Lifestyle

Despite the weekend’s rain, Corazón Healdsburg’s ninth annual Día de Muertos celebration brought around 2,500 community members into the heart of downtown Healdsburg for a vibrant and heartfelt tribute to loved ones who passed during the past year.

In this "web extra," we take readers inside the JANE Dispensary. It officially opened last week right next to the Coyote Sonoma, a tasting room for Wilson wines and live music venue (aka the “Coyote Den”).

Sharp-eyed motorists have noticed a name change on a long white office building on Healdsburg Avenue, just a quick stroll away from the Quail and Condor bakery. The colors are still blue and white but the Bright Event Rentals sign is gone, and in its place the bold letters proclaim Russian Riverkeeper, now in its umpteenth home in Healdsburg, and still ready to Save the River.

Old-timers in Healdsburg remember that, come harvest time, it wasn’t the smell of fermentation from winegrapes that wafted over town, with its promise of a better vintage, but another smell: that of sun-drying prunes. “You could smell it everywhere—and you either loved it or you...

Several local pizzerias have an unspoken bond running between their kitchens. Geyserville’s Diavola, the Matheson restaurant, Journeyman Meat Co., PizZando … even Big John’s Market. The common element is that they all purchased their pizza ovens from Mugnaini, a wood fire oven manufacturer in Healdsburg...

The Healdsburg Arts Festival is back again this year, pared down to one busy day in the Plaza. Starting Saturday morning at 10am until 7pm, more than 40 artists will sell their personal and unique artwork of every description—from watercolors, oils and acrylics to...

While all the nominated plants are found in the area, Healdsburg Garden Club did limit its list to native plants, though some are widely found outside Healdsburg’s city limits. The proposal included four flowers: the Douglas iris, the yellow mariposa lily, scarlet fritillary and blue-eyed grass, the once ubiquitous California native grape, and the familiar oak trees of the region.

Mark Themig, a close friend of Jen’s in recent years, was in a position to coordinate both city and community resources for the ceremony. “I think it was exactly what Jen would have wanted and enjoyed herself,” he said of the April afternoon gathering at Villa Chanticleer.

The exterior parking lot of Bacchus Landing was filled with gorgeous lowriders and classics, with several food trucks off to the far side. When I walked into the interior courtyard, I found a “lowrider museum.” Many of these cars had been in actual museums and exhibits, and featured in numerous publications ranging from the car-centric to the Smithsonian.

Residents who headed down to the Healdsburg Plaza on Sunday evening looking for Art After Dark, usually a diverse collection of visual and performance artists showing their skills, were surprised to find something quite different: an hours-long multicultural celebration of music and dance called...