Heat Lingers With Indian Summer
UNITED STATES—It is still too early to say if, or for how long, warm Indian Summer weather will linger into what should be autumn. This last spell of unseasonable heat was merely a heat wave. Of course, at the time, there was nothing 'mere' about it. It was downright hot! It was weirdly humid too. As uncomfortable as it...
Drug-Store-Go-Round
UNITED STATES—The drug store was a place where the community manifest itself. People could make any old comment about the weather and it would pass for wit, or they could rib my dad about his shirttail sticking out. That was an enduring, endearing sartorial feature of a man oblivious to the physical details of a shirttail sticking out. Once...
Street Wise About Street Trees
UNITED STATES—There is no such thing as a perfect tree. Every tree has foliage that one way or another, eventually falls to the ground. Every tree has roots that might try to displace something that gets in its way. Many trees are messy in bloom. Some make messy fruit. Except for palms, every tree has branches that can be...
Remembering Dad
UNITED STATES—Whenever we were on a trip my dad would get anxious and phone the drug store. This seemed a gross interruption of our vacation time, reinforcing the ill feeling for the drug store. As I child, to tell you the truth, my sister and I loathed the drug store as something that robbed our dad from us. And...
Timing Is Everything For Pruning
UNITED STATES—There are certain disadvantages to gardening in such a perfect climate. We can not grow things that require significant chilling in winter. Nor can we grow things that require prolonged heat in summer. Seasons change so gently that it is easy to get behind schedule. It is already late summer, whether it seems like it or not. What...
Small Pharma
UNITED STATES—When I was in Mexico, a place where time-capsules have a better life expectancy than in California, I would come across these drug stores, the would be faded and filled with all kinds of merchandise, and I would close my eyes and there was that smell. Of buffered aspirin and Maja face powder and hot –rod magazines. And...
Flowers Might Be Getting Scarce
UNITED STATES—It makes sense for flowers to bloom in spring. Winter is too cool, windy and damp for both flowers and the insects that pollinate many of them. By summer, successfully pollinated flowers have faded, are busy making seed to disperse in autumn. Some plants produce fruit to get birds and other animals to disperse their seed. There are...
John Steinbeck Schlepped Here
UNITED STATES—Anybody who can take a cross-country trip with a dog and write a book has my respects. Mine is barely learning to let me read in peace. I have new respect for John Steinbeck. After a trip up north, I stopped in downtown Salinas to pay my respects and read part of a Swedish mystery which was just...
Herbs Are For All Seasons
UNITED STATES—There are only four seasons in which to grow herbs, but herbs are used for all sorts of seasonings. Most herbs are aromatic evergreen foliage. Some might be flowers, flower buds, stems, bark, seeds, roots or really any plant part. Those with the strongest flavors might be classified as spices. Herbs are used for culinary purposes. Many might...
The Bitter End
UNITED STATES—Newton was in the mist of a siesta, recovering from a rigorous morning of sun and much traffic, dropping off a screenplay with his agent and doing a couple errands. He was just pleasantly drifting off. Max came and shook him by the shoulders. In one hand, he held the feeding bowl he had dug out, still specked...