memorable places inscribed in California history and literature

Tag Central Valley

“Plumbing on the grand scale”: Joan Didion’s “Holy Water”

I don’t know how many times I’ve driven past the Romero Visitor Center at the San Luis Reservoir near Pacheco Pass. It’s at the end of one of those turnoffs, like the nearby one to Dinosaur Point Campground, that don’t… Continue Reading →

California’s “Machine in the Garden”

Spring in the Central Valley. Just northeast of Los Banos, the Coast Ranges not far distant to the west, fragile looking cotton seedlings push through grayish brown soil, their fibrous product eventually to be harvested in fall. Between this place… Continue Reading →

California’s Grizzly History

Recently, The New York Times “California Today” column updated readers on the latest additions to California’s list of official state symbols: On Jan. 1, the pallid bat, or Antrozous pallidus, and the California golden chanterelle, or Cantharellus californicus, joined the… Continue Reading →

Ina Coolbrith’s The Mariposa Lily

Now that recent rains have completely reconfigured California’s hydrological world—and it’s a record year for California’s snowpack—I wanted to return briefly to the wildflower theme of our last post. Partly because, thanks to the rainfall, we may have a great… Continue Reading →

Writing Central Valley Wildflowers

Driving Interstate 5 through the Central Valley can be a bleak experience, especially during late summer. When I took the trip one day last August, the eastern slope of the Diablo Range hills wore the depressing brown of worn out… Continue Reading →

Some Literary Raptors of California

We live in Northern Monterey County, near California’s Central Coast region. Our back yard perches on the edge of a steep slope, chaparral mostly and dotted with coast live oaks, the slope dropping sharply to a seasonal streambed. Directly across,… Continue Reading →

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