The Salton Sea. It’s a poetic name for a place that is neither poetic nor a sea. The landlocked body of water in the California desert is actually the state’s largest lake, a saline-filled depression in the earth with a higher salt level than the Pacific Ocean and a story that reads more like science … Read More
Seven years ago today, I set out on an adventure that I had no way of knowing would still be going strong. On January 2, 2016, after months of exploring an idea that had stubbornly planted itself inside my entire being, I pressed publish and began sharing a deeply important part of my life with … Read More
“This, too, will pass.” ~Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth A couple of weeks ago, Herb and I returned from an always-wonderful visit with our Bay Area grandchildren, topped off with an overnight stay in a lighthouse to celebrate anniversary #43 and fulfill one of my little travel dreams. We’d only been home a day or … Read More
“I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.” ~George Bernard Shaw The narrow road to Point San Pablo Harbor winds its way through a small forest of gnarled trees, the fallen brown leaves of late October scattered along the drive. We pass … Read More
We must have driven this route more than a dozen times these past two years. Interstate Highway 5…the main artery between Northern and Southern California, and the delicate thread of a lifeline that winds its way to our two little grandsons, one born during the throes of the pandemic; the other making his appearance just … Read More
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden It’s about a five-minute drive from our home in San Diego to the post office where our mail is delivered. With the local NPR station … Read More
“It’s the state vegetable of California,” Evan Oakes says proudly as he hands me a flowery green stem. “In fact, 90 percent of all artichokes in North America come from Monterey County.” I’m standing at the edge of an artichoke field at Pezzini Farms, the first stop on Evan’s Ag Ventures tour of the Salinas … Read More
“A man who has been in another world does not come back unchanged.” ~C.S. Lewis, Perelandra I’ve never been very good at saying goodbye. Be it people or places, I’m always all in, unpacking my bags and immersing myself in whatever time I may have somewhere. I carry with me the belief that this may … Read More
“The tortoise is very fond of water, drinking large quantities, and wallowing in the mud…When the tortoise arrives at the spring, quite regardless of any spectator, he buries his head in the water above his eyes, and greedily swallows great mouthfuls, at a rate of about ten a minute.” ~Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle … Read More
“I never dreamed that islands, about 50 or 60 miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted; but we shall soon see that this is the case.” ~Charles Darwin, … Read More