This week’s letter comes from a person who recently made their professional debut doing the 3D VFX work for the 2019 blockbuster Little Women. Animation student Beatrice Tolan is a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston where she is pursuing her BA with a minor in theatre. This, of course, is no surprise to […]
What is Your Fondest Memory of Living Here? I normally interview each person for this column, but this letter was so good we had to print as is! Hi MJ, I’ve been loving your articles on favorite memories, and wanted to share a few of my own. I was raised here and have great memories […]
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Two months deep into quarantine, it quickly became clear how seriously my social skills had atrophied when I picked up the phone to call the home of Brett Matthews and Ginger Salazar. I had the intention of asking whichever parent picked up the phone if their son, the MUS, Marymount, and Cate alum Parker Matthews, […]
We grew up in and around Montecito. We were given so many opportunities to learn and explore and grow. This community invests so much in us, and we want to keep in touch to let you know how and what we’re doing. Mine is the first letter in a series of letters from Montecito Kids […]
What Brought You to Montecito? My husband grew up in Carpinteria and always loved the area. We looked here in Montecito, then Hope Ranch and downtown before deciding that Montecito had all the things we were looking for. Such as, hills for hiking, beaches for surfing, ease of walking and riding bikes for our children […]
Every Sunday evening at 7 pm Gordon Morrison, bagpiper, husband, father, and VP of Engineering at Freedom Photonics, steps onto the porch of his family’s Summerland house and plays the bagpipes as the sun sets. It’s a comforting lament during these difficult times. I asked Morrison our usual “People of Summerland” questions. I also sat […]
What’s your favorite memory of growing up here? “One of my favorite memories of growing up in Montecito is walking with friends to the Upper Village from Montecito Union School and getting a sandwich from the Village Cheese & Wine Shop. It was just the most incredible sandwich you ever had. Just cheese and meat […]
From long held memories with old neighbors to first impressions upon new encounters, one thing remains true in our “People of Summerland” snippets: from the terrific views to thoughtful neighbors, the pop. 1,500 town is a magical place. Fran Davis, Writer; Roger Davis, Retired Editor “As Summerland residents for fifty years, we’ve accumulated a staggering […]
Q. How are You Holding up Through Quarantine? As a girl from Iowa, I am channeling my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder (though with an Instacart app), by keeping it simple with a homestead vibe. I also look for ways to keep it light during this heavy time. I do that by creating with what I […]
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How are you making it work through this difficult time? I am struggling. Mostly with my decision to temporarily close Merci. It was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make but at the end of the day, the health and safety of my family (my husband, Stephane, and our two girls, Celeste, […]
It was mid-March when Pam Peterson, owner of the Hair Lounge of Montecito, realized she was going to have to close her popular salon. It was a more delicate decision than for many local employers, because all eight stylists who work at the shop are independent contractors, and on top of that, although California didn’t […]
Contemporary artist/sculptor and thinker Richard Aber and his wife, Carol, have lived on bucolic Greenwell Road in Summerland, where he has created art diligently in his home studio on their property, for the past 41 years. His contemplative pieces have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in several exhibitions in Italy, where the coronavirus has […]
If you’ve ever had breakfast or lunch at the Montecito Coffee Shop – it’s the restaurant next to the San Ysidro Pharmacy at the intersection of East Valley and San Ysidro roads – then you may have been waited on by a petite and unassuming woman who seems to know her way around the establishment. […]
A note from longtime Summerlandian Hilary Hauser of Heal the Ocean informs that their offices in Santa Barbara are closed, but that the leaking Summerland oil wells are still being capped in June/July. “The fishes of the sea don’t know what we humans are doing up here,” Hilary notes in her inimitable cheerful style in […]
