Kate Campbell's Word Garden

Love Among Us Common Folk

2012-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Taj Mahal, completed in 1648, honors Emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife who died in 1631, after giving birth to their 14th child. Just in time for Valentine's Day, the online Smithsonian magazine offers Abigail Tucker's "Top Ten Demonstrations of Love" The series of vignettes covers grand gestures of love by the famous -- inventors, politicians, royalty and celebrities. Queen Victoria

Children's Book Trend: Bye-bye Natural World

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Children’s Books Ignore Natural World A new survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment. Picture an illustrated children’s book — one that has won a prestigious award — and your mind conjures up images of furry animals, puffy clouds, and eager boys and girls enjoying adventures in the wild. Veteran

On Walden Pond and Other Hangouts

2012-02-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

“Go to where the silence is and say something.” -Amy Goodman, author Like a lot of writers, I sometimes fantasize about having a private retreat, an escape hatch in the universe where I can hide out and read and write without interruption. But, minus lottery winnings or a best-selling novel, a mountain cabin or lakeside cottage is way out of

Connecting Rural & Urban Communities

2012-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Bay Area commuters are now seeing the faces and stories of hidden California—stories of farmers, amateur boxers and rodeo riders, even a young cowgirl. The images are in advertising spaces on BART trains, part of a new public information campaign and art exhibit aimed at connecting urban residents with rural life in California. It’s a place I know well, where my own writing and photography takes

Crashes and Explosions

2012-01-29T06:49:00.000-08:00

Out of the closet and onto the shelf—dead tree or ether. That’s where I’m headed. It’s a trip I’ve been making in my nightgown for four or five years, up between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., sitting in front of my computer, sipping coffee, trying to get 90,000 words right and figure out a marketing plan for my book Adrift in the Sound. I’ve been working on the manuscript since 2007 and it has been

Dragons in the Garden

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year starts January 23rd. It’s a Year of the Dragon, a water sign. All legendary stories about Chinese dragons say they are from the sky, which means heaven in China. The Dragon this year is called the “Black Water Dragon,” one of nine sons of The Dragon, who sent its sons to help the first emperor conquer China. People didn't know too much about the Nine Dragons until Ming

Gardening and Gamboling

2012-01-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

John Muir at home in middle age Courtesy Library of Congress "My life these days is like the life of a glacier...one eternal grind; ...soon I'll throw down my pen and take up my heels and go mountaineering once more." John Muir from Life and Letters Northern California mountain mandarins However, not my

Head in the Clouds: A Visit to NCAR

2012-01-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

I’m back from my holiday travel adventures – with a bad cold and happy memories. I visited my granddaughter, Ada, in Eau Claire Wisconsin for Christmas and found plenty of ice and snow, then spent several days with my long-time friend and fellow writer Sara Sheldon in Boulder Colorado. Sara’s livingroom window offered the view of an intriguing building on a bluff above the city. I studied it

The Grace Foundation Offers Good News

2012-01-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Beth DeCaprio, founder The Grace Foundation El Dorado Hills, CA The New Year started on a good note for 56 horses that were found alive, but abused and starved on the Whispering Pines Ranch last fall near Susanville, CA, in the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. For the past five months I've followed the fate of these horses and the efforts of the nonprofit The Grace Foundation in El

Socks & Champagne

2012-01-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

A new study shows the aquifer under the Mojave Desert, an environmentally sensitive area, has more water than Nevada’s Lake Mead, enough water to supply 400,000 people. And, the land above this aqua-trove is owned by a private company, Cadiz Inc., which has announced ambitious plans to mine it. A study conducted by engineering company CH2M Hill shows the aquifer under the Mojave ranges in size

Holiday Frolic with Naughty Santas -- Redux

2011-12-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

Editor's Note: When you see this post, I'll be on the road to all points snowy: Eau Claire Wisconsin for Christmas with my Granddaughter Ada, then to Boulder Colorado for New Years with my friend for 50 years, Sara Sheldon. I won't know what the holidays were like in California until I return. So -- here's last year's California holiday post. Hope it's as much fun this time around as it was

Christmas Letter to Algernon Moncrieff

2011-12-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

My Dearest Algernon: Thanks for the kid's school photos, very cute. Susie looks like such a lady and Joey is Mr. Personality-plus. I'll miss seeing them during the holidays. I've included a few shots of my own from lovely High Hand Nursery in Loomis, such a Divine place to shop. I'm off tomorrow to all points tropical—Eau Claire WI & Boulder CO. It will be down to 7-8 degrees at night in Eau

Camellias -- A timeless gift

2011-12-17T05:30:00.000-08:00

National Art Museum of China Chen Shuren, Spring Scenery of Linnan,1929 ink and brush It’s the time of year to be bombarded with last-minute gift ideas—but most of the suggestions are silly, crass or crummy. As Grandma used to say: Gifts should be something you would like to receive. A gift that has delighted for centuries is the camellia. The flowering shrub, cultivated in gardens of

ADRIFT IN THE SOUND Named Fiction Finalist

2011-12-10T07:44:00.001-08:00

The results are in—my forthcoming novel—ADRIFT IN THE SOUND is a finalist for The 2011 Mercer Street Books Fiction Prize! Out of more than 500 manuscripts, Adrift was in the top five. This year’s top winner is Dorette Snover for THE CITY OF LADIES. Find a listing of the winners and an excerpt from Dorette’s novel at: http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/andernovelcontest-02.html Many thanks

Crying Woman: Myth of “La Llorona”

2011-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

I read an interesting article recently in the Imperial Valley Press. For those not familiar with this corner of California, Imperial County is in the state's very southeast corner. It's an amazing desert farming region that grows much of the nation's vegetables during the winter. Because it is on the border with Mexico, many farmworkers commute back and forth between the the U.S. and Mexico to

Where is the Wisdom?

2011-11-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Where is the wisdom We have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge We have lost in information? T.S. Eliot I found myself in an odd place, odd for me, that is. One of my poems was recently collected in an anthology of “elder” poetry, included in what the editors call a community of verse. Thing is, I never thought of myself as old. I’m thinking I can climb mountains and dig ditches,

Use the Popcorn Principle When Gardening with Kids

2011-11-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

This week, please welcome Word Garden guest Valarie Revels, a highly experienced children's gardening educator. She stresses the urbanpart of her expertise. She specializes in teaching kids who live in apartments and play on asphalt. A children’s and reference librarian in Southern California, Valarie was a University of California Master Gardener for 8 years and a professional gardener

Butterflies and Out-Of-Body Experiences

2011-11-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

First Light On Steens Mountain, Great Basin By David Jensen Several years ago I participated in the Surprise Valley Writers Forum, a gathering of Western writers in Cedarville, a California frontier town on the doorstep of Nevada’s Great Basin. When the forum ended, some of the local writers suggested I take the “back way” home to Sacramento. What they didn’t tell me before I headed out is

Fall Salmon Run on the Yuba River

2011-10-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Spent time on the Yuba River in Northern California last week. Here are a few shots of the fall salmon run at Daguerre Point Dam. The fall run looks strong, the spawning activity amazing—languid mating in the sun, the female finning aside gravel to make a welcoming nest for her eggs, the male pacing in the shallows nearby before gliding in to cover the nest and fertilize the eggs. Very

Life Well Illustrated

2011-10-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hardcover, 150 illustrations $45.00 Illustrated journals, an often overlooked literary art form, are the subject of a new book from Heyday Books. Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries by Susan Snyder draws on the treasure trove that is the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. This handsome collection of excerpts from 50 diaries—from the likes of

Big Bang and the Velocity of Words

2011-10-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Driving back to Sacramento after dinner with friends in San Francisco, I heard a story on National Public Radio by Aimee Bender that sticks in my mind. I’ve tried to find it on the NPR Web site, but it doesn’t come up, so I can’t offer a link. Believe me, I’ve tried every search term I can think of, but it’s gone into the ether. (If you find a link, let us know, post in comments.) The story was

Fall's "All-Star" Lineup

2011-10-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

Squaw Valley Tram We’ve had a rare early fall rain in California this week that soaked the ground and dusted the Sierra Nevada with snow. A storm dumped more than an inch of rain on parts of California's agricultural heartland in less than five hours, flooding streets, uprooting trees and soaking a bumper crop of raisins drying in vineyards. A live web cam at China Peak in the

Pacific Flyway's Magnificent Migration

2011-09-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Due to some exciting developments in my writing life -- my novel, Adrift in the Sound, being named a finalist in the The Mercer Street Books Fiction Prize competition and negotiations to publish it, there isn't a new post for the Word Garden this week. I'm editing the book manuscript now with the help of a friend -- novelist Tom Thomas -- and getting it ready for what comes next

Fall in the Garden

2011-09-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

New scarlet-pearl snowberry hybrid from Monrovia nursery As summer slips into fall, it’s time to scan the garden for needed pruning and decide what to bring inside for seasonal decoration—pumpkins, gourds, dried flowers, branches, foliage and berries. In my garden, tree leaves are preparing to turn color and drop, creating weeks of regular cleanup work, but also providing accents on

Manzanita: Saving & Celebrating Our Natives

2011-09-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Franciscan manzanita Shelley Estelle, Presidio Trust Like old shoes and faded wallpaper, everyday things often go unnoticed, which made announcement of the last known specimen of Franciscan manzanita growing wild surprising. It was discovered in the job site where the new Doyle Drive approach to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is being built, coincidentally a construction job my brother