Columns

The creative scarecrows that show up in town around Halloween are a tradition that started in 2020 to foster community during the pandemic. This year’s beneficiary is Heartizens, which  sponsors art programs for young people.

There are five other junior farm centers in Sonoma County with a total of nearly thirty in the state. These junior farm centers will send two representatives each month to meet with the representatives of the Senior Farm Bureau at Santa Rosa and the Farm Advisor in his office. Here local and state matters will be discussed, policies arranged....

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.

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...

The philosophy here is simple, though the execution is anything but. NewTree Ranch operates on permaculture principles and biodynamic practices, supported by renowned consultant Harold Hoven. Over the past decade, the land has been transformed.

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.

In order to pick the remainder of the grape crop and the light walnut crop with hands, it is urged that all local people, including high school pupils, assist with the grape harvest over the coming weekend. A shortage of over two hundred grape pickers exists in the Healdsburg section at the present time.

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.

"This is my 20th year photographing harvest—since 2005—and I still love this time," writes Liza Gershman. "I’ve spent nights with vineyard crews lit only by headlamps and moonlight, capturing the exact moment the fruit leaves the vine. My favorite moment is when the deepest darkness turns into light and the sky opens up. I rarely see sunrise outside of harvest. There’s a reverence to it. A rhythm. A knowing..."

In the Healdsburg Tribune 100 years ago: "The thinking man or woman, the young man or woman who would like to improve his vision, his ideas concerning living, and who would welcome suggestions which are all too rare in this jazz age of frothy nothings, cannot help but be benefitted and learn to have a more wholesome regard for life and its ideals...."