Columns

You can smell it in the air, feel it in your bones, see it in the beginnings of color change — summer is ending and with it the tremendous energy force of Mother Nature’s race to produce food. The food’s consumers are more than just human. They include the animals that share our planet. Hence, the seeds of weeds and trees feed the birds. Melons, winter squash, and tree fruit fill beaks and stomachs of hundreds of creatures hiding in nests, burrows, blackberry brambles.

Last night, a lone coyote howled nearby under the new moon. His compadres in the hills called in reply. We often hear packs yipping in the distance, but this one coyote was fifty feet from my open window. At first, I was alarmed; Our DNA is set to fear for our safety when we hear wild creatures in the dark. As I once heard Doris Lessing say, we still have more fear of the saber-toothed tiger, than we have fear of driving on the freeway, because millions of years of evolution trump recent evolution. My next thought was of the small flock of chickens and the goat duo that we lock up every night at sunset; Fort Clucks requires a daily ritual of locking doors with numerous snap hooks and carabiners, one for each door, a total of nine.

Water conservation update

Friends of the Healdsburg Library are always seeking book donations for the three book sales they hold yearly. Books, videos, CDs can be left at the library.

Editor: I never could have predicted the overwhelming response

Relay for Life

Five rules

Let There Be Lights!