Tracking Richmond’s Bay Trail
On an overcast day this winter, seven of us met for a bike ride through Richmond on the Bay Trail. We rode along Cerritos Creek, under two busy freeways, and...
Exploration
Outdoor Summer Camp Resources
Too much homework? Bully picking on you at school? Perhaps not, but have you stopped to wonder if your children are yearning for a breath of fresh air? Sometimes, even...
Forrest Deaner Native Plant Garden
The newly fledged Forrest Deaner Native Plant Garden in the Benicia State Recreation Area has the distinction of being the second public garden in the Bay Area to focus exclusively...
Native Plant Garden Tours
It’s no longer a secret to readers of this magazine that native plant gardens can look as beautiful as those stocked with showy exotics, while at the same time providing...
Visiting the Regional Parks Botanic Garden
The Regional Parks Botanic Garden, in Tilden Regional Park, is a 10-acre landscape of plants native to California. The garden includes ten sections corresponding to ten geographic regions of the...
Got Wheels?
Purisima Creek Preserve The shaded understory at uncrowded Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve on the Peninsula is a delicious place to ramble in hot weather, especially when berries start to appear...
Low Vision, High Adventure
As a sighted person, I take in most of my information about the world through my eyes. So I’m wondering how my fellow travelers perceive this journey when they can’t...
Book Review: Native Treasures: Gardening with the Plants of California
Native Treasures: Gardening with the Plants of California, by M. Nevin Smith, UC Press, 2006, 288 pages, $24.95 www.ucpress.edu It’s almost an embarrassment of riches for native plant enthusiasts: two...
On a Roll
I was a backpacker from early childhood, and by my 20s thought myself a rugged adventurer, self-sufficient and in close communion with the natural world of John Muir. Unlike him...
Falling for Spiders and Termites
Things begin rumbling about now. Storm clouds pile up along the outer Coast Ranges, the winds shift and come out of the south, days get shorter, and the air gets...
