When the salmon bite turns off, local anglers have traditionally turned to halibut and striped bass fishing to keep their rods bent. The 2008 and 2009 seasons were prime examples — -years when the salmon…
Posts published by “Alastair Bland”
California draws millions of visitors each summer with a wide variety of natural and cultural attractions — like Yosemite National Park, whose astounding cliffs are proof of either God or glaciers; the brutal but beautiful…
I recently wrote about the cork trees of the Iberian Peninsula, those great, handsome figures so emblematic of the interior plains of Portugal and Spain. But further abroad are many more trees of great stature…
Grape variety, place of origin, and price: These are likely the main factors that determine which wine bottle lands in your shopping basket, but perhaps you should consider one more thing: the bottle’s cork, or…
We rode out of St. Julien, across the bridge over the Dordogne River and a mile down the other side of the river. We turned right on a side road toward a settlement called Le…
For ten years, Abe Schoener has been recording the unfolding history of California’s climate and geology — but he is not a government scientist drawing sedimentary core samples from the Earth or a hydrologist taking…
Cypress boughs dangle over the still, mocha-muddy waters of an Oklahoma swamp as a gaggle of drawling Southern country boys walks waist deep through the sleepy current. The men, shirtless and tanned, feel their way…
They’re clammy. They’re rubbery. They’re often deep-fried in vegetable oil. And though the red abalone of California was once a staple of dirt-cheap seafood shacks, this big slippery sea snail is today one of the…
I previously served up a short listing of alcoholic beverages of the world — and I’m glad I’m merely writing about so much booze. For had I set myself to tasting my way across the…