Napa

Remember those days when your parents would drive down the highway and the front window and front of the car would be covered with dead bugs? The so-called windshield phenomenon does not happen much anymore. When I check my car, I don't find any little bug bodies.

Years ago, on the last day of school, the assistant principal sent out an email to all the teachers. He suggested we sit down for a few minutes and review our academic year and think about what went well in our classes and what, perhaps, needed some rethinking.

Last fall I noticed a brown squirrel lounging on top of my owl nest box. She was just opposite my kitchen window so I put my binoculars there so I could watch her. Often she would be stretched out with her front paws hanging over the edge.

On any given day, air and surface temperatures tend to be higher in urban areas than in surrounding rural settings. This phenomenon is called the heat-island effect.

About 25 years ago, my children and I planted a particularly exuberant flower garden in the backyard. We had pink and purple, and white cosmos, brilliant blue morning glories and many colors of zinnias.

One of my neighbors, David Graves, is a partner in the Carneros winery Saintsbury. It's a small but thriving enterprise and very attractive because of its garden, making it a pleasant place to sit and enjoy the flowers and the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds attracted to them.

Napa Valley has a unique plant growing along its waterways, especially along the Napa River. It is Dutchman's pipevine (Aristolochia californica) and it is native to California.

Keep your soil covered. This is only one of the decrees from a recent presentation by the UC Master Gardeners of Napa County. But what does covering the soil mean? Why do we want to cover it and with what? The answers are pretty simple.

Every year I have a different favorite plant. Last year it was brugmansia, the year before that monarda, but this year--which has already had a couple of scorching days--it is the oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).

When I first moved to Napa Valley many years ago, olive trees were everywhere, both on the hillsides and in the valley. There was a large grove high on a hill on Silverado Trail, but over the years those trees have disappeared.