Author: Michael Stevens

He is 96 years old and he moves uneasily in halting steps at the edge of a field of wildflowers. We meet him at Big Summit Prairie during one of our pilgrimages to a...

I almost do not want to drink this cup of perfectly prepared matcha tea with oat milk. It was lovingly created by one of the baristas, a woman I count among my cafe friends....

I am traveling into the sun toward the Dharma Center and notice a streak of light in the distance. It is the sun’s reflection on the snowfields high on the Three Sisters mountains. I...

On our second trip to the Painted Hills this year we are witness to another botanical miracle. The golden bee plant (Cleome platycarpa) and John Day chaenactis (Chaenactis nevii) are experiencing a super bloom....

As I experience the aging process, I naturally have more specialists among my care givers. I now have a cardiologist for the fist time in my 71 years. Unfortunately for him, he has to...

Residing in Central Oregon for 45 years, I have observed the population growth with a bit of dismay. When I moved here, only about 16,000 folks called Bend home and now the estimates hover...

It spends most of the year hidden to our eyes. The tuberous underground root does not appear as anything on the surface until Spring sun warms the sandy soil of its subterranean womb. Tiny...

I hold a memory of a time when I was three years old, sitting on the grass in our back yard, pondering the green blades jutting up from the soil. I always hoped to...

Each April, Tarn and I make a pilgrimage to the Painted Hills to witness something of a miracle on top of Carol Rim, a promontory jutting up from the ‘painted’ floor of the national...

Rimrock Springs Natural Area is one of those hidden gems located in the middle of nowhere that offers the hiker a little island of unexpected beauty. I am walking the short trail in the...