While I’m not Catholic as in a member of the Church, the practice: “to be catholic — and here the lowercase is intentional — is to be open, tolerant, and universal in one’s interests and sympathies,” appeals, so I have had this title, Where Are We Now, Mother Superior, in mind for years. It is a poem and also a puzzle for my mind to capture the whole world in words so I can pull it apart again. Well, this… Read More »

I know I love Maya Angelou, a presence to be felt for a lifetime. Met her once at a United Nations gathering, was it in the Fairmont? Got to talk to her just a bit on a quiet line where she was an ambassador of some kind. Really fuzzy on those details but not on her and her influence on me. Maya Angelou was a huge kind heart tempored by the pain of being a beautiful woman, abused, knocked about… Read More »

So have to admit I got hornswaggled by all the hoopla into thinking industrial hemp was already legalized. It ISN’T legal to plant hemp in California – yet! YES, there is a bill crafted by Mark Leno (thank you!) with a nudge from California State Grange (this nudge beginning in the year 2000 and continued through three Governorships) and the bill passed our CA State Senate, but NO, industrial hemp is not legalized in California – yet. So why is… Read More »

So yesterday, Mom’s Day, was for me the first visit to Zeno Swijtink and Rick Rozet’s High Street Salon, Sebastopol, a Second Sunday affair celebrating the art of conversation – and fine food! A rare treat that will become less rare for us at Oasis Farm and with Petaluma Grange and other Grange events. Next up at High Street Salon, check their Facebook page. Cost is a mere $20, starts 11am with marvelous brunch (!) at 7203 Maple, front door… Read More »

But I don’t anymore – they’re all around us! The mockingbirds, especially, are in love. They twitter, burst into song, follow along if you send out a particularly endearing string of notes. The scrub jays are chasing them; both want to nest in the clump of blackberry we left for them, Wayne having noted their nests last year. All in all, some may be tire of hearing, I’ve counted 22 varieties of birds at our Oasis Farm on Skillman Lane,… Read More »

Next Thurs., Feb. 13th, 7pm, Petaluma Grange will co-sponsor a viewing of the fine film, Symphony of the Soil, with Petaluma Seed Bank, 199 Petaluma Blvd. N.,7pm, with guest speaker and one of the film’s subjects, our local guy, Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm outside Sebastopol. Paul is locally famous for his no-till farming practice which saves a great deal of water for farmers. Film trailer is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5QYZ DROUGHT is the dreaded word around here if you’re a… Read More »

So today we learned the revered fellow who put the experience of Folksinging back in our lives, Pete Seeger, died at the ripe age of 94. Extraordinarily full life. Seemed he lived somewhere near, challenging the powers that be to treat all of us with respect, and as he produced his music, strings of memories of close, loving times when family and friends sang together in our homes or amphitheaters. He was a great booster of the SING-A-LONG as a… Read More »