Opinion

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...

When I first read that big changes were coming to Sutter Health, I initially thought that bigger and better things were in store for Scotts Valley.  I shared in our community’s collective shock, however, when I discovered that PAMF was in fact ending its...

I would be remiss if I didn’t write about the problems we all have had since the January storms here in our valley; particularly about our food markets where I purchase almost all of the food I cook, photograph and then write about in...

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the garden,The creatures were stirring, the deer got a pardon. The hummingbird feeders were hung by the chimney with care,In hopes that the Anna's soon would be there.  The flowering cherries were nestled all snug in their beds,While...

It’s that time of year when the dahlia exhibitions are held. I missed a couple already but the Santa Cruz County Fair is still going on this weekend and there’s always a huge display there. Last year a dark magenta cactus dahlia was my...

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who postulated that the government closest to the people governs best. That maxim is being sorely tested each and every year as the edicts and mandates flow wildly from our state government in Sacramento to over-burdened cities and...

“Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River,” … sang vocalist John Denver As a little girl from the “southside” of Aberdeen, Wash., almost everything I played with was handmade and we ate “at home,” and almost every meal included my aunt Betty’s buttermilk...