Columns

Hello, Healdsburg! It’s been a long, cold, lonely pandemic winter, but spring is here and with it, lower COVID-19 case rates and more eligibility and access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Some folks believe they should talk to their plants. How does one do that?

Talkin’ turkey here. Nope, not Thanksgiving turkey. Turkey tail mushrooms. It’s mushrooming season in Sonoma County. When the weather turns cold and damp, fog rolls in and rain falls, and mushrooms’ fruiting bodies pop up.

New England has deciduous woods. Colorado has quaking aspens. And Sonoma County has its straw hills and live oaks framing red, yellow and green vineyards. Mixed together, it's home.

"The Biggest Little Farm” has been highly recommended as a must see movie.

Commentary — As the council takes up important issues regarding the future development of our community, it is critical that it adopts more effective and meaningful strategies to engage with citizens. The need for improved engagement was clearly evident at a city council work session on Jan. 21 (focused on affordable housing, including development of 3 North St.). 

Kudos to the Museum of Sonoma County for this summer’s bonanza marijuana exhibit. It’s called “Grass Roots” and it’s subtitled “From Prohibition to Prescription.”

The beautiful sunshine is back to warm our faces and to dry out our fairways. Like many of you, I spent the last two months watching Windsor Golf Club’s 1st, 9th and 18th fairways get battered and soaked by the winter rainstorms. These holes looked like long deep lakes with a few tiny “dry” grass spots for birds to rest.

At the start of January — just days after the adult use of cannabis became legal in California — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ended the Obama-era guidelines that kept federal agents from interfering in states where medial marijuana was legal. Cannabis stocks declined 21 percent, though they quickly rebounded.