That was the easy part, the transition from awful to good. Next step is the tough one, good to great.
Kings fans are thrilled with this season’s progress, a hungry audience given a meal of rump steak, starchy potatoes and organic lettuce. Now let’s talk about dessert and remember reaching the NBA playoffs is not a major accomplishment.
When I stumbled onto Fiery Ginger Farm in West Sacramento, I thought I must be in the wrong place. Just off a main drive choked with cars, behind a motorcycle shop, an agricultural oasis beckoned.
The confluence of urban and rural, the contrast of cement and steel with compost and budding broccoli, struck me as an oddly poetic but fitting combination as I considered the food many of our kids eat.
With rows of organic salad greens, rooting pigs, digging ducks, greeting goats, and a field of cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli, I was in homesteader heaven just blocks from Downtown.
Imagine our kids’ school lunch trays packed with fresh, organic salad greens, pastured pork, braised turnips, broccoli heads kissed with Meyer lemon zest, and strawberries with green crowns still attached.
If you jog along the American River Parkway and spot a tree with gnarled roots dangling over the riverbank, stop and say hello to “Mickey’s Tree.”
It’s a bit of Sacramento immortalized in the 40-minute movie of the same name by local filmmaker and composer Belton Mouras Jr.
“I’ve had so many adventures out there,” Mouras says of the trail he pounded thousands of times as a triathlete.
Recalling his late rescue dog, he adds, “Mickey and I would be out there almost every day and he led me to that tree. It’s exhilarating to be out there. A lot of people don’t get to experience the parkway to that degree, so I wanted to showcase all the nature that’s available to us right here in the film.”
Traveling via Sacramento International Airport has its frustrations.
There’s the wait for the people-mover train to reach your gate at Concourse B. When it arrives, you crowd into compartments with other passengers and risk exposure to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
Then there’s the lack of parking near both terminals. And the need to ride a shuttle bus to rental car agencies.
Now Sacramento County’s Department of Airports is doing something to remedy the situation with a $1.3 billion expansion. Besides improving infrastructure, the goal is to enhance the airport experience and accommodate projected passenger growth.
Rising utility bills and grocery prices can be a gut-punch, especially when tethered to other daily challenges. No wonder studies reveal sufferings from anxiety and depression have tripled in recent years.
Beat back the blues with flowers! Containers of cheery, happy blooms fill the heart with joy.
Trek to the neighborhood nursery and buy armfuls of ostentatious annuals. Select big, bold containers and sacks of quality potting soil. These are baby steps to designing and erecting an adult happy place. Spectacular containers add decorative focal points and supercharge an emotional boost and sense of accomplishment.
