Columns

The radio comes on at 5:15 a.m. It comes on gently, playing something classical from KDFC. It is Saturday morning and August is here.

It is 5 p.m. during a pandemic. On these warm spring evenings, I pour myself a glass of crisp Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc and head outside to join my sheltering in place companion, nature. Admiring an outdoor water feature, structured after Andy Goldsworthy’s...

Piper

Jana Adams, a Sonoma County real estate broker, has an extensive support group. She needs it and so does her daughter, Brooke, who just turned 6, and who has Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that typically begins in infancy or early childhood and that’s characterized by seizures that can last minutes or hours. The name for the syndrome comes from Charlotte Dravet, a French doctor who discovered the gene mutation that was later named after her.

Summertime means longer days, warmer temperatures and an increase in outdoor activities. If you are a dog or cat owner or come in contact with pets, you know that summertime brings more pests, especially fleas and ticks. Why are these pesky pests a cause for concern? What should we consider before using pet pesticides and are there alternatives we can use to protect our pets, ourselves and our environment?

Shakespeare got it right, says Pierre Ratte. From her balcony, young Juliet laments her sweetheart’s name is Montague, an enemy. And yet at a tender age, she recognizes, “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy … What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Wouldst Juliet’s wisdom leap into our dangerous political rhetoric.

In order to pick the remainder of the grape crop and the light walnut crop with hands, it is urged that all local people, including high school pupils, assist with the grape harvest over the coming weekend. A shortage of over two hundred grape pickers exists in the Healdsburg section at the present time.