Out & About
As one who roams the backcountry quite a bit for this column and for other projects, I was shocked, saddened, and a little unnerved to learn of last December’s fatal mountain lion attack on birdwatcher …
When I taught creative writing at UCSD, I was impressed by the adventurous sculpture sited around campus — The Stuart Collection. Since campuses are gardens, these sculptures are garden sculptures, animating and conferring scale on …
North County’s Iron Mountain thrusts its conical summit nearly 2700 feet above sea level, well above any low-lying wintertime haze over the coast and suburbs. On many a crystalline December day, the summit offers a …
Like a subterranean knife-wound, the Elsinore Fault slices across the heart of San Diego County’s backcountry, promising an earth-shaking jolt or two during the next few millennia. Sputtering movements over geologic time along its opposing …
I learned to write by watching my grandma at her easel. First she’d sketch, then stroke on the base colors, then dab until details began to appear. Around that time she’d step back, gaze, meditate, …
Although Garnet Peak isn’t the highest peaklet along the eastern escarpment of the Laguna Mountains, its exposed position makes it a fine place to view both the pine-clad high country and the raw desert below. …
Outdoor recreational opportunities in North County took a quantum leap recently with the opening of the Mount Israel Recreation Area in the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove area near Escondido. A cooperative effort of the Olivehain Municipal …
Several factors conspire this time of year to make the bicycle ride down the whole length of Highway S-2 one of the easiest, most carefree and exhilarating experiences you can have in San Diego County. …
The cloud-mantled planet Venus reflects 76 percent of the sunlight falling on it. Less than one-billionth of the light that bounces away is intercepted by Earth. Most strikes Earth’s day side, but some falls on …
l tell you again that I shall always consider you to be something more than a simple dealer in Corots, that through my mediation you have your part in the actual production of some canvases, …
As a teenager, I dismissed adults’ dismissal of the new with the thought that these grown-ups (who also hated Elvis and despised Jerry Lee) merely preferred elevator music for canvas, eye Muzak.
MAY DAY! MAY DAY!! Now is the time for all socially-conscious guys ‘n’ gals to come to the aid of their balmy corner of the continent! The eyes of the world are upon us. As …
José Tasende has one request: “Make me the subject of your interviews, not the object. Take what I say and use it. But don’t make me the story. Write about what I say, not what …
The 428 Hidden Steps of La Mesa go up one side of the hill and down the other through a pleasant, old neighborhood. Start at the corner of Normal Avenue and Windsor Drive.
In the next three days, I learned that the San Dieguito River drainage is a kind of graveyard for dead automobiles. They litter the river’s canyons like dinosaur bones. That V-12 was simply the first.
I made my bed in the lee of a stout little juniper, but Schad, fond of wind and rain and discomfort,made his on the crest. Then we huddled together to cook noodles and tuna, with a Kahlúa chaser.