California

Masses of magnificent white and gray clouds fill half the sky, but it’s completely clear to the west, where a brilliant sun slides slowly towards the horizon.

For some reason I woke before dawn. The first faint drops of rain after months of dry sky were barely discernible indoors. I stepped out my back door, and sure…

An ominous, orangish haze hangs over northern California. The Carr fire has obliterated the normally azure skies and made the atmosphere physically unhealthy and metaphysically surreal.

Magnificent formations of white cumulus hang over the foothills, mountains in the sky above mountains of the land. Though the town is full of parents and siblings for graduation ceremonies,…

Bright orange poppies, California’s state flower, are plentiful this year, and surround me in the in the high grass at creekside. Vultures soar by at nearly treetop level, exhibiting effortless…

The winter rains came late this year in California. A series of storms this spring have made the land verdant beyond belief. Sitting on the lip of the narrow gorge…

What little warmth the sun afforded on this short winter day evaporates as it reaches the treetops. Sitting under the dying sycamore tree, sparrows and juncos come close as a…

On the outskirts of town is something locals call “The Tree Farm.” Its formal title is the “Genetic Resource and Conservation Center.” The place raises the old question to an…