david briggs

Singles

Alden Riley and over 20 other members of the Tomales Bay Youth Center went on a field trip to County Club Bowl in San Rafael on Friday. Outings planned for the future include a trip into San Francisco by mass transit.
   
Father Pudota serves congregations at Tomales’ Church of the Assumption and Marshall’s St. Helen’s.
   
Ranchers in Point Reyes National Seashore are increasingly concerned that free-ranging tule elk are encroaching on pastoral lands and stand to disrupt the future economic viability of their operations.
     
  
A scavenger hunt through town followed a potluck banquet at the Grandi building, an impromptu mask dance, and an offering of flowers and chocolate to an alter celebrating Dia de los Muertos on Tuesday.
   
Members of West Marin TV can use equipment from a San Rafael media center to program shows. The new directors hope to expand the project with a new local office, diverse means of broadcast and better equipment.
   
A lack of rain, and therefore low water levels, in the Bay Area stands to leave salmon stranded in the streams they have come to lay eggs in.
     
  
Elderly swimmers exercise during an arobics class at the Cavanaugh Swimming Pool in Petaluma. The classes may cease if enrollment is not increased.
  
Bolinas musician and composer Dale Polissar debuts his new tragic/comic musical revue, “DÉJÀ VU (SO WHAT’S NEW?),” on Friday, September 16 at the Bolinas Community Center. The revue will show at the Dance Palace in October.
   
The future for Lawson’s Landing will include, among other things, a 650-cap on the total number of campsites. Co-owner Carl Vogler, referring to an order from the Coastal Commission to remove trailers in five years, said some of those were “almost surely bought on the blood of the permanent residents.”
     
  
Plucked turkeys were cooled in a water bath at Gospel Flat Farm last Sunday in preparation for Thanksgiving.
   
Nicasio school kids sang Christmas carols for a holiday tea and open house at Stockstill House, in Point Reyes Staion.
   
Released last week, the draft environmental impact statement for Drakes Bay Oyster Company in many instances contradicts the official views of independent and federal scientists.
     
  
Released last week, the draft environmental impact statement for Drakes Bay Oyster Company in many instances contradicts the official views of independent and federal scientists.
   
Drakes Bay Oyster Company owner Kevin Lunny, escorted by his workers, delivered over 7,700 comments to Seashore headquarters last Thursday. Addressed to Secretary Ken Salazar, the letters endorse Lunny’s operation past 2012.
   
At a campaign fundraising event on Tuesday, Sean Penn encouraged audience members to continue the tradition of progressive social movements by supporting the “principled” Norman Solomon in his bid for Congress.
     
  
A daily presentation at Bear Valley Visitor Center uses four projectors to display rotating NOAA imagery. The virtual tour, titled “Science of the Sphere,” traces animal migrations, climate changes and other phenomena.
   
Volunteers collect oversized but tasty leafy greens last Monday at one of Star Route Farm's many gleaning days. The salvaged lettuce goes to schools in the area.
   
Stewards of the largest pastures in the world visited West Marin this week to learn how grazing cows and composting can help stop global warming. The delegation from Chinas Ministry of Agriculture met with John Wick and Peggy Rathmann, co-founders of the Marin Carbon Project, a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Marin Agricultural Land Trust and other groups hoping to promote methods of carbon sequestration. By increasing carbon in the soil, atmospheric carbon is reduced. Improved grazing management means ensuring that vegetation is grazed at a frequency and intensity that increases the fixation of carbon dioxide as plant biomass. “Grasses co-evolved with grazing animals. They need each other”, Wick Said. The techniques being explored by the Marin Carbon Project are relatively inexpensive and yield promising results.
     
  
Alyssa Tanner dances her first dance at a coronation ball and barn dance after being crowned this year's 62nd Western Weekend Queen.
   
Water buffalo can more tempermental then cows but becuase of a higher fat content, the cheese made from their milk is richer. Craig Ramini's starter herd outside of Tomales will be the first to produce mozarella in Marin.
   
People flocked to Drakes Beach last Sunday for the annual Sand Sculpture Contest.
     
  
Xavier de la Prade opened the annual Saint Mary’s Christmas Concert on the accordion last Sunday. He was followed by a host of other musicians, including Mike Duke on piano and Spike Drady as master of ceremony.
   
The Bay Area Mycological Society held the fifth annual Fungus Fair at Point Reyes National Seashore on January 30 and 31. Recent rains provided the perfect climate for a smorgasbord of fungi. Cauliflower mushrooms and death caps were among the many awe-inspiring species found. Visitors to the seashore are allowed to pic up to two gallons of mushrooms per day–but should be careful, mushrooms can be hard to identify and should only be eaten when the species is confirmed not to be poisonous. For more information visit www.bayareamushrooms.org.
   
Jeremiah and Karin Krawford cuddle up against the chilly weather to watch an independence day fireworks show with thousands of other people in Bodega Bay on Saturday.
     
  
Last week, after 1,000 hours in the shop, Jeremy Fischer-Smith completed Kohlenberg, an 18-foot pulling canoe commissioned by the Dolphin Club of San Francisco in honor of a deceased member.
   
  
Author and teacher Toby Hemenway gave a lecture on permaculture in the rural and urban environment at the Dance Palace on Sunday.
     
  
Designs by Dana Davidson of Epicenter were among the surprises at Fall Fantasia, a fashion show put on last week to raise money for West Marin Community Services, whose funding has decreased.
  
Aztec dancers from Nicasio performed last Sunday during a celebration that blended indigenous and Catholic rites and marked the visit of a Santa Maria de la Defensa icon to the Green Barn.
   
Kathy Maxwell opened her home on Sunday to participants of CLAM’s annual fundraiser. Her house is built almost entirely of reclaimed items, is powered by solar panels, and has a windmill that pumps well water.
     
  
The Manka’s “M” sign was removed by workers from its bayside location this Wednesday afternoon. The new sign has been a source of controversy in the community. Some residents feel it is garish and a type of billboard, which is not allowed to be contruscted under county laws. The owners of Manka's must now live without a sign, because county bylaws will not allow them to rehang the old one.
   
Jeff Kruat and Diane Coughtry danced during a benefit concert to music by the Albany Jazz Band at the Dance Palace Community Center on Saturday. A portion of the proceeds went to a band member who has cancer.
   
Kathy Runnion, of Planned Feralhood based in Nicasio, has rescued several dozen feral cats over the years. She is looking for a new home for herself and the felines.
     
  
Media critic Norman Soloman (left) and a handful of local activists spoke against PG&E funded Prop 16 and potential adverse health effects of the company’s new Smart Meters at the Dance Palace on Tuesday. Above, Mary Beth Brangan of Bolinas encouraged citizens to write to their elected officials.
   
A 4-h'er waits for an award at the 62nd annual Western Weekend livestock show.
   
A woman refills a tea pot at the 13th annual Tea and Fashion Show in Tomales. The all-female gathering which takes place at the Tomales Regional History center gives women the chance to view new local fashion.
     
  
Karl Kerster worked with his peregrine falcon, Bach, in front of an astonished crowd at the Point Reyes Birding and Nature Festival. Bach is two years old, and often works with his brother, Beethoven. Kerster lives in Sacramento, and has been a falconer since he was 12. He currently owns five birds. “It’s like training dogs in the air,” he said.
   
Blu, Naima, Skyla and Theo gather daily for "elensies," a nourishing mid-morning snack and break from their home schooling studies.
   
The Tomales Players present “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown” next Thursday and Friday at the high school.