Image Up Advertising & Design

The year 2020 brings about many changes. The Herald has put a 400 word limit on all articles. That will eliminate long book reports and my ramblings. Welcome 2020! We hope it will allow plenty of reading time. All books are donated by residents and belong to the Four Seasons Library. It's like borrowing from your neighbor with the intention of returning the book. Please don't lend the borrowed book to others before bringing it back. Others are waiting. The hardbound fiction books are displayed from 2010-2020. They are alphabetized by author. Hardback non-fiction does not go by date and though we try to keep them alphabetized it seems to be a losing battle. Our paperback books are displayed from 2015-2020. You will notice that the over-sized books are moving into the regular size books. It certainly seems that authors are competing for the largest sized book! Please donate your magazines dated December, January and February to be displayed. Smaller magazines are accepted and put on our tables to read while there. We are pleased to let you know that LARGE PRINT books now have a green sticker on the outside making it easier to locate. Please donate them if possible. Our very popular audio books are now kept in two cabinets. How about an early Valentine's present for the library? Donate a new audio book! Look under the hardbound books of Patterson to locate the second cabinet. We will restart our author's talks soon. Not all authors will be your favorite, but all authors have that gift of writing. We need your attendance to keep them saying "yes." They are doing this for free! From Blair: "[Public] libraries should be open to all — except the censor." John F. Kennedy I was excited that James Hitt wrote the sequel to The Courage of Others, titled, The Shadows. You will find it in the paperbacks and it is awesome! We have the same characters, Uncle Marsh Langdon, Aunt Ester and Davy Stoneman. Only Davy is grown up and becomes the sheriff. There are murders, one black, and one white, and Davy needs to discover who did what before an all out war develops. For us women, there is a wonderful love story. Jim writes with his heart. I wish I had 100 more words. Jim will be part of our author talks soon. Read both books. They are amazing. | Four Seasons Hemet Herald | February 2020 | 13 Library Committee Grass yards in Four Seasons are part of the charm of our community. Many of our residents take pride in their green and manicured yards. The Landscape Committee works with our landscape contractor to maintain the common area lawns. Why are some lawns so green, and others not so green? More water is NOT the answer. In fact using too much water is not only wasteful of this resource, but actually damages our streets, curbs and gutters, and results in future expenses that we will all have, and will continue to pay for repairs and replacement. So why are some yards, even with so much water, not green? The answer may be Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass is prevalent on the golf course which is a normal use on golf courses. Bermuda grass flourishes in hot weather and becomes dormant in the cooler winter weather. Bermuda grass seeds can blow into our yards, be carried by birds, and spread by lawn mowers from yard to yard. The dormant Bermuda grass is yellow, and therefore, when present in a yard, detracts from the expected green appearance. More water WILL NOT MAKE IT GREEN. What can be done to keep the grass green? There are a couple of answers: First, the most common answer is to over seed the lawns in the winter with Rye grass. Typically the existing grass would be scalped-down and the Rye seed applied when the weather cools. This is the procedure followed by the Landscape Committee directions to our landscape contractor. Rye grass has the opposite characteristics from Bermuda grass. Rye grass flourishes in the cooler winter weather and withers in the summer heat. So when the Rye grass declines, the Bermuda will thrive. A second answer is to re-sod the lawn with new living grass. This will give a nice new appearance, but will likely become invaded by Bermuda grass in time. Another answer is to replace your grass with artificial turf. This option is available for our Four Seasons community, and requires Architectural Review Committee approval. A number of home owners in our community have chosen this option and also enjoy lower water use maintenance costs. A final comment is that over time grass can become too thick from the mulch of cutting and years of growth. It is appropriate to scalp down the grass at least once a year and aerate the turf to keep it in top condition. Architectural Review Committee

• Cover