NOTES FROM HOME
Knowing Nobody
“We don’t know many people anymore, do we?” a friend said as we sat on his breezeway bench for our daily tablespoon of conversation. He said it surprised, as if it hadn’t occurred...
Notes from Home
Two Dreams
There is some struggle in me that I keep trying to put into words. It’s a struggle I see reflected in the landscape, in the emotional terrain of most organizations, in the news...
Notes from Home
Gleanings
Sunday morning, driving to church to deliver my hard-earned gleanings from weeks of research for my sermon, the land spoke to me again. A month ago, in “Lonely Groves,” I confessed to hearing the...
GARDENING GURU
The Basics of Container Gardening
By Nancy HawkinsUCCE Master GardenerOn a cool day in late spring, I wandered in my back yard and counted 35 planted containers! I had collected the containers: large, medium, and...
GARDENING GURU
Winter Care to Reduce Rose Pests and Diseases
By Anne SkinnerUCCE Master GardenerUnfortunately, there are a number of insect pests who enjoy roses as much as we gardeners do. In order to have beautiful blooms...
NOTES FROM HOME
Propositions
I don’t know about you, but New Year’s resolutions have never worked for me. I’m a tad resistant to being told what to do, even when I’m doing the telling. Just making lists of...
Gardening Guru
Garden Tips for January
Happy New Year! Hopefully this is a month of continuing snow, rain, fog and misty mornings. That’s just what our climate-adapted gardens want. Although growth slows down in the cold soils...
NOTES FROM HOME
Lonely Groves
Driving home from church Sunday, after a perfectly lovely Christmas morning service, the groves surrounding our towns spoke to me. Their silence said “We’ve been abandoned.” While I was off in Bethlehem mentally, and in...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor,Gang violence has become a daily report in media sources throughout our state. The uptick in gang violence over the past year or two in the Central Valley, and the state of California...
Notes from Home
Perfect Storm
We had a perfect storm over Lindsay this past Sunday night. It was not “perfect” in the way the term was originally meant—to describe storm conditions that mount to create more horrible weather...