Columns

By Colly Gruczelak, Plain Talk About Food Pulling the last tray of maraschino cookies from the oven I noticed that darkness was descending on our Ben Lomond neighborhood and I worked quickly to finish my cleanup. Settling into a chair in front of my kitchen...

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. - Mark Twain While taking my ‘traveling...

I’m so proud of myself. I write about all the important things to do in the early spring garden but often I don’t get to them myself. Seems there’s that book I’m reading or birding, hiking or wildflower walks that take priority. But this...

It’s beginning to look like Halloween in my neighborhood with chrysanthemums and pumpkins on porches, skeletons and ghouls decorating front doors and posts on Facebook about tarantula sightings as the spiders go about their fall mating ritual. It’s the plants that get my attention...

Adding California natives to my collection of container plants has been a goal for a long time. Besides attracting birds and wildlife to the garden, they use less water than most container plants, plus they are beautiful. Since I have limited ground to garden,...

One of my favorite classes when I attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was Plant Taxonomy. On the surface the subject sounds a little dry, but the professor was all about plant reproduction, which is quite exciting and more varied than you think. So...

I was such a little thing when Uncle picked me up and sat me down on a red leather stool that swiveled. Honestly, I remember clutching the counter in front of me because of any movement on my part, I would be going “down.” It...

“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...

This year Earth Day is focusing on climate change. Earth Day is always a celebration of the natural beauty of our planet reminding us that we need to keep it healthy. Always on April 22, Earth Day is a day of education about environmental...

“Attitude is the ‘little’ thing that makes a big difference.” —Winston Churchill Each morning, I swing my legs over the side of my bed, slide my feet into “sadly worn” slippers and make my morning’s first cup of coffee where I will take my first...