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The month of pumpkins. Those globes of orange and gold fill the farms around us now, and provide endless goodies for consumption or decoration. From pies to pumpkin spiced drinks, tiny ones used as table décor to huge ones filling the back of a pickup, the pumpkin is celebrated throughout the country as a squash everyone can love.

Facing the opioid crisis

I’ve had the privilege the last week of shepherding some dear friends on their first visit to Sonoma County.

Student had it right on intersection

Every so often one of my teenagers does something so endearing, it makes me want to cry. This last Thursday, as my husband packed and left for a second business trip in two weeks, I did just that; cried. I know, I know, probably not the best way to start off the day, but I felt deflated.

Latino music playing in the vineyards as the sun rises, men shouting to be heard over roaring engines as their hands move with the precision of a surgeon with scalpel cutting one cluster then quickly another. Trucks barreling along narrow country roads delivering grapes prior to the heat of day. The entire county smelling of grape aromas — earthy, fruity, sweet and floral smells permeate the air. 

In November 2016, Sebastopol lawyer, Omar Figueroa, told me that Proposition 64, which had just been approved by California voters, was “a travesty of marijuana legalization.”