Stepping out into the early morning sunlight, I was assaulted by the freshness in the air. The sky was blue, unlike the curtain of orange we...

If you happen to enter into conversation with a beginning birder, it’s rare that more than thirty seconds elapses before they mention the Me...

It was a fine weekend, cool and sunny, and gardening was on our minds. I sometimes file such thoughts under the heading “futile gestures,” b...

Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party or Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe offer us an appealing vision of relaxation and conviviality ...

Best known, perhaps, for its nuclear power plant, Moss Landing  might seem like an odd choice for a two-night vacation stop-over, but it ser...

Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa died a few days ago. He was well-known at one time for both his novels and his probing intellect. As a jou...

It was Friday, and to be honest, I wasn't thinking of Earth Day when I decided to make a fire out of some grape vines I was extracting f...