Many Topanga residents have embraced the teachings of the Buddha over the years. Liz Shepherd, David Totheroh, and Kedric Wolfe painted the original Topanga “Buddha on the Wall” on Labor Day in 1982. The mural, designed by Shepherd, has been a serene presence ever since. In 2016, Clare Brown spearheaded the effort to restore the mural and add new color. A decade later, this painted Buddha still greets residents and travelers on Topanga Canyon Blvd., but the canyon is now home to a more substantial Buddhist presence, Yuthok Ling temple at Pure Land Farms. This special place is dedicated to the practice of the Tibetan Buddhist Yuthok Nyingthig spiritual tradition. It is a place of healing, meditation, prayer, and contemplation, and a center for teaching. Join TNT’s Claire Fordham for a visit to this Topanga sanctuary, an island of serenity in an increasingly troubled time. Cover design by Urs Baur
Endless summer? Not exactly, but this has been the warmest winter in California history, or at least since records began to be kept a hundred years ago. The alternating heat and heavy rain has upended what is generally the cold season in Southern California, and there is the potential for more deluging rains, more powerful Santa Ana winds, more cold weather, more hot weather in the next couple of weeks.
The chaotic mix of record rains and record heat is upending not only the weather forecast but also some of the seasonal changes. Annual wildflowers that got off to a strong start during the rains are bolting to seed or simply drying up in the heat. Ponds are already full of tadpoles and the eggs and larval stages of other species that have an aquatic phase, even though spring is still weeks away.
Out in the desert, Death Valley is experiencing a super bloom, but in the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve almost nothing has bloomed yet, while on the drive there, the mountains around Acton are golden with poppies.
Here in the Santa Monica Mountains many perennial wildflowers have already bloomed and gone to seed, long before the annuals that usually accompany them. Thanks to the early, heavy rains and despite record heat this winter, California is now completely free of drought conditions for the first time in decades, while other parts of the West have received almost no rain this season although plenty of unseasonable warmth. And while the West copes with summer in winter, the Northeast is enduring extreme cold and snow storm after snow storm.
The long-term forecast suggests some of that is beginning to change, and that as the West cools the East will begin to warm. Rain may be back in the forecast in California by next week, and this time it may also come to other parts of the West, while the East begins to thaw, but chaos continues to rule the weather. March isn’t coming in “like a lion.” The calendar marches on despite the chaotic weather. Birds and squirrels are nesting, the gray whale migration is underway along the coast, and the spring butterflies are hatching. We saw the first Sara orange tips and California sister butterflies on the wing in the canyon, a sure sign of spring, no matter what the weather is like. We also saw—and narrowly missed—stepping on a rattlesnake. It was a good reminder that snakes are active—summer, winter, spring, and fall—whenever the weather is warm enough for them to thermoregulate.
Technically, astronomical spring doesn’t officially arrive until the vernal equinox on Friday, March 20, at 1:46 pm. This is the moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator for the first time since autumn, and day and night are of equal length. It marks the end of the first quarter of the year, and the beginning of the journey towards summer, as each day grows longer, and each night shorter.
Humans, with their penchant for reorganizing the natural world, are too impatient to wait for the natural progression of the planet to bring longer days. Daylight Saving Time begins on March 8 this year, once again abruptly catapulting us an hour ahead, in order to give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening, despite the ever-growing evidence that this change is not beneficial to human health.
Studies have repeatedly shown an increase in the number of fatal traffic collisions and heart attacks and strokes following the switch to DST—a six percent higher risk of traffic fatalities and 24 percent higher incidence of heart attack in the 24 hours following the switch over.
There is also a correlation between workplace injuries and the DST switch-over.
One of the most recent studies, published by Stanford Medicine researchers in 2025, concludes that permanent standard time “could prevent some 300,000 cases of stroke per year and result in 2.6 million fewer people having obesity,” and that permanent daylight saving time “would achieve about two-thirds of the same effect.”
And yet, back and forth we go, twice a year, every year. The best way to adapt, the experts say, is to prioritize sleep, getting plenty of natural light in the morning, and avoiding long drives or using dangerous equipment during the adjustment period. Not everyone has that luxury, but we can, at least, be aware that this so-called “extra hour” of daylight, like so many things these days, comes with the potential for serious side effects.
As we get ready to spring ahead, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure we look before we leap.
Stay safe, be well.
