The Carrizo Plain National Monument was created in 2001 by President Bill Clinton. Carrizo Plain is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles near the oil-rich towns of Taft and Maricopa. In the Spring, there is usually an amazing assortment of flowers, and the entire plain is covered in all directions with...

“Flying by the seat of your pants” is an expression we’ve all heard and used before. But what about flying with your toes? Jessica Cox does just that. Jessica was born in 1983 without arms. But instead of feeling like a victim and blaming her handicap for everything she can’t do, she decided...

I’ve often said that living with less can be a good thing. Reduce, reuse, recycle. I use metal water bottles over and over again; I reuse my kitchen trash in the compost bin in my garden; and I make my own paper with scrap paper from the mailbox and other waste that would generally go into the landfill. The...

My parents were rock hounds and had me out in the desert picking up rocks as a toddler. Over the years, I amassed quite a collection of interesting rocks, including one gold nugget. Most of my collecting was done in California and Nevada. However, on trips abroad, I’ve collected (purchased) fossils,...

My family has always been creative. We’ve had composers, opera singers, dancers, singers, musicians and glass blowers. My grandmother used to keep me in rapt attention as she would describe her Czechoslovakian cousin, Vaclav Stepanek, blowing objects of art and useful items such as hand-blown goblets. My...

The Pacific tree frog, also known as the Pacific chorus frog, is a resident of Santa Clarita, living in open-space habitats and reproducing in the aquatic areas such as the creeks in Placerita, Pico Canyon and Towsley Canyon. These little frogs can group up to 2 inches from their snout to their urostyle...

The National Park Service was authorized by Congress, in the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, to conduct a special resource study. The NPS has been working on this study ever since, which includes the mountains encircling the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys. In...

“Ring around the rosy / pockets full of posies / ashes, ashes / we all fall down.” We learned this nursery rhyme at a young age. As children, we formed a circle, held hands and danced around the circle as we sang it. It is believed the poem was written about the Black Death. In my lifetime, I have...

Have you ever given any thought to your olive oil purchase? Is your sole criteria price? Do you think all olive oil is the same? Well, it’s not. Olive oil comes in different grades. Some of them, you just might be familiar with, but do you know what that grade means? And even if you do know what the...

Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is caused by many different influenza viruses. If you have the flu, you may experience multiple symptoms which might include coughing, a sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches, fever, headache and extreme tiredness. Across the country,...