Columns

By the time you read this, your Scotts Valley schools will be educating our students on campus once more. Thanks to a significant effort from our teachers, principals, staff, Assistant Superintendent Michelle Stewart and Superintendent Tanya Krause, our district was the first in the...

We the people are watching our country burn, seeing images on television and social media of police in riot gear storming our nation’s capital in Washington D.C. as it is overrun by Americans who believe they have been cheated and wronged and disenfranchised. We the...

When the dogwoods start to bloom, I’m torn between the flowering crabapples and cherries and wisteria and lilacs. But those huge dogwood flowers—or more precisely, bracts—get my attention every time I drive along the thoroughfares of San Lorenzo and Scotts Valley.  Most of us are...

Recently, the County won approval from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to make it easier for survivors of the CZU Fire to get started on an important aspect of rebuilding their homes. Rather than going to the Regional Water Board for approval...

I regularly visit my burned parcel in Bonny Doon to monitor the progress of the redwoods and understory plants. It will take 30-50 years for the forest to regenerate, but it’s trying.  Amazing how Mother Nature takes advantage of voids. Succession plants like native Yerba...

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. This disorder has particular meaning to me because when I married my dear wife Beth, I gained not only a wonderful wife but also an equally incredible Down syndrome brother-in-law named Danny. Coincidentally, Danny had been a patient...

Everything in the garden is full and lush in June. Your Japanese maple might be getting a little too full for your taste-outgrowing its space, crowding the neighbors, looking like a boring blob. Take the fear out of pruning with these easy steps. Pruning any...

I received a phone call just at sunset from my friend Rosemary “Rosie” Chalmers two weeks ago. Usually Rosie is in bed at that time as she rises at 3 a.m. Monday through Friday in order to open her broadcasting studio by 5 a.m. Rosie...

In Washington State, fresh Elberta peaches would begin appearing in local markets in September, but in July, in California, we have just begun to see fresh peaches for home use coming in from Fresno, Tulare and Madera, where processing peaches are grown mostly in...