Columnists

After 220 columns about parks, preserves, and trails, I sometimes allow myself to think there are no surprises left. If I haven't been there, I surely must have heard of it. Right? Wrong...again.

The Morgan Hill Downtown Association is busy gearing up for its annual Wine Week, a series of wine-related events occurring in the downtown area on evenings leading up to the Morgan Hill Wine Stroll on April 25. Since the main event began in 2009, the Wine Stroll has been an opportunity for local businesses to attract new visitors and for wine lovers to taste wines from local wineries, all in the downtown area of Morgan Hill.

Wine Week starts this Sunday and it’s my kind of week. It was created to celebrate the great relationship Morgan Hill has with the local wine industry. It is a week where we get to mingle with the local winemakers and hear their stories about why and how they make their wine, which includes a lot of one key ingredient—passion.

My strategy for washing cars is to buzz over to one of our local businesses, a car wash and gift shop. The friendly folks there whisk my car away while I peruse the interesting items inside the shop. I pay for the service and in return they provide me with my freshly washed automobile.

Pinnacles National Park is just far enough away to place it beyond the "Hey, let's go for a hike this afternoon" category. It's more of a "We gotta get down to Pinnacles sometime this spring" place. And often, we don't get around to it.

The drought is getting worse, and we don’t know when it will end. With that in mind, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors has called for a water use reduction of 30 percent over 2013 levels and a restriction on irrigating landscapes and lawns with potable water to two days per week.

As I look at my calendar for April I see lots of things going on, not the least of which is April 15—a date that still sneaks up on me every year no matter how often I prepare myself.So compared to dealing with the only other thing that I can’t avoid besides death, everything else looks pretty good. But then everything I’m about to mention is pretty good.I’ve been working on an oversized wooden resort chair that should be unveiled soon as part of the downtown public art mini-grant projects.This is a nine-foot-tall Adirondack chair so it will be hard to miss once it’s parked. This is just one piece of several soon to land downtown this month with the promise to add more elements of interest to the downtown placemaking effort.Down the street where the old liquor store used to be on Third Street and Monterey Road you will see a mini-grant mural revealing itself as soon as this weekend. But besides art the old liquor store will also be the home of something else new—a “bike HUB.” What is a bike HUB? Thought you’d never ask…I’ll define bike HUB for this location as a place where bicyclists can gather, park their bike and maybe get some minor emergency repairs or adjustments performed. Part of each Saturday starting in April the location will be staffed so you can feel comfortable knowing your bike is safe while you stroll around the downtown shopping and dining. As part of the downtown art mini-grants, there will also be a bike fix it station out front along with a very cool old time map of California bike routes. A local bicycling advocacy group, “Bike Morgan Hill,” will take care of the bike racks and volunteer staffing. With the increasing numbers of bicyclists downtown the bike HUB is sure to add a convenience that will be appreciated by many.Last weekend was the first “Indie Market” put together by the folks at the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. The west side of Monterey Road between First and Fourth streets saw colorful canopies erected by local independent home based businesses now offering a great outdoor venue. The event drew crowds of people and there was more activity downtown on a Sunday than most of us are used to—but could very easily get accustomed to. This will be repeated again on April 26.This is also the month when those of us who love wine turn our focus to downtown.Wine Week will kick off April 19 and is loaded with more events than ever. This year will also include a celebration of the numerous awards our local wineries are winning with a special event along with the exceptional slate of wine education, wine maker dinners and wine tastings established for this week. Wine Week will end with the Wine Stroll which annually brings more than a thousand visitors to the downtown sampling wine and getting exposed to the Morgan Hill we know and love.Get ready for April, that date in the middle is always a rough one but on either side are days filled with fun things to see and do in your town.John McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and a member of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.