“This year they should be perfect,” said Gary Parton, owner of Alpenglow Lilac Gardens, referring to the vagaries of nature and how they affect when his lilacs bloom. Each year it is a worry because the Idyllwild Garden Club, in partnership with Parton and the Art Alliance of Idyllwild, hope, Parton’s lilacs are in perfect bloom just when the annual Lilac Walk, Tea and Art Show takes place in mid May. This year, the beautifully choreographed event takes place Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 12, and if Parton is right, it will be perfect.

As he did last year, plein air artist Rich Stergulz concludes the Idyllwild Community Recreation Council’s popular speaker series. Plein air, for the uninitiated, is a movement in fine art that gained prominence in the late 19th Century when painting outdoors in natural light became a signature of French impressionist painters Claude Monet, Camille Picaroon…

Called one of the foremost chroniclers of the desert Southwest, Deanne Stillman writes of the inestimable beauty of the desert and of the madness that often shatters the stillness. For Eduardo Santiago’s Idyllwild Authors Series, Stillman will discuss the true story of two young girls, residents of Twentynine Palms, who were brutally raped and murdered…