Columns

"Every year on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the streets of Healdsburg fill with music and marching bands, vintage tractors and streamers, and the laughter of the Twilight Parade," writes Liza Gershman in her bi-weekly "Harvest" column. "This is the rhythm of small-town summer: unhurried, joyful, deeply familiar..."

Visiting Cleveland isn’t complete without checking the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame off the bucket list. If in Cleveland, it’s an easy checkmark. It’s Cleveland after all. Despite former claims to fame, Cleveland’s currency now is a museum commemorating rock music, the Rock Hall.

In answer to many requests for smaller packages than the Standard Food package at $10, CARE is now offering a new Budget Package, with a net weight of 10 pounds, which will sell for $5.95 for guaranteed delivery to Europe.

At 300 million years old, dragonflies are reportedly the oldest winged insect. Prehistoric ancestors had wingspans of two and a half feet. Each of four wings moves independently allowing them to hover, fly forward and fly backward.

Pigs are smart. These two came in from the rain this week. In warmer weather they roll in the mud. Oh, that loving-the-mud thing? It’s not because they like to be dirty. It’s to prevent sunburn and cool themselves.

In the granite mountains of Yosemite National Park, in the upper plateau of the Hetch Hetchy watershed, lies Lake Vernon encircled by rock walls and piney shores. It’s home to crystal clear snowmelt water and beautiful rainbow trout...

Fairies are a part of folklore in many cultures. Typically, they are spritely, small creatures with magical qualities and a penchant for frivolity and trickery. Peter Pan is not a fairy, though Tinker Bell is...

Floating above Santa Rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg’s vineyards in a hot air balloon while sipping champagne and eating croissants makes a morning magical. Even if one is not in the balloon, there is something “uplifting” about hot air balloons. Morning commutes to Santa Rosa down Hwy 101 are boring unless one happens upon a balloon piloting its way up the valley.

Now that summer is winding down and schools have opened again for the fall, our typical programming is available for everyone. Storytimes with Miss Charity have begun; upcoming events include a Storytime in the Park on Sept. 26 as well as in the library on Oct. 3, 17 and 24, leading up to a special Oct. 31 event at the park. All of these occur on Fridays at 10:30am.

Living in a tech-dominated world, it’s hard to imagine a day or year without a cellphone or car, yet that is every day, every year, for the Amish.