I attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate many moons ago and received my Ph.D. from the School of Social Science at UC Irvine. I was lucky to spend a year in Western Samoa doing postdoctoral research.

I love roses, and for you rosarians, my roses include Sombreuil, Sympathie, Austrian Copper, R. glauca, R. primula, Doorenbos Selection (possibly my favorite), Scotch Double White, Hebe's Lip, Madame Hardy, Mozart, Buff Beauty, Felicia, Marie van Houtte, Crimson Glory, Duchess de Brabant, White Pearl in Red Dragon’s Mouth, Cardinal Richelieu, and others. Those names alone make it worth growing roses! The rose to the right is a mystery rose that was growing on our property in Mountain View, California. It's the only rose I've successfully cloned. It has big cabbage-y blooms in spring, then fat orange hips in fall. It's tall but with fullness. We now have its daughter (or whatever a clone is) in Half Moon Bay.

There really is something to organic gardening. I have a garden in Northern California that I only get to visit occasionally, except for being there in the summer. About every 6-8 weeks I go to the garden and all it needs is the pulling of a few weeds (mostly oxalis). I find that amazing. The healthy plants seem to keep out the weeds. I have a new approach to my garden in SoCal--I just get whatever plants my friend Stepha Genelza, master gardener, gives me. Lately I have some new violets, succulents, geranium, narcissus, iris, and thyme from her garden. The other plants I enjoy are natives—like ceanothus, California poppies, wild roses, Douglas iris. I saw the most incredible columbines in Colorado on a visit there. And something called a royal catchfly in Ohio, a superb flower. I could go on, but…

Some fun things my family does include traveling together (see links to the pages) and a family bookclub. We all liked Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, had violent disagreements about Irving’s Owen Meaney and Robinson’s Housekeeping, and even did a session on Grizzly Man, moving into film. Sometimes we meet face to face and other times through email. Some of the online meetings are logged here.

In February, 2005 the then 12 year old, her friend, and friend’s mother and I went to Baja California to see the whales up close, getting to touch them (well, I was actually preventing the girls from falling into the water as they reached out but they did indeed touch them). Hearing the whales breathe inspired a new connection to nature that I had never experienced before. In August 2006 the family went to the spectacular Marble Mountain Wilderness in Northern California. We did not see Bigfoot but we know he was there. The Family Book Club is reading White Tiger which we will compare to Naive, Super, our last selection.

In the summer of 2008 we went to several national parks in Colorado and Utah, including the magnificent and uncrowded Sand Dunes National Park. We went to Washington D.C. this summer as Christopher is now in the foreign service with USAID. We ate at an amazing Ethiopian restaurant. Jeanette went to Honduras with the Amigos Program. There was a coup three days after the Amigos arrived, but they got to stay a full month and she had a great experience. The family has recently expanded with the very welcome addition of Jaclyn Darrouzet-Nardi, Anthony’s wife. Among other things, it is great to have another voice in the Book Club!