LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Child Care Planning Council will meet on Thursday, Aug. 16.

The council meeting will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Lake County Office of Education, 1152 S. Main St., Lakeport. The public is invited to attend.

Agenda items include the master plan, meeting schedule and chair nominations, a coordinator’s report and an update on Steps to Leadership, and discussion on Steps to Quality informational workshops in August and September.

The council’s next meeting will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, at Yuba College’s Clear Lake Campus, 15880 Dam Road Extension, Clearlake.

The mission of the Lake County Child Care Planning Council is to promote quality child care through community assessment, advocacy, resource development and collaboration with other organizations.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake Community Pride Foundation will hold its annual meeting on Monday, Aug. 27.

The meeting will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Konocti Unified School District Office, 9430 Lake St. in Lower Lake.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Sons of Norway Vikings of lake Lodge 6-166 will hold its August Heritage & Culture night on Wednesday, Aug. 15, starting at 6 p.m.

There will be a potluck salad dinner at no charge.

They will have a guest speaker and film about the art of Norwegian painting referred to as Rosemaling.

The meeting will be held at Galilee Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall, 8860 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville.

For more information contact Vale Hanzel at 707-928-1060.

LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lucerne Community Health Clinic, located at 6300 East Highway 20 in Lucerne, is Lake Co-op's newest drop point, bringing the total to 11 throughout Lake County.

Customers ordering fresh, local produce and other products through the co-op may now pick up their weekly orders at the convenient location on Highway 20 at the intersection of 14th Street.

Hours for pick up at the Lucerne Community Health Clinic are 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

Robert Gardner, MD, owner of the Lucerne Community Clinic approached the co-op in hopes to bring more healthy eating choices to his clients and the larger Lucerne community.

An enthusiastic co-op member, Rachel Pries, offered to host the site for other customers' convenience in her community.

“This is an example of the community co-creation that has made the co-op so successful in Lake County,” said Lake Co-op Chair Janine Smith-Citron.

Lake Co-op now has six convenient locations surrounding the lakeside communities – Clearlake, Riviera, Lakeport, Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks – as well as two in Lower Lake, one in Hidden Valley, one in Middletown and one in the community of Cobb.

Details on all the co-op's drop points can be found at www.lake.coop .

Other recent efforts by the co-op to increase local consumption of locally produced organic food through their online ordering and distribution system include sales to the public, weekly subscriptions to favorite products, home/office delivery for $5 (most addresses), telephone ordering, and expanded product lists from local and regional farmers.

Customers of the co-op place orders from Sunday, 12:01 a.m. through Tuesday, 12:30 p.m., either through a convenient online shopping Web site ( www.lake.coop ) or by calling 707-993-4270.

Members can choose from a fresh fruit and vegetable box, individual fresh and processed foods, such as fruits, vegetables, oils, breads, cakes and sea vegetables.

Customers pick up their orders at the drop points at varying times as listed on the Web site.

For a list of all sites and more information on ordering visit the co-op's Web site at www.lakeco-op.org or call 707-993-4270.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This August 11 (8/11), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reminds customers to always call 811 before digging.

This number is not just for professional contractors. PG&E urges customers who, for example, have trees to plant, sprinkler systems to install or fences to fix to be mindful of underground natural gas and electric lines and call 811 in advance.

The 811 hotline is a free service to obtain important information on what utilities exist beneath the excavation area.

It is available to homeowners, excavators and professional contractors who plan to dig, grade, excavate or drill. In many cases, it is required by law to call 811 before digging.

Safety is PG&E’s highest priority. Since the depth of natural gas and electric lines buried underground can vary, PG&E wants customers to know that even simple digging projects can cause damage. Contacting these lines can be extremely dangerous and even fatal.

Once every three minutes nationwide, a utility line is damaged by digging. Many of these incidents could have been prevented with a call to 811.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio (LCWS) is hosting an encore wine tasting event featuring the new 2007 wine releases from Snows Lake Vineyard with Bonnie Sears, and artist reception with paintings by Judy Cardinale.

The reception will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11.  

Musical entertainment during the receptions will be Jim Waters on keyboard.

Judy Cardinale has studied art for the past 35 years. Prior to becoming a Lake County resident, she rendered wildlife and animal portraits in pastel.  

Since moving to the county in the early 1990s, Cardinale began to explore the medium of oil. Her introduction to this medium was with Wayne Coats at Yuba College. There she added another love to her already existing love of animal portraits – that of seascapes.  

Many of her seascapes and animal portraits grace the walls of homes in private collections throughout the United States.

With the use of watercolor medium, Cardinale has added a new dimension to her collection, to which she comments, “There is a quite a difference between the various mediums. The approach to a successful watercolor is basically the same as any other medium, however, the medium itself always has a surprise in store for the artist with each new study!”

Recent sojourns to Yellowstone National Park have inspired Cardinale’s most recent work: “The ever-changing landscape, water, wildlife and beautiful sunsets depicted in both Yellowstone and Lake County are the essence of my work.”

The $10 wine sampler with appetizers will feature 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon; 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, the newly released 2007 Cabernet/Cabernet Franc blend and new release 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon paired with a chocolate bark containing organic Lake County walnuts from Dancing Tree People Farm, dried cherries and cocoa nibs. Appetizers designed by Cache Creek Catering.   

Lake County Wine Studio is both a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County. Artists’ shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month.

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake. It is open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Cardinale art show will be on display for the full month of August.  

For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030.