THE COASTWATCHERS Chapter Twenty-Five
Mr Somov came to stay with us at the ranch after he was released from the hospital. He couldn’t go home to his canyon retreat, not until his broken leg was better. Once he was on his feet again...
IN PURSUIT OF THE ENDLESS SUMMER
The Pacific Flyway passes right overhead and fall migration is already underway, a river of birds traveling south. Billions of birds are migrating this month, many of them at night, guided by the stars. Here in the Santa Monica...
One-Room Schoolhouse
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road. Public education in California was still relatively...
Topanga Ranch Motel Gets a Reprieve
The historic Topanga Ranch Motel has won a reprieve. When the Topanga Lagoon Restoration Project moves forward, the motel will be restored, instead of demolished, and will eventually reopen. This small rustic row of cabins is one of the...
Back to School
The Topanga Times News’ office is located exactly where these school children sat in neat rows at their desks in 1951, learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. The parents of some of these children attended school in the canyon’s original...
Desert Voices
“‘Just now our blood dances to other music.’ They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.” The swallows in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows...
Desert Daytrip
A desert experience doesn’t always require one to crawl on hands and knees through the thornbush and cactus, regardless of what Edward Abbey says. Anyone seeking cactus, sandstone, and volcanic peaks need look no farther than our own Santa...
THE COASTWATCHERS Chapter Twenty-Four
The fire burned for almost five days. The road remained closed. There was no way Jessie, Jacob or I could get to school, but we were kept busy at the ranch. Fire crews began straggling out of the backcountry,...
Where the Nightjars Sing
In the quiet silent seconds I turned off the light switch And I came down to meet you in the half light the moon left While a cluster of nightjars sang some songs out of tune A mantle of...
Nightbirds
Have you ever sat in the garden on a summer night and heard the somber oboe duet of the great horned owls performed in stereo from the tops of the tallest trees? Have you ever seen the pale, ghostlike...
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