When I told people I was riding my bicycle 545 miles for a charity, most people responded with “that’s crazy” or some similar sentiment. And they were right; it takes a certain amount of insanity to devote every weekend for about half a year to train and ride and become a cyclist for AIDS/LifeCycle. AIDS/LifeCycle…
Articles
UCSC’s Brain, Mind, and Consciousness Society Opens Art Show at Felix Kulpa Gallery
If the name Felix Kulpa Gallery & Sculpture Garden doesn’t quite ring familiar, the sight of it might. A tall chainlink fence surrounding a white gravel yard, industrial objects strewn about and an unassuming building squatting in the back—it could almost pass for a junkyard if not for its prime downtown location. But get a…
How to Savor the Strangeness of Succulents
Succulent. The name says a lot. But it doesn’t reveal everything about these wildly compelling botanicals that surrender to even the least-green thumb. Thick-skinned and juicy, these intriguing plants sit somewhere on the sliding botanical scale between dry, spiky cacti and delicate leaf-bearing flora. Succulents love to preserve moisture deep inside their curious, pliant bodies.…
Preview: Sylvia Grape to Play Two Nights in Santa Cruz
When Sylvia Grape’s “dear Ma” grounded her for five months in high school, she had no idea it would lead to a profession as a singer-songwriter. The old guitar lying around the house took on a certain sparkle. “I just picked it up and started fiddling with it,” Grape says. She’d found a companion in…
Garden-Inspired Home Fermentation
One Saturday, when the chill had not quite worn off the morning and it was still likely that rain might ruin the weekend, my boyfriend Mike and I started planning what to plant in our garden. He’s the one with all of the know-how and experience, so I just put in requests. We knew he…
Collective Soul: Soquel’s Craftsmen Collective
Anyone who has worked extensively as an artist or maker is probably familiar with long hours spent alone in a workspace with just a dream and maybe a pet or ficus plant for company. Whole days can pass without human contact, and if the mailman or a UPS driver happens by, the eye contact and…
Tiny Home Makeover
I was born in the deep south—Bakersfield, California. The first RV I ever saw had a bumper sticker that said, “Don’t Tailgate Me or I Will Flush.” This early impression of the RV/trailer crowd made me wonder, “Why do space aliens land in trailer parks?” Years later, I’m sitting here in my retrofitted Airstream trailer,…
How Dig Gardens became Santa Cruz County’s hip gardening hub
Come for the ferns, stay for the cheese boards. Dig Gardens is a little slice of paradise that will have gardening geeks leaving their worries and wallet at the door. Whether they get lost in the outdoor succulent paradise, or don’t even make it past the Paddywax scented candles and bath salts, Dig has something…
Home & Garden Events 2018 Calendar
A round-up of home and gardening events happening in Santa Cruz County this year… Saturday, 4/14 UCSC Arboretum Spring Plant Sale The Arboretum’s spring plant sale offers hundreds of varieties of water-wise plants, succulents and small trees from California, Australia and South Africa that are ideal for the Central Coast climate. Get there early for…
Come Home, Banana Slugs
UC Santa Cruz alumni will once again “come home” for reveling and reuniting at the university’s annual Alumni Weekend, which this year is April 27–29. (Photo by Steve Kurtz) [Sponsored] Slugs, come home! The Return of the Prodigal Slugs, otherwise known as Alumni Weekend 2018, will be a moveable slug-fest for alumni and…
