Columns

The crowds that have been playing all summer along our Russian River are now dwindling which makes room for this weekend’s crowd of river workers and volunteers who will be bagging beach garbage, hauling flood debris and checking on the condition of our primary waterway and watershed.

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we traveled the busy highways to the spacious New Song Church in Windsor for the Memorial Service for Don and Jean Klein.

September 14 the Zucchini Festival takes place at the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market: zucchini decorating competitions, giant zucchini contests and zucchini car races. It is such a blast to be a part of and/or to watch. Every year Patrick would engineer his car using TinkerToys, making sure the axle of the vehicle went through the body of the zucchini.  It was a thrill to watch the car careen down that track, with the announcer calling it, making it to the finish line most of the time.  I cherish the video I took of a winning run.

The Farmers Market … have you been yet this season?

The Zucchini Festival takes place Sept. 14 at the Healdsburg Farmers Market: zucchini decorating competitions, giant zucchini contests and zucchini car races. It is such a blast to be a part of and/or to watch.

When we first investigated and reported in April about the rising use of electronic cigarettes by local teens we came away astonished by the set of facts that pointed to a public health crisis that was impacting thousands of unwitting local students. Since that time, the horrors of “vaping” have increased in volume and intensity. Earlier this month, Dr. Celeste Philip, Sonoma County’s public health officer, issued an alert and urged local doctors to watch for lung illnesses that could be linked to vaping nicotine and cannabis. This week, the first death in California attributed to vaping was reported among 57 similar cases of lung illnesses linked to vaping. More than 500 mysterious lung illness cases and five deaths have been reported nationwide.

Mother Nature is a charmer most of the time; an alarmist some of the time. In early morning, I was checking my email at the computer in my den, a cozy room filled with books and heated in winter by a gas insert stove. The familiar song of the mourning dove interrupted my train of thought.

Sept. 21 through 28 is Creek Week in the Russian River Watershed. Join in with this spirit of environmental conservation and community enrichment by getting educated, invested and involved.

Sept. 21 through 28 is Creek Week in the Russian River Watershed. Join in with this spirit of environmental conservation and community enrichment by getting educated, invested and involved.

Jana Adams, a Sonoma County real estate broker, has an extensive support group. She needs it and so does her daughter, Brooke, who just turned 6, and who has Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that typically begins in infancy or early childhood and that’s characterized by seizures that can last minutes or hours. The name for the syndrome comes from Charlotte Dravet, a French doctor who discovered the gene mutation that was later named after her.