Highlights of the Season

Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) – Echium is in bloom (see above). – Road trip to Santa Barbara. Transmodern highlight: Hanging out in a beach house with the Norwegians, cooking Indian food while listening to hill-billy trip hop. – Meeting film historian Jan Anders Diesen and getting a private lecture and screening of never-before-seen footage […]

Bull Kelp Harvest

Each winter since we’ve lived on the Sonoma Coast and made a daily practice of walking the beaches, I become mildly obsessed with the bull kelp that washes ashore in great heaps after storms. I’ve tried weaving the kelp into seat blanks, drying it as an iodine-rich jerky, and brewing it for a savory stock. […]

Learning from the Murmur

I was lucky to catch the last rays of early September sun glistening off the ornately glazed tiles and finials of downtown Oakland’s deco treasures; the building facades just drink up this light, colors saturated against a deep azure sky. I had arrived on bike just as the Murmur was setting up, bought tickets at […]