The Garden in Drought

Looking out at the park today, the chapparal-covered mountains are dusty green between huge granite outcroppings. Below, the open spaces where wild grasses and wildflowers grow abundantly during spring, the land is golden with dark-green dots of brush here and there. Last vestiges of spring grow where chapparal and open space meet. Here, the last […]

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We Aren’t in the Desert Yet

Today I woke up to cramps in my ankles, probably because my feet were two blocks of ice. The fickle dachshunds had taken up residence in the middle of our king-size bed and were warming each other instead of us. I was standing by the bed when John, who was already up, came in and […]

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Real Rain . . . At Last!

I’m looking out at the small valley where we live on the central California coast. Ordinarily I would gaze straight out at the parched mountains of the Santa Monica National Park, but today the first significant rain in ten months clouds the vista. My eyes are drawn to the neighborhood trees swaying in the wind […]

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