For 24 hours, I chased the dark, sweeping storm clouds across the Carrizo Plain National Monument, not knowing what would transpire. However, I knew I had to go to know.

Once you have planned how your garden is to be used, the next most important step is to tackle what you should plant. 

Suppose a task is important, but nearly impossible. You’ll almost certainly never accomplish it, but it would be great if you did. Would you try?

A young guy who transports shaped blanks and finished surfboards back and forth between our shop at 500 Maple Ave. in Carpinteria and the fiberglass shop in Costa Mesa stopped in with a delivery the other week and we got to talking. He related a harrowing tale from last October, when he’d la…

New buildings are approved long before the first bulldozer shows up. Even more impactful, land use zoning decisions are often made years before any particular development is even conceived.

I thought it was time to revisit the provocative topic of artificial intelligence (AI). A company I currently contract with is using AI for several basic tasks and recently invited all its employees and contractors to participate in its ChatGPT subscription as an incentive to stimulate colla…

I’ve always known them to be tiny, but when one was sitting on top of my right foot, I couldn’t ask for a better perspective.

Planning your garden is an important step in getting the best garden for you and your family. Every time I meet a new client, I assess how they would use their garden and that is the first step in any design I do. 

Failed epics can be boring. They also have a unique way of disappointing, of letting you down, particularly if the source material is near and dear to your heart. So, attempted epics like “Dune” are a risk – not just financially, but cinematically too. A lot’s riding on this one.

[Editor’s Note: A copy of the Superintendent’s Report is run in print as a service for parents, students and community members who cannot attend Carpinteria Unified School District’s Board of Trustees meetings. This report was read aloud during the school board’s March 12 meeting.]

For a long time, I struggled to believe that I could make a living surfing, shaping and writing. It seemed such a long-shot dream, fraught as it was with echoing thoughts from my childhood home about how surfing was just a vehicle for the stoner’s half-life, under-realized and barely functio…

These are good times for frogs. With all the rain we have been having, spring nights are filled with their choruses – especially if you have a pond or creek nearby. The most boisterous and common frogs we have are the Baja California (formerly Pacific) tree frogs. 

Inspiration for this month’s column came from a recent project I was invited to look at over lunch one Friday at Teddy’s last year. Friday lunch at Teddy’s has become a regular weekly event for Hal Price and me for almost three years and we have invited many of our local friends to join us t…

These days, people are finally starting to talk openly about mental health, which is exciting! And guess what? What we eat doesn’t just fill our stomachs – it fuels our brains, influences our emotions and can actually help your brain work better and even keep your spirits lifted.

We all know there is a shortage of reasonably priced housing locally. The standard for affordability is that a household should not pay more than 30% of its income on housing expenses. Paying more than this is called being “cost-burdened.”

Editor’s Note: A copy of the Superintendent’s Report is run in print as a service for parents, students and community members who cannot attend Carpinteria Unified School District’s Board of Trustees meetings. This report was read aloud during the school board’s Feb. 27 meeting.

Toward the end of 2023, Santa Barbara County Parks installed a plaque at the “new” and improved end of Lookout Park. Small and bronze, mounted at the base of a sandstone boulder, it reads: Fran Davis, Summerland Columnist, Parks Advocate. 

As nature awakens from its winter slumber and vibrant blooms begin to paint the landscape, we welcome the season of spring, alongside the beginning of the new year of the wood dragon. In Chinese medicine, the season of spring coincides with the lunar new year and is seen as a time for rejuve…

Many think of winter as a quiet time in their garden, since it’s when many plants go dormant. While it’s not the time of year when your plants are looking their best, there is a lot you can do to get your garden prepped so when spring does roll around, your plants will be ready to bloom thei…

My last review was about Willy Wonka. The one before that was about a Disney cartoon – it featured magical wishes, power ballads, and a pet star.

After a quick hike in the mud across a soddened marine terrace, I found myself on a deserted central coast beach, driftwood and tangled bull kelp strewn below eroding bluffs. Besides the surf crashing on the lonely strand and clusters of sanderlings working the ebb and flow of the incoming t…

So, I have a friend who has resurfaced in recent years, both of us having continued surfing through the decades since adolescence in Newport Beach when we first knew each other. But aside from a few mutual acquaintances through whom we could have possibly crossed paths again, it’s unlikely t…

Ten years ago this month, in the first year of this column, I told a story about a real experience related to a development proposed years earlier. With the multiple development activities currently proposed in the Carpinteria Valley, the story has lessons we can still learn from today. So h…

The lone black oystercatcher was steadfast, unwavering in howling northwest winds, as it refused to leave its two eggs nestled in a gritty depression on the roof of a sea cave known as “Birth Canal.”

Getting kids to eat their vegetables can be tough – especially when parents are running on empty. But there are creative and effective ways to make veggies more palatable to young taste buds. 

For as long as I can remember, my family has spent New Year’s Day together. We are a big sports family, so that meant that on Jan. 1, we were usually crowded around the TV watching what is typically one of the biggest college football games of the year: the Rose Bowl.

The year of 2023 was notable in Carpinteria real estate. We experienced one of the lowest sales volume years on record, with only 90 homes and condos sold in the 93013-zip code. Comparing this only to 2022 does not feel as dramatic of a shift – with only a 20% drop in sales – but it is quite…