Napa County: “Another Beautiful Violence?”

Last week I returned from a rafting trip on the San Juan River in the Four Corners area of Utah. We floated through steep canyons on thick brown water for seven days, immersed in beauty. From the sunrise to sunset, the kaleidoscope of golden to deep pink-red cliffs guided us, their petroglyphs and pictograms offering… Read more »

Drought: What We Need to Change

Sigh of Relief!   Drought: What We Need to Change The courtyard pavement glistened in the early dawn this morning. I felt myself sigh with relief. The promised rain was beginning. It has steadily picked up. The weather predicts heavy rain today and tonight, even 6 inches before the current series of storms have passed… Read more »

Dark Gifts of Drought

Pond Bottom, January 2014 Dark Gifts of Drought Donald says that he remembers a year when the hills did not turn green. He was forced to pump water from the lower pond, which fills first and quickly, to the upper, much larger pond, to capture and save what rain water he could. This has not… Read more »

Waning 2013 and Dark Nights

Waning moon, December 29, 2013  Waning 2013 and Dark Nights The old slip of moon rose this morning, the Valley Oaks backlit by the beginnings of Dawn. It is the end of 2013, the darkest time of the year. I admit: I love the dark, a time that it is easier to live inward. The… Read more »