Sylvia Patience, Author

The percentage of births at home in the U.S., while still under 1%, increased significantly from 2004 to 2008. See this article. Vermont had the second highest rate of home births after Montana. And also in the news this week, Vermont has just passed a law to require insurers to pay for home births attended Read more

Check the Santa Cruz Peace Chorale website for information about our upcoming concerts. Tonight, April 30th, we’ll be singing and sponsoring a film about Anne Braden as part of the Reel Work film festival. Next Saturday (May 7th) is the annual concert with silent auction and strawberry shortcake. Hope you can come. This year we Read more

I haven’t been following the “birther” controversy too closely. It seemed ridiculous and Trumped up to create an issue of a non-issue. However, this analysis by Goldie Taylor on the Rachel Maddow show is excellent. (Sorry about the advertisement at the start.) It helped me realize what the “controversy” is really about: a racist attempt Read more

Take a look at the Natural History Museum blog for a description and photos of Monday’s field trip for Museum docents to the Elkhorn Slough reserve. We got to see the greenhouse and participate in planting starts for a native rye grass. Winter is the season when native plants will be set out, after they’re Read more

It’s April Fool’s Day, but this isn’t a trick post. I’m sitting here listening to birds outside my window, expressing their delight (or so I imagine) in the sunny spring weather we’re experiencing after the deluge and flooding we had last week. Yesterday afternoon I went to the first session of a field trip style Read more

Since the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan I’ve been having a mixture of thoughts and feelings about the situation. First of all, the loss of life and destruction is almost more than I can comprehend. And at the same time, I’m amazed that so many people survived a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Having experienced our Read more