Columns

One of the traps of adulthood is the vague complaining about change.

We all know that healthcare and health insurance costs are wildly unaffordable. What happens when one of our own, who has some means but is not “poor enough” to be given charitable care, has to find a way to survive a cancer diagnosis? Can our community itself devise a way to help this person and others in the future?

As I sat through my 7-year-old’s recent winter concert I found myself pondering the fact that when the holiday season rolls around, people seem to lose all grasp of reality, especially when there are kids and performances involved. Of all the strange memories one has of their childhood, I’d be willing to bet at least one of them involved some sort of Christmas performance. Maybe it was your school play, maybe it was your church’s nativity, maybe it was something else.

Five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Christina Stafford knew people were hungry. As a regular volunteer for Your Tiny Farm, she had a vision to raise money for this local nonprofit whose mission is to turn vacant, plantable city spaces and backyards into vibrant fruit and vegetable gardens. Creativity is second nature to Stafford, who owns Stafford Gallery on the Healdsburg Plaza. She and her collaborators, Doralice Handal and Nicole Rubio, wanted something other than your run-of-the-mill fundraiser — something that would combine farming, harvest and Halloween. So, a “make your own” scarecrow contest seemed like the perfect event.

'On cool days, their spot is on this hillock. On warmer summer days, their spot is beneath a shade tree. So regular are they, that anyone driving past the intersection of Mill Creek Road and Mill Creek Lane after 3pm will likely see them standing together or nuzzling...'

Is there a more beautiful time of year here than autumn? Colors are turning, leaves falling, air crisp, sky blue and fall fruits and vegetables abound. It is harvest time, so stunning.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"For over 30 years, my daily pour has been a latté. Some years ago, I took a latté art class in Seattle. While it’s not every day that hearts and recognizable shapes like the one above get poured, it’s often enough that it is intriguing. What will my coffee look like this morning?" asks Pierre Ratte.