Wild or Tame
Searching for Beauty: A Busy Month of Nature Walks, Garden Strolls, Theater Productions, and a Quilt Show!
April, Earth Month, has been a busy 30 days! I don’t know about you, but I find Mother Nature’s annual invitation to get outside into the sunshine irresistable. It feels like a giant scavenger hunt, or dare I say an Easter egg hunt, as I go out in search of springtime flowers. Though I’ve visited some trails and gardens every spring for years, every year feels fresh and new, like each is a totally new discovery!
Spring Flowers - Wild & Tame
Do you have favorite springtime flower-hunting locations? Wildflower trails? Botanical gardens? Public parks? Where do you walk in springtime?
My faves are the Buttermilk Bend Trail at South Yuba River State Park at Bridgeport for wildflowers, and Ananda’s Crystal Hermitage Tulip Garden for tame flowers. Both are spectacularly beautiful and provide me with an expansive sense of awe! Every year, the garden artists at the Tulip Garden carefully place and nurture 20,000 bulbs to create sweeping rivers of color and hidden corners, too—painting with petals. The walk along the Buttermilk Bend Trail, with its wide views of the Yuba River far below, is bordered by poppies and lupines galore. It always reminds me of that absolutely lovely children’s picture book about the Lupine Lady, Miss Rumphius.
The Rollins Lake Trail only has only a few wildflowers, but watching the wiggly polliwogs in the ditch by the trail brings me great pleasure. The peaceful, wandering Alan Thiesen Trail on the backside of Alta Sierra is lush and green this time of year, as is the Hardrock Trail at Empire Mine State Park. The Horton Iris Garden in Loomis is pretty spectacular, too.
John O’Donohue, in his book Beauty, one of my all-time favorite books ever, writes about the important role beauty and awe play in our lives—the beauty found in nature, art, music, literature—be they small observations or grand landscapes.
Beauty does not linger, it only visits. Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it calls us to feel, think, and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful. ~ John O'Donohue
The Arts
I am in awe of artists and creatives. They bring beauty and joy into our lives. With all the swirling chaos in the world right now, I need extra doses of beauty in my life, extra doses of awe. Don’t you?
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, recommends taking ourselves on regular and frequent field trips in search of beautiful things and new experiences. She sees those explorations and excursions as the way to keep our creativity sharp and inspired. I agree. Or maybe it’s just my excuse to treat myself to my favorite things!
Live theater just might be my favorite spectator sport. I had the pleasure of attending a flawless and moving performance of Nosotros La Gente (We The People) by the B Street Theatre Company at the Sofia in Sacramento. I highly recommend it! (It runs through May 18.) I was also at Broadway at Music Circus to see a high-energy performance in-the-round of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. I highly recommend that one, too. While the first one had me weeping, the second had me bouncing in my seat!
The other spring show of great art that I always try to attend is the Pine Tree Quilt Show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. I’m an amateur quilter, so I’m blown away by some of the masterpiece quilts on display. They are truely inspiring works of art!
Do you visit art museums or galleries? Craft shows or photography shows? What art do you make?
Earth Month Book Project
Earth Month 2025 is over, so is my Read Your Way Through Earth Month project. A deep bow of GRATITUDE goes out to everyone who participated—authors, readers, attendees. I’m deeply thankful and hope you all found new nature-centered books to add to your TBR (to be read) pile! I’ve already begun collecting book titles for the 2026 list. If you have that perfect suggestion, be sure to tell me in the comments!
The drawing results are in! Several authors donated their books. (Thank you!) The lucky winners will be contacted in the next few days via email, so the books can be mailed out to you.
If you’d like to meet some of the Earth Month authors, here’s a link to the Zoom recording of our Earth Day Author Chat. Authors Cam Torrens (Scorched), Kay Smith-Blum (Tangles), Sheila Myers (The Truth of Who You Are), Ethan Gallogly (The Trail), Rosanne McHenry (Tales From a Rogue Ranger), Lena Gibson (The Edge of Life) all joined me to talk about books. Click here to watch the video. Click here to download your copy of the #30TitlesEarthMonth calendar and list of books.
Coming Up: Mother’s Day!
For all those adventure-loving and nature-loving moms out there, Force of Nature could be the perfect Mother’s Day gift. Order from me directly by May 5, and I’ll send her a personally inscribed and carefully gift-wrapped copy. I’ll include one of my handmade beaded bookmarks, too. Email me here.
Book Clubs - Mine & Yours
My small Colfax Book Club (Cappy, Jane, Barbara, Laurel and LeeAnn) just finished reading Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. We all loved it! It’s a beautifully written little novel set in a small town in Ireland with a focus on the members of one family. It’s a great read for a book club, because it’s main characters make important decisions that leave readers speculating on the possible long-term effects of their choices. We had a lengthy animated talk about this one! This is the book club that tries to do themed dinners, so we endulged in a delicious Irish fish chowder (recipe at the end of the newsletter), a crusty bread, potatoes, and a sweet lemon dessert. Mmm mmm! Next up is Drawing Water by Barbara Olson Lawrence!
The South Placer AAUW Book Club recently discussed Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker, an historical novel about the air ambulance nurses who bravely flew into WWII combat zones to retrieve the injured. Reading that on the heals of The Women by Kristin Hannah, a novel about Vietnam War army nurses, made for some great comparisons in our discussion. Our May book selection is Stephanie Dray’s Becoming Madam Secretary about the amazing Frances Perkins. She’s my hero, so I’m really looking forward to that conversation!
I’m available to chat about Force of Nature with your book club, too. In person or via Zoom. Thanks to all the book clubs who have chosen to read Force of Nature—book clubs from Maine, New York, and Tennessee, to Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Kansas, to Oregon, Arizona, and South Dakota! You can find a thorough Book Club Kit, full of discussion questions, background information, and links to maps and photos, on my website. Click here. Be sure to contact me ahead of time, and I’ll send you a book club set of handmade bookmarks, too. (And remember to send me a photo afterwards!)
Does your book club have a name? Mine doesn’t, though I think we should come up with one! Recently I’ve connected with “Words and Walks” in Wisconsin (they read and hike!) and “Best Book Club Ever” in Georgia and “Aqua Chicks” here in California. Shout out to book clubs with great names. What’s yours?
California State Parks - Possible Road Trip
Every spring, I receive in the mail a lovely map from the CA State Parks, indicating the locations of all 280 state parks. The system includes coastlines, forests, deserts, historical sites—the largest and most diverse in the country. Every year, I think, “Gee, I should go on a road trip to check out all these parks!” I imagine beginning with a small loop close to home, then expanding every succeeding year until I hit them all.
I frequent our local parks—Empire Mine and South Yuba River—which are both wonderful place to hike and relax and learn about our history. And of course, there are several Gold Country area parks dedicated to important California Gold Rush events that I’ve visited, but beyond that, I am embarassed to say I remain uninformed. What are your favorite state parks here in California or elsewhere? Which do you recommend visiting?
Springtime Reading & Book Club Suggestions
I got waaay behind in sharing book recommendations. There are 13 books I’d like to share with you, but that seems like waaay too much for this blog post!
I’m going to break with the monthly newsletter/blog pattern (again) and share my book reviews in a mid-month, mid-May newsletter dedicated to just book reviews and recommendations. That way I can catch you and me both up on some good books, as well as a dud or two!
Mark Your Calendar for Upcoming Author Talks:
South Placer Rotary Club - I will be speaking about hiking the John Muir Trail on May 14. If you’re a Rotarian, I hope to see you there!
Lake of the Pines Firebelles Luncheon - I will be sharing the stage with the remarkable Nancy Lichtle, a skydiving world champion and wild woman. My Force of Nature adventures pale in comparison!
My OLLI at Sierra College Spotlight on Authors Interview Series continues in Spring Semester with author and artist Barbara Olson Lawrence on May 16 just in time for Mother’s Day, and author Shelley Blanton-Stroud on June 6, both at noon via Zoom.
Recipe for Irish Fish Chowder (and the Story Behind the Recipe)
While visiting Ireland in 2017 with Cappy and Pam via Road Scholar, we were hosted for dinner and conversation in small groups in the homes of locals in the city of Cobh. Pam and I dined with Christine, a single mom of two boys who lived in a sweet little house and served us her Irish Fish Chowder. It was delicious! I asked for the recipe, though I had nothing to write on or with. Her directions began with “Start with a lot of butter.” After we got Christine to define her quantities a bit more concretely, Pam and I repeated the directions over and over to ourselves so we wouldn’t forget them before we got back to our hotel room. There, I scribbled it all down as fast as I could. I’ve since made it several times, and it’s always delicious, though the flavors vary a bit with what kinds of fish I use. The aroma always reminds me of that wonderful trip!
Thank you for such informative writing. You inspire us to get out and "enjoy".
Great information- thank you. I am a
multi media artist. Love to collect organic materials in nature for collage projects.
The colors of Spring flowers are a great inspiration for artists. Have you visited the Rose Garden in Granite Bay behind the Marello Church? Over 400 roses have been planted there! Magnificent. A must see.