“… blogging about life, travel, books, food and the outdoors”
Wildlife losing homes, habitat to wildfires
Wildlife relies on instinct, intuition and centuries of DNA passed through their ancestors to know how to cope with wildfire and the aftermath. But when the fires happen more frequently, burn hotter and more habitat is lost, their resiliency may not be what it was in...
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Book Review: ‘Log from the Sea of Cortez’ stands test of time
I would be hard-pressed to put John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez (The Viking Press, 1951) into one genre. This, in part, it what is so captivating about the book. This classic by the renowned author is definitely largely scientific. After all, it’s about...
read more Wildlife losing homes, habitat to wildfires
Wildlife relies on instinct, intuition and centuries of DNA passed through their ancestors to know how to cope with wildfire and the aftermath. But when the fires happen more frequently, burn hotter and more habitat is lost, their resiliency may not be what it was in...
read more
Stormy weather adds moodiness to walk along Sac River
The sun tried to punch through, only to be thwarted by the ominous black clouds. The river looked so uninviting, rushing furiously downstream, its edges swelling to accommodate the recent rains. Mother Nature’s vast moodiness was on display the last Sunday of December...
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Slow process to become comfortable speaking Spanish
It’s one thing to practice Spanish in the privacy of my bedroom each night, it’s another to try to speak it in front of people. I got so nervous just asking my nieces what they would like to drink. I know red wine is vino tinto, but I said vino rojo. Then I got more...
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100+ year old seed orchard continues to be of value
Rows of trees growing in a line like they are a crop, a paved path meandering along a creek with a tree canopy providing an abundance of shade, a large greenhouse with a few busted glass panes. This is the Chico Seed Orchard. According to the U.S. Forest Service’s...
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Reverberations from Jan. 6 insurrection continue
How anyone can call the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol anything but an insurrection is beyond me. Maybe they don’t know what the word insurrection means. The dictionary defines it this way: “a violent uprising against an authority or government.” Clearly,...
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Diamond Peak a jewel of a snowshoe in Lassen Park
Rising like a beacon, the diamond was all a glitter in the unbridled sunshine on this first day of 2022. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, it is not hyperbole to say this snowshoe in Lassen Volcanic National Park was incredibly spectacular. Snow...
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Book Review: ‘Women in Sunlight’ a delightful escape
I’m in Italy sitting in a piazza, people watching as I eat my decadent gelato dreaming about what delightful food will grace my plate at the next meal. Oh, the power of books. Women in Sunlight (Penguin Random House, 2018), a novel by Frances Mayes, was the perfect...
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Trying to be hopeful for a joyful 2022
I’ve stopped saying it can’t get worse because I kept being proven wrong. I guess that’s what happens when you are living through a pandemic. It’s not like I have a lot of experience with something like this. I actually feel like I’ve been affected by the pandemic...
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Author: Agriculture in the United States is an unhealthy industry
Missing in so many monumental discussions is the health of the food supply. Not just in the United States, but other countries as well. Food journalist Mark Bittman this year released his book Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal....
read moreOn Twitter
One year into the Biden administration, a new report by @pressfreedom finds an almost complete reversal of the Trump era’s hostile anti-media rhetoric. But there’s much work to be done to protect press freedom and improve access to information. https://cpj.org/reports/2022/01/night-and-day-the-biden-administration-and-the-press/
