Artist-apiarist and Napa resident Rob Keller is one of the 15 artists receiving a grant from the Creative Work Fund, a program from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund to support new art works and local artists. The fund is giving grants totaling $472,000 to visual and traditional Bay Area artists creating new works through collaborations with local nonprofits.

If a trip to Hawaii is beyond your budget this summer, let “Manaleo” bring the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands to you.

When Napa Valley Dance Center presented its annual recital last weekend, the stage was filled with young dancers, from the miniature Cinderellas in tutus and tiaras making their first pirouette to the experienced teenagers spinning and leaping across the stage in flowing gowns.

A Stephen King adaptation about a guy alone in a hotel room with some foul presence and a bunch of lost souls sounds like the low-rent version of the author’s “The Shining,” which had an entire resort hotel in which evil could roam.

The Wailin’ Jennys, a stand-out among the new generation of Canadian roots music bands, bring their lush, powerful music to the Napa Valley Opera House Friday. With the emphasis on their three-part harmonies, Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and newest member Heather Masse perform original and traditional tunes, which run the gamut of roots styles from classic and contemporary folk to Celtic roots and country.

Recently I got an e-mail from a Napan named Marti Blackard who remembered me, she said, from a holiday get together at Jay Goetting’s house. When Jay’s name is mentioned I listen, because that retired Register journalist and bass musician is one fine man.

The bride chose a gown that could be worn again to parties, the groom organized guest car pools in hybrid vehicles, and the couple picked an outdoor Japanese garden over a big, energy-sucking reception hall.

NEW YORK -- Once upon a time, when a man proposed, he gave a woman a shiny solitaire diamond engagement ring. It was the standard. It's probably what her friends had and she was eager to join the club.

Most Napa Valley Register readers found it a snap to pinpoint the location of the pink and green cow featured in last month's contest: The creature grazes at Terraces at Quarry Vineyards on Silverado Trail in Rutherford. However, the round bollards at the Napa County Juvenile Justice Center on Old Sonoma Road and "Wonderful Drug Store" lettering stamped in the sidewalk on St. Helena's Main Street stumped many readers.

It's only fitting that summer in wine country is ushered in these days by the Bay Area's most popular Motown-style dance band, Pride & Joy.

From Register staff

Napa student named to Graceland Dean's list

Kathryn Flotre sent in this photo of “my wonderful husband Scott” in their Napa garden. “He takes great pride in growing our vegetables from seed and puts his magic touch on them until they are harvested,” she wrote.

The mayor of Zagreb, Croatia, was in Rutherford Thursday to present Mike Grgich with a golden medal from the city, a rarely given award that recognized Grgich’s contributions to American-Croatian relations, his contributions to Croatia and the relationships he has built between the vintner’s land of birth and his adopted home.

The mayor of Zagreb, Croatia, was in Rutherford Thursday to present Mike Grgich with a golden medal from the city, a rarely given award that recognized Grgich’s contributions to American-Croatian relations, his contributions to Croatia and the relationships he has built between the vintner’s land of birth and his adopted home.

When Copia opened in November 2001, it was called “The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts,” but as it has evolved, it’s become clear, that, just as wine and and Napa Valley are practically synonymous, Copia’s concentration should be on the grape.

NAPA — Round and round they go, hundreds of bottles of Two Buck Chuck rattling and clinking their way toward a big machine that deftly fills, corks and seals each one in a rhythmic dance of metal and glass.

ANDREW DORNENBURG

One word — education — seemed to keep popping up during two seminars at the walk-around tasting of the Association of African American Vintners at Copia last weekend.

There's something about balmy summer evenings that makes you want to fire up the old grill and treat yourself to an alfresco meal.

Each year Sutter Home Winery's Build a Better Burger National Cook-Off, with its grand prize of $50,000, draws competitors from around the nation with recipes for burgers that range from sublime to strange. Duck burgers, anyone?

If hot dogs and hamburgers don't inspire you to hit the hiking trail and pitch a tent, how about sausage jambalaya bubbling over the campfire followed by hot berry cobbler?

Sticky Chicken

The intense, dry heat of the grill can be a chicken breast's worst enemy.

Blue Cheese Burgers

When it comes time to open a restaurant, the chef sets the menu, but who picks the dishes?

Queen of the Valley

Jessica Bea Emery and Michael Thomas Gibson of Napa announce their engagement to be married July 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the Evensen Rossi Estate in Napa.

BIZICKI-CERO -- Mathew James Bizicki, 23, Silverado Trail, Napa, to Jessica Renee Cero, 21, Silverado Trail, Napa.

WRIGHT -- Lea Wright vs. Mark Wright, June 11, 2007