LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Green Party of Lake County will not meet for the rest of 2014 due to the holidays.

Look for notices for their next meeting, which will take place at the start of 2015.

Twenty-three Greens were elected to office in California in the Nov. 4 election.

Visit www.cagreens.org for the party's California news.

For more information about the Lake County Green Party, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Joanne at 707-263-3391.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Add beautiful color, form and texture to your landscape.

Enjoy months of delicate, urn-shaped blossoms borne in a decorative white to lavender, followed by attractive clumps of berries. 

As a shrub or small tree they blend with their neighbors while showing off their many shades of year around green leaves that form a loose canopy.

Supporting the canopy is a living sculpture consisting of gnarled trunks clothed in smooth, lustrous cinnamon brown bark. 

Of course it's the manzanita (Arctostaphylos), of which there are 43 species native to California. 

They are drought tolerant and truly a plant for all seasons.

You're invited to learn more about water conserving native flora and all phases of gardening at a meeting of the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club. 

The club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of each month (except July and August) in the Scott's Valley Women's club house at 2298 Hendricks Road near Lakeport. 

A light lunch is served. 

The next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18, will feature published author Kate Marianchild who will speak on “Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants & Animals among California's Oaks.”

For more information please call Marva Brandt at 707-279-1625 or visit www.clttgc.org . 

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of Mendo-Lake district, California Garden Clubs Inc. Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

Jerry Shaul is publicity chairman for the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Do you like to garden? Are you interested in helping other gardeners in Lake County?

Then consider applying to become a University of California Master Gardener.

Master Gardeners are volunteer staff of the University of California who have been trained and certified to extend research-based horticultural information to the public.

Successful applicants will be invited to participate in the eight-week, 60-hour training on horticultural topics starting on Jan. 15, 2015.

Acceptance into the program is based on the following:

– Written application;
– Interest in volunteer community service;
– Interest in gardening and horticulture in general;
– Willingness and ability to work compatibly with other volunteers under the direction of UC staff;
– Commitment to the dissemination of University of California-approved information and advice;
– Willingness to be fingerprinted for a background check;
– In-person interview.

The purpose of the training program is to build and maintain a group of dedicated volunteers trained to provide helpful and important horticultural information to the citizens of Lake County.

Applicants must agree to volunteer a minimum of 50 hours of public service to the U.C. Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program within one year of completing their training.

Training is provided by University of California and other local experts.

Classes are four hours long and are held from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning Jan. 15. at the Agricultural Center in Lakeport, a wheelchair-accessible site.

There is a $125 fee for the class which includes training, selected classroom materials and relevant publications, plus an additional cost of $25 for fingerprinting.

For an application or more information on the U.C. Master Gardener Program and 2015 training class, contact the U.C. Cooperative Extension office at 707-263-6838, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or stop by the office at 883 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport.

Applications will be accepted until Dec. 5, 2014.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Sons In Retirement (SIR) is pleased to announce that as of Jan. 1, 2015, Dean Faris has been appointed as area governor for Area 32 which encompasses Lake Country branches 133 and 168. 

Faris has belonged to SIR for the past 16 years and most recently served as the Big SIR (read as chairman) of branch 168.

He was recommended by the current area governor, Adckinjo Esutoki.

The current members would like to extend their thanks to Esutoki for the outstanding job he did as area governor for the past two years.

Faris’ immediate responsibilities involve learning and following the rules set forth by the state’s executive committee and helping the local branches to grow in number.

In addition to their once monthly luncheon, SIR-sponsored activities include: golf, bowling, bus trips to see shows, for shopping (especially for the ladies) and to attend horse racing and other popular events.

Anyone interested in learning more about Sons In Retirement should contact Larry Powers at 707-263-3403.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 88 of Lake County, will meet on Saturday, Nov. 15.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. at the Konocti Bay Sailing Club building, located at Braito's Marina, 1555 Eastlake Drive, Buckingham Peninsula in Kelseyville.

The meeting is open to anyone 17 years or older who would be interested in joining this active volunteer group. 

For additional information, call the flotilla's voice mail line at 707-278-8288.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeport Library will host a program by Cathy Lawrence, a recruiter and trainer with the California Mentor Network, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.

The library is located at 1425 N. High St.

Lawrence will present a slideshow and DVD about the California Mentor Network, a “national network of local health and human services providers offering an array of quality, community-based services to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, brain and spinal cord injuries and other catastrophic injuries and illnesses, and to youth with emotional, behavioral and medically complex challenges, as well as their families; and to elders in need of support.”

More information about the California Mentor Network can be found at www.TheMentorNetwork.com .

Lawrence said her program will “offer information on how individuals in the community can make $1,000 to $5,000 a month from home by matching with a person with intellectual or developmental disabilities to live in their spare bedroom and mentor them towards a better quality of life and independence within their abilities to do so.”

For more information about the library program, call 707-263-8817.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at www.library.lakecountyca.gov and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .