Retirement Sabbatical Year of Discernment

  Merry Christmas from Samuel P Taylor State Park! Happy Hanukah on the eighth night, December 17      No, we're not actually Jewish, but ever since learning that my maiden name, Gollub, is of Russian Jewish origin 40 years ago, I have made it a practice to light Hanukah candles in the Menorah my mother gave me and each of my sisters the year we discovered that fact about our last name. I love the increasing light through the eight nights of Hanukah. This year Hanukah coincided with the decreasing light leading up to the winter Solstice on December 21.      This picture is not very well "posed," but it does show some of our "things." Like an indoor/outdoor thermometer, a couple of flashlights, a Sudoku puzzle, and the emergency exit window over our dinette. The thermometer was a birthday gift from daughter Erin and I have really enjoyed seeing just how cold it really is outside in the mornings. The lowest morning temperature so far was 32 degrees Fahre...

December 14, 2020 - Our first time on a Pacific Coast Beach since June - this time at Bodega Dunes.     I just completed reading The Overstory , a novel by Richard Powers that features the Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest in the late 20th Century. It is far reaching and interconnecting of the natural world and human development and exploitation. I found the book powerful, disturbing, thought provoking and even hopeful. It has caused me to look even more deeply at the trees that surround us here at Samuel P Taylor State Park. For the most part the forested area in and around the campground is second growth redwood with only a few old growth trees remaining. When Samuel Taylor established his paper mill here on Lagunitas Creek following the California Gold Rush most of the trees were cut down, not for the paper, but to build things and to fuel the mill. I find it interesting and curious in the history that the paper Taylor made came from rags gathered in San Francisco and no...