Driving Highway 1 in California: William Randolph Hearst Beach

William Randolph Hearst Beach

Hearst castle is not the only landmark named for press baron William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon, California. Hearst Castle sits atop the so-called Enchanted Hill. At the bottom of the hill, on the other side of Highway 1, is San Simeon State Park and the William Randolph Hearst Beach. In the above photo, taken [...]

Urban biodiversity – Life in the concrete jungle

Squirrel

Cities have a bad rap for being environmental baddies and that’s not always justified. While I love visiting beautiful wilderness areas, I know that my impact on the planet’s ecology is often less in a city because I don’t need a car to get there or get around. I’ve previously written about greening your city [...]

Photo Friday: Trafalgar Square with pigeons in 1990s London

Trafalgar-Square-1998

Trafalgar Square, London; December 1998 After last week’s trip down memory lane to a childhood holiday in Fiji, here is another time travel edition of Photo Friday. This is Trafalgar Square in London in 1998, with the Canadian High Commission in the background. My mother was living in Cambridge at the time and I spent [...]

Romantic honeymoon destinations in the Greek Islands

Greek-Islands

This is a guest post by freelance travel writer Matthew Hawking. In the hit movie Mamma Mia!, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan lit up the screen but the real star was the stunning land and seascape of the Greek Islands. The Abba-themed romp was filmed on Skopelos and Skiathos, but Greece has nearly 1400 islands [...]

Buffalo meat is healthy, tasty and eco-friendly

Buffalo-meat

I am a convert to eating buffalo. Oh my. This time last year I penned an article for EcoSalon about the environmental arguments for Americans to eat buffalo. The main point is that rearing buffalo promotes the restoration of native grasslands in the prairies of the American West. However, as I was living in Britain [...]

Sustainable food: Web dust-up over Nestlé and palm oil

Orangutan

If you crossed Willy Wonka, you could end up in a garbage chute or transformed into a giant blueberry. Right now, Nestlé could be wishing it had the same power. In the Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the worst Wonka had to deal with was a handful of rude children and their [...]

Spring cooking: Recipe for asparagus tart

Asparagus tart

An improvised tart to celebrate spring – perfect for a Sunday lunch with friends. The White Witch still has the East Coast in her wintry clutches, but here in Californarnia, Aslan is on the move. It’s spring! The song birds are pairing up, the squirrels are getting frisky, and the trees are in blossom. Best [...]

Driving Highway 1 in California – Big Sur hike to Buzzard’s Roost

Buzzard's Roost hike, Big Sur, California 2

This is part 5 in my series on our California Highway 1 road trip. Big Sur country in California is famous for its hiking and camping and my husband and I were determined not to leave the park without doing at least some walking. For the most part this holiday was very much a road [...]

Driving Highway 1 in California – Big Sur Lodge and Pfeiffer Falls

Our cabins at Big Sur Lodge

This is part 4 a series about a road trip along California’s famous Highway 1. Please check out my other posts on Highway 1 and don’t forget to subscribe. After visiting the beautiful lookout at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, we wanted to find somewhere in Big Sur country to stay the night. We had [...]

Driving Highway 1 in California: McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Close-up of McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

The latest post in my series about driving California’s scenic Highway 1. The stretch of Highway 1 in California from San Simeon in the south to Monterey in the north has to be one of the most scenic road trips in the world. At every bend of the road we were treated to views of [...]

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