Columns

Easter Sunday was supposed to be spent with my visiting elderly parents. They had set out on a road trip from Arkansas to see friends along the way, spend time with other family in Clovis, Calif., and then make their way here for the...

1. Financial Planning is budgeting to allocate money that finances dreams. At age 20, Sam simply cooked the finest barbecue cuisine for Sequoia weddings and Roaring Camp cookoffs, savoring each bite, then experimenting. Our culinary hero dreamt of becoming a Michelin star chef who ran...

California’s Arbor Day is celebrated on March 9 this year. It’s actually a whole week in honor of famed horticulturist Luther Burbank’s birthday. The day is celebrated on different dates around the world because one of the features of Arbor Day is the planting...

The weekend after Thanksgiving I like to get my Christmas tree and put it outside in a bucket of water until I’m ready to bring it inside to decorate. One of my friends has the solution for the longest lasting tree with the most...

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...

Summer is winding down. It’s still warm during the day, but the nights are cool and there’s less and less daylight hours. The soil is still warm, so it’s the perfect time to start thinking about planting. Like the saying goes, “gardening is a...

When we hear the term “self care,” we often think of solo activities—reading a book, journaling, taking a bath or going for a walk alone. But true self care isn’t just about what we do by ourselves—it’s also about how we engage with the...

With those big brown doe eyes and the cute fawns, who doesn’t enjoy seeing deer, as long as they’re not in your yard. Around my place they only visit very occasionally, which is the worst as I forget they might come at any time...

“I am thankful for small mercies. Some people expect only the best. I found that I begin at the other extreme…expecting nothing and am always full of thanks for unexpected blessings.” —Tim Man Lee, Wildlife Photographer Since moving to my small “slice of Heaven” here...

Many years ago, I took a group of high school students who belonged to the Interact Club, a Rotary sponsored volunteer group of 14-18-year-olds, to a local community care center to distribute the Christmas gifts each student had purchased with their own money and...