 7-12 can make “Peep Sushi” at the Healdsburg Regional Library, using Peeps and other fun edibles to create sushi.  It’s free, at 139 Piper St. For more information, call 433-3772.

The Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Business Builder “Extreme Performance” workshop 8:15 – 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 16 at 217 Healdsburg Ave. Learn how to define and achieve goals to move your organization forward. $50. For more information, visit healdsburg.chambermaster.com.

The Easter Bunny will guide the Easter Egg Hunt at Fitch Mountain School on Saturday, April 19. (Photo: Ann Carranza)

At 9 a.m. Saturday, April 19, the Easter Bunny will be hop, hop, hopping at the Fitch Mountain Campus of Healdsburg Elementary School, 520 Monte Vista Ave. Prizes galore include three bikes for different age groups.  For more information, call Kent at 433-2475.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, April 19, Francis Ford Coppola will have a a public Easter Egg Hunt and spring festival at his winery, 300 Villa Archimedes in Geyserville. Tickets are $10 for children 12 and under. Registration is required. For more information, call 857-1438.

Join the “Blessing of the Rose Harvest” with Bulgarian Gradina Singers at noon and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 19. It’s free. Nursery and gardens will be open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at 1685 Magnolia Drive. For more information, call 433-7455, or visit russian-river-rose.com.

From 10 a.m. – noon Saturday, April 19, at Riverfront Regional Park join the “Wildflower Walk – Alcohol, Spirits and Fatal Beauties.”  Free. Parking $7. Led by Master Gardener Phil Dean who will identify native plants, discuss the drought’s impact and share stories of the park’s flora. For more information, visit parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov.

From 10:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19, learn how to make tortillas the traditional way, by growing everything you need. $40. Tonia Sing Chi teaches the workshop at Healdsburg SHED, 25 North St. For more information, visit healdsburgshed.com.

From noon – 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, help Healdsburg SHED celebrate its first anniversary with birthday cake at 25 North St. Free. Family oriented.  Live music from 5 – 7 p.m. For more information, call 431-7433.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, April 19, the Healdsburg Tarot Meetup Group offers a slideshow presentation on “the cultural and political events of the 1960s” that led to the Counterculture Tarot. Join them at Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Ave. Free. For more information, visit meetup.com.

From 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, April 19, Mix Garden and Clay Wood Cloth host a fundraiser for the Healdsburg Education Foundation.  Potter Amy Halko, woodworker Holly Jordan and weaver Marily Webster will show their crafts at Mix Garden, 1531 Healdsburg Ave. For more information, visit claywoodcloth.com.

Alivia Browning, 6, prepares Dolly prior to her lesson at Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

By ANN CARRANZA / Healdsburg Correspondent

Alivia Browning, 6, rides Dolly during a lesson at Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

At Red’s Riding School, students find paddocks filled with ponies and horses that trot playfully in the training ring, carrying helmet-clad riders. They also find Anna Levinger, a single mother who often teaches with three-month-old Monica Anne in a front pack.

Since opening in 2009, Levinger has turned this small piece of property at the bend of a quiet rural road into a thriving riding school. “We work on problem solving skills,” said Levinger, 34. “If you can ride a horse successfully, you can be successful at anything.”

Shy children run up to her and quietly ask her what they are supposed to do. She sends them off to groom and tack-up ponies or horses for their lessons.

Her students learn to care for the horses as well as ride them, picking their

at Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

mount’s hooves and running currycombs over their coats before the day’s lessons begin. They also learn “adaptive communication,” the conversation that occurs between rider and horse when words aren’t enough.

“Move closer to her, run your hand down this tendon,” said Levinger, demonstrating. “Then you can pick up her hoof easily.” She’s relaxed and moves around the horses and the kids with confidence.

Levinger teaches her students English, Western, bareback and vaulting skills (gymnastics on horseback). She also teaches competitive English riding, as well as hunter, dressage and endurance classes.

Born and raised in Healdsburg, Levinger has a long history of riding. Her family spent summers in Santa Cruz with her mother’s family, who kept backyard horses.

Addison Zidek, 5, prepares to get on Misty during a lesson at Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

As a young teen, she felt like “a duck among swans” in her family, but channeled her high energy into horsecraft. In the ’90s, she met Harold and Marlene Groom, and their Shady Oak Arabian stables became her second home.

“I got to help the trainers, though I couldn’t afford many lessons,” she said. “It worked to my advantage. I got lots of life lessons.” Levinger learned horsecraft from Lorrie Cook (Brady) and got to watch her break and train amazing horses. After Deloach Vineyards bought the property and the Grooms closed the business, they gave her one of their ranch-bred horses, Tyson.

Tyson was a fast and light show horse, but also did barrel racing, hunter and country pleasure riding. He died of old age in November.

Anna Levinger, owner of Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, teaches a lesson Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

Levinger’s father moved to Oregon when she was 15, and she was able to work there for a year at a guest and cattle ranch owned by the head of the local pony club. That’s where she added three-day eventing to her competitive skills.

She came back to Healdsburg in 1996 and was “bit by the English bug,” she said. Since Tyson didn’t enjoy jumping, she found a paint “with no spots and funky conformation but a solid feeling.” That horse carried her in Healdsburg’s Future Farmers’ Twilight Parade and jumped until he got hurt in 1998.

The next year, Levinger was badly hurt, ending her competitive career. For the next decade, she coached swimming, gymnastics, water aerobics, dance and riding, working mornings at Safeway and afternoons at Chalk Hill Ranch.

She also moved to Ireland for awhile to work with Mark O’Sullivan, one of the country’s top riders. She also took American tourists on trail rides and taught a pony class for children.

Red’s Riding School in Healdsburg, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

Then Levinger and her “nonbiological brother” Jerry Bottini struck  a deal for the property at 775 Magnolia Drive, which once belonged to his family. She opened her school there in 2009, and now has eight ponies and 11 horses.

“I wanted to call it ‘Little Red’s Riding School’ as a play on ’Little Red Riding Hood,’” said Levinger, “but marketing strategytold me I shouldn’t use the word ‘little.’”

She specializes in working with children and now has 93 students, ages 4-68.

“My clients are my family, my community,” said Levinger. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

To learn more about Red’s Riding School, visit facebook.com or call 478-5110.

George Greeott died Monday on the Chalk Hill Road ranch where he’d lived since 1928. (Christopher Chung / The Press Democrat)

By CLARK MASON / The Press Democrat

George Greeott, who rubbed elbows with a number of seminal Santa Rosa characters including naturalist Luther Burbank, died in his sleep this week, just shy of his 104th birthday.

Greeott, a champion horseshoe pitcher, master woodworker and inventor, remained healthy and vital as a centenarian and claimed to have twice shaken the hand of world-renowned “plant wizard” Luther Burbank. He died Monday on the Chalk Hill Road ranch where he’d lived since 1928, four years before the old horse-and-wagon route was paved.

“It’s not a big surprise when somebody passes away when they’re almost 104. But he gave the impression he would live forever,” said Steve Lehmann, president of the Windsor Historical Society.

Greeott spent thousands of hours making fanciful wood and iron spike sculptures that appeared to flow with movement.

He amassed an extended lifetime’s worth of artifacts and historical memorabilia, from Indian arrowheads, spear points, mortars and pestles that he uncovered plowing his land, to items that he unearthed from old farm dumps.

His 16-acre hilltop property with a scenic view of Mount St. Helena was a remnant of his family’s 180-acre ranch, since split into smaller parcels and vineyards.

Antique bottles and all types of Americana, including blacksmith, cooperage and winemaking implements, filled his relatively ordered barn.

“There was bin after bin of stuff disassembled and saved — screws, bolts, nuts, washers, nails, hinges, latches. He had everything,” Lehmann said.

“He had a method to what he was doing. He had huge numbers of handtools he manufactured himself and used in his woodworking,” said his close friend, Cathy Landis of Santa Rosa.

Like the fictional Forrest Gump, who always cropped up around historical personalities, Greeott crossed paths with a number of seminal Santa Rosa characters.

His first job was picking prunes for Col. Mark McDonald, a businessman who built Santa Rosa’s water works, street car system and the McDonald Mansion, one of the city’s premier residences.

Greeott would recall meeting another historical figure when his father owned Alpine Winery on Stewart Street near the Southern Pacific tracks, from 1911 until it went out of business during Prohibition. One of the customers was Kanaye Nagasawa, one of the first Japanese immigrants to California and winemaker at Fountain Grove, Santa Rosa’s utopian community.

Greeott said he was a grammar school student in the 1920s when he first shook Luther Burbank’s hand.

He said it occurred when Burbank came to the long-gone Fremont School in Santa Rosa.

Another time was as a teenager, at a park proposed in Burbank’s honor, mostly hayfield and oak trees now occupied by Santa Rosa Junior College.

“I guess today it sounds important to some people. He was just another guy you shook hands with,” Greeott said in an interview five years ago. “He was an interesting guy. He had a great ability to propagate things.”

Born in 1910 in his family’s home off Alpine Road northeast of Santa Rosa, Greeott outlived all six of his siblings, some of whom lasted into their 90s.

In an interview close to his 101st birthday, Greeott attributed his own longevity to hard work and good food, adding that happiness was also important.

He no longer put in 14-to-16 hour days like he did for decades as a rancher growing prunes, grapes and apples at various times, or milking cows and raising sheep.

But he continued to read the newspaper daily and thrive on physical labor — trimming trees, sawing wood, mowing grass, tending to his vegetable garden and doing his own housework.

He said he felt at least 20 years younger, “a person 80 years old, or less.”

“He just stayed very involved with everything,” said his daughter, Carol Kiser of Sonoma. “He was naturally ambitious and loved life, loved nature. He was a hard-working man, interested in many things.”

Though hampered by some vision and hearing loss after turning 100, “he was still energized to take on projects,” Landis said. “He was just amazing.”

Greeott, who was married more than 60 years, lived on his own after his wife Isabel died in 1996.

Only in the last year did he begin to use a cane to walk around.

“His mind was as sharp as ever, right to the end,” Kiser said.

Until last year, he continued to attend the horseshoe tournament in Santa Rosa which was named in his honor and typically held close to his April 30 birthday.

Greeott was not only a steady winner of horseshoe tournaments, he invented a type of horseshoe called a “Greeott Grabber” which had a better finger configuration.

He also invented and marketed the “Fence Tite,” a tool to crimp wire fences to avoid having to rewire them.

“He invented so many things. His life was multi-faceted,” said Landis.

Many of the artifacts and objects that Greeott collected have been donated to the Windsor Historical Society and Museum, to which he also gave more than than $100,000 in funds.

“He did a great contribution by leaving his love of history, geology and wildlife to the museum so that it can be enjoyed for other generations,” Landis said.

In addition to Kiser, he is survived by another daughter, Marlene Dew House, Kimberly, Idaho; a son, Raymond Greeott, Port Townsend, Wash.; eight grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and one great-great granddaughter.

A gathering in Greeott’s memory will be held 1 p.m. April 26 at the Windsor Historical Society and Museum, 9225 Foxwood Drive.

(You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.)