Mark Your Calendar: A Weekend of Art, Music, Home Tours, and Antiquing

This weekend (October 5-7) is going to be such a whirlwind -- and we're going to have some very tough choices to make:

* On Friday afternoon and early evening, T-Bone Burnett (performing with friends like Neko Case) and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy will kick off San Francisco's free, three-day Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park.

* Friday night, the Oakland Art Murmur holds its monthly "First Friday" art walk Uptown.

* Saturday's our big day at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (which, as the name implies, features a lot more than just bluegrass music). We're planning to catch some of our favorite alt-country, Americana, and just-plain-talented acts like Allison Moorer, the Whoreshoes, the Knitters, Nick Lowe, the Flatlanders (with Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock), Gillian Welch (above, at last year's fest), Los Lobos, and Steve Earle. (Again: Golden Gate Park. Free. Incredible music. Great people. Good food. Dog-friendly. What more inducement do you need?)

* Bright and early Sunday morning is, of course, the October installment of the Alameda Point Antiques & Collectibles Faire. We'll be there if we can manage to rouse ourselves after Saturday's events.

* After the Antiques Faire, check out the Shades of Green Home Tour, which highlights eight gorgeous homes and gardens that have been meticulously preserved and gently modernized in Oakland's lovely, historic Crocker Highlands neighborhood. A Green Design Expo features eco-friendly merchants, tradespeople, and other exhibitors. The event is a fundraiser for the public Crocker Highlands Elementary School. Tickets for the tour are $40 in advance, or $45 on the day; the Green Design Expo is free.

* Also Sunday in Oakland is the Rockridge Kitchen Tour, a charity fundraiser showcasing nine fabulously remodeled kitchens along Rockridge's leafy avenues. Tickets are $30 in advance, or $40 at the door.

* The Bluegrass Festival wraps up Sunday afternoon and evening with Jim Lauderdale, the Mekons, Doc Watson, Dave Alvin, and the always-luminous Emmylou Harris.

Whew!

Green Thumb: Savings on Native and Drought-Tolerant Plants

Unfortunately, I missed this year's free Bay-Friendly Garden Tour (such is the life of a Little League mom). But I was pleased to see a nice discount offer in the tour program, good for draught-tolerant and native plants at great local nurseries like Berkeley Hort, East Bay Nursery, Grand Lake Garden Center, and Evergreen Nursery.

Simply print out the second page of this flyer and present it at one of the participating nurseries to get 10 percent off "Bay-Friendly" plants through the end of the year.


To learn more about low-water and sustainable gardening, click here. And don't forget to mark your calendars for next year's tour on April 27, 2008.

Mark Your Calendar: Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association House & Garden Tour

For 32 years now, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association has put on annual home and garden tours featuring the noteworthy neighborhoods, visionary builders, and unique geography that make Berkeley so beautiful (and sometimes so wonderfully bizarre).

This Sunday, May 6, from 1 to 5 p.m., BAHA will host Among the Rocks: Houses and Gardens in Thousand Oaks. This year's tour is described thusly: "Existing just below our everyday consciousness is a fantastic geological landscape unique to Berkeley—an extraordinary profusion of massive rock outcroppings. Tourgoers will have a chance to wander into hidden, private gardens to view some of these silent, sturdy masses of rock up-close. Open for viewing will be homes designed by John Hudson Thomas, James W. Plachek, A.W. Smith, Sidney & Noble Newsom, Roger Lee, and others."


The tour costs $35 ($25 for BAHA members). For tickets and info, click here.