Spring and Drought The days are stunningly beautiful, and the meadow and forest verdant green, even in this fourth year of severe drought. The news is hard: California has a year of water storage left. What then? The drought is like a zen teacher, whacking us into consciousness: water is precious. Do not waste it… Read more »
Many of us are reluctant of being characterized as NIMBYs when we object to projects in our “backyards” such as event center wineries or vineyard incursions into our hillsides and watersheds. Such a designation often implies a narcissism. The American Dictionary defines NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) as “a person who objects to the siting of something perceived… Read more »
Replanting Biodynamic Lavender There must be a eulogy for the old lavender and a blessing for the new, as there must be a prayer for the bare earth in its liminal, in between state. This week we pulled the last of Lot Sophia lavender, 420 plants, just as the new replacements arrived from Cottage Gardens… Read more »
My spiritual teacher Norma T. ( I write about my time with her in Farming Soul) once told me that it is easiest to develop spiritual tools to access multidimensional consciousness when we have direct contact with nature. I instinctively knew this to be true, familiar with the state of mind that comes when I… Read more »
Night at Castlekeep
Life’s issues have their way of meeting us everywhere, even a writing retreat! We six women meet once a month in this place outside of time. Castlekeep, as we have come to call it, is a large, usually unoccupied house surrounded by blackberry brambles and jonquils who’ve lost memory of flower beds. The ranch house was… Read more »
Stand Up For the Earth! Donald and I work on sign boards today. We are joining other citizen groups to alert the town and county as to the importance of preserving our watersheds and our Ag Preserve. Degrade them with more tree cutting and clearing and event centers in the middle of pristine forests, and… Read more »
Making Barrel Compost In December Jesse and I made barrel compost and buried it in the hollow of an ancient oak that fell last May. We “stirred” eggshells and basalt dust into Biodynamic cow manure that Jesse got from his friend Seth (we do not have cows on our ranch) for a full hour, and… Read more »
My first interview on ecological sustainability is with my sister Judy Damery Parrish, Chair of the Biology Department at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. She is a passionate teacher who loves the earth with fierceness, reflected in here. What is your background and how did you come to ecology? I grew up on a farm and spent many… Read more »
Fallow and Storms Winter fallow, grey day. Clouds press down, a storm predicted this afternoon, tonight, all day tomorrow. Promises of great quantities. Ramon rushes the rain, pruning vines. He will finish today, four weeks of pruning, no need this month to worry about keeping vine cuts dry. (We spray BD 501 when there is… Read more »
The Russian River is a great, lazy serpent in the summer. Her lovely green body curves through redwoods and vineyards, through open meadows and old tourist resorts, on her way to Jenner and the Pacific. I raised my sons well into their elementary years on that river. We learned her many moods: her rushing insistence in the… Read more »
© 2026 Patricia Damery.
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