Columns

It was many years ago…I believe it would have been in late September, when Sister Agnes Marie corralled me, telling me to put on my “long pants” for I was going with “old” Joe, the tramp who had made a home for himself in...

What fun it must have been for the children raised in the 1900s at Filoli Estate. You can just imagine what a kid could do on 654 acres of orchards, fields and gardens creating a maze of places to hide and seek. As gardeners,...

When the huge numbers of California Tortoiseshell butterflies showed up around here on June 10, I learned a lot about the different species of ceanothus and how dependent we are on this plant. Because most of us live near or in a Wildland Urban...

It was cold and raining (when hasn’t it been?) as I stepped from my warm car in front of Stagnaro’s Fish Market on the Santa Cruz wharf yesterday.  Usually, I love to spend an extra minute or two, perusing their showcases filled with seafood straight...

Growing up in the 1940s, every household in my family included a chicken coop in the backyard. And when families came together for holidays there was always talk about the price of “scratch,” which was their name for chicken feed and the price per...

Summer has arrived, finally. Seems like it took long enough to get here, but I’m enjoying the warmer weather. The sun is shining, the bees are buzzing and the scent of fragrant flowers fills the air. While hiking recently in Oregon, I encountered many Mock...

“I enjoy cooking with wine,  sometimes I even put it in the food I’m cooking.”  - Julia Child Give me a good old American-style beef pot roast, with all its dark wine-rich drippings and a crusty French roll, and I am in heaven. In just one week, my...

At the end of last month’s column, I wrote that “2023 would no doubt bring new challenges and opportunities.” What none of us could have imagined was how quickly those challenges would present themselves in the new year. The series of atmospheric rivers that pounded...

As a paraplegic planner, I have faced the need for part-time in-home assistance while simultaneously having the CFP financial expertise. Caregivers do non-medical tasks like transferring, bathing, meal prep, transportation, protective supervision, etc. Seventy percent of us are likely to need long-term care with...

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.” - Epicurus While reaching for the mundane bottle of vegetable oil in the market, my eye caught the label on the bottle of avocado oil. Now, I love avocados...