This one from the wondrously succinct Kay Ryan speaks to me of spring: "So Different," Kay Ryan A tree is lightly connected to its blossoms. For a tree it is a pleasant sensation to be stripped of what’s white and winsome. If a big wind comes, any nascent interest in fruit scatters. This is so different fromContinue reading “The lightly connected blossoms of spring: Kay Ryan”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Facing Drought Together: Ojai Valley News
Let me share Kimberly Rivers' thoughtful newspaper story about an event here in town I helped launch —Facing Drought Together – which did draw a good crowd, and got a lot of conversation started I hope. Here's an excerpt from story in the Ojai Valley News: “I took away the realization that a lot of other people in OjaiContinue reading “Facing Drought Together: Ojai Valley News”
Drought expert to Ojai: You have too many damned trees
JPL/NASA scientist Bill Patzert gave Ojai some hell this afternoon, as part of the Facing Drought Together event: From an excellent, may I say, story in the Ventura County Star by Anne Kallas: “Don’t expect a quick fix. Droughts are slow in coming, and they are slow getting out of. We need to change the wayContinue reading “Drought expert to Ojai: You have too many damned trees”
Everything you always wanted to know about drought*
Four of us from the Ojai Valley area, all concerned citizens from very different backgrounds, think that we need to talk frankly about the drought, and more, do what we can about it. Not just for ourselves, our properties, gardens, orchards, trees, lands, and wildlife, but also for our community.
Walking with Cheryl Strayed on the Pacific Crest Trail
..because Strayed didn’t know what the hell she was doing, as she freely admits, she was kind of wonderfully dumb about it. To be blunt. This gives her story the drama of the sincere naif — in some glorious/awful sense, the story of youth versus experience.
Facing Drought Together: The Ojai Retreat 3/9/2014
Bill O'Brien, a civil engineer, Victoria Loorz, a pastor, myself, and Ulrich Brugger, who directs The Ojai Retreat, are putting together a public conversation which we hope will help motivate people of the Ojai Valley to take a serious look at our drought and what we can do about it. We also intend toContinue reading “Facing Drought Together: The Ojai Retreat 3/9/2014”
Scariest drought image of the year (to date)
From a tree-ring scientist, Ed Cook, what has to be the scariest drought image for the West. Click to enlarge. Via Andrew Revkin's tumblr blog.
Looking to past droughts to foresee CA’s future
The past is never dead. The past is not even past. When William Faulkner wrote that, he was thinking of human history, but it's true on here on planet earth as well. Cycles repeat. For that reason, and because they were troubled by the drought they saw in the deep time record, paleoclimatologist B. LynnContinue reading “Looking to past droughts to foresee CA’s future”
The upside of drought in SoCal: Winter sunsets
The lack of rain, which depends on a lack of low clouds and overcast conditions, can make possible some utterly spectacular sunsets. This one from Death Valley in late December, courtesy of David Huscher. Here's one I saw on the PCT from a place in the San Gabriel Mountains called Camp Guffy, at about 8200Continue reading “The upside of drought in SoCal: Winter sunsets”
Ridiculously Resilient Ridge to break down: NWS
Yesterday an exciting pressure chart came my way via the indefatiguable John Fleck of the Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, which has had no perceptible precipitation to date this winter, is as interested in the so-called "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" of high pressure that has been blocking any possible weather from the Pacific as we are here inContinue reading “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge to break down: NWS”
Kit Stolz 