by Paula Panich
Pesky problems in your garden? Winter too harsh or too dry? A few snails? Maybe some powdery mildew? Howard Weiss will trade his problems for yours. Mr. Weiss gardens on a third of an acre at about 6,000 feet in Idyllwild, California. He has never gardened in any other conditions. (He doesn’t know that some […]
Categories: Mountain Stories • Tags: CA, Idyllwild, San Jacinto Mountains, Southern California gardening
by Paula Panich
The San Jacinto Mountains, above Palm Springs, California, shoot up 10,804 feet from the desert without, as one writer has it, the geologic fanfare of foothills. I’d come in January 2006 to one of its mountain towns, Idyllwild, to try to recover some shred of a self fractured from a September move. I left a […]
Categories: Mountain Stories • Tags: CA, Idyllwild, Palm Springs, Riverside County, San Jacinto Mountains
by Paula Panich
The San Jacinto Mountains, above Palm Springs, California, shoot up 10,804 feet from the desert without, as one writer has it, the geologic fanfare of foothills. I’d come in January to one of its mountain towns, Idyllwild, to try to recover some shred of a self fractured from a September move. I left a beloved […]
Categories: Mountain Stories • Tags: California native plants, manzanita, Mountain Stories, San Jacinto Mountains, Southern California, Southern California Mountains, Tricycle Magazine
by Paula Panich
Two months ago an article appeared in the New York Times Magazine, delivering, on that chilly Sunday morning, a bit of a shock. Titled, “What is Art For?”, the piece, by Daniel B. Smith, is a survey of the thought and work of the poet, essayist, and thinker Lewis Hyde.It felt to me as a […]
Categories: Literary Essays/Book Reviews • Tags: CA; Southern California Mountains, cabin in the woods, California, Idyllwild, landscape, Lewis Hyde, San Jacinto Mountains, The Gift, writing
by Paula Panich
Chance favors the prepared mind. Painters, writers, musicians, sculptors, photographers, all know this. For writers, to be gifted by chance comes not just in the practice of craft, but also in the practice of reading. To write is also to read, and a lifetime is required to become a skilled reader. Reading deeply isn’t easy. […]
Categories: Writing/Artmaking • Tags: CA, Daybooks, Edward Weston, Edward Weston's Daybooks, history of photography, Idyllwild, photography, San Jacinto Mountains, Southern California Mountains