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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
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A Case of the Human Condition

I’m Barbara Falconer Newhall and I’ve got an incurable Case of the Human Condition. And since you do too, I’m counting on you to laugh and cry along with me as I riff on life as we know it . . . Below you'll read about my creaky, old fifties house, my forays into home gardening, my shopping stories, my spectacularly low-fashion wardrobe -- and more.

At Point Reyes: Wild Flowers . . . and Animals Wild and Tame

May 16, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Dairy cows returning to the barn cross a public road at Point Reyes, CA. Photo by BF Newhall

A couple of weeks ago, I mourned the loss of little hill in Michigan called Eagle Top. This week I’d like to celebrate a place that — unlike Eagle Top — has been preserved in all its wild and pastoral beauty – the vast triangle of land along the California coast known as Point Reyes, and especially the narrow outcropping called Chimney Rock.

In the Garden: Look What Happened to My Front Yard Over the Weekend

May 9, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

San Francisco Bay Area rock garden with geranium and blue-eyed grass tucked alongside moss rocks. Photo by BF Newhall

I wasn’t looking. I was at the computer all weekend with my back to the world. When I finally took a bleary look out the window Monday morning, I saw a front yard crazy with life — poppies, blue-eyed grass, armeria, pansies and several lascivious stalks of lupine blossoms. Read more.

The Mother-of-the-Groom Diaries — Am I Too Old for Splashy Earrings?

April 25, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Writer Barbara Falconer Newhall tries on Swarovsky earrings with her mother-of-the-groom gown. Photo by BF Newhall

The long dress I was planning to wear to my son’s wedding needed earrings. Not a necklace. Not a bracelet. Not a glitzy ring. My gown needed earrings. Big, attention-grabbing, dangle earrings. Read more.

My Killer Shoes — Brought Down to Size by Those Four-and-a-Half-Inch Heels

April 18, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Barbara Falconer Newhall tries on a pair of Glint pave shoes with 4 1/2-inch high heels. BF Newhall photo

Dress shoes for women right now, as you may have noticed, sport heels that go on forever. Wedge heels, spike heels, stack heels – everywhere I look I see nothing but heels of skyscraper proportions built to lift their wearers four or even four-and-a-half inches off the ground. Read More.

Shopping for a Mother-of-the-Groom Dress — Is That Me in the Mirror? Or Somebody’s Grandmother?

March 30, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

a long rack of fluffy white wedding gowns for sale at David's Bridal Salon, Pinole, CA. Photo by BF Newhall

My son is getting married. I’ll need a dress. A dress that makes me look terrific. It’s time to hit the department stores and bridal salons. Read more.

Leaves, Twigs and Seeds at the de Young — It’s Art, but Is It a Bouquet?

March 21, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A floral design by Arlene Boyle of Violetta, SF, was inspired by a soapstone and walrus tusk carving by Judas Ullulak (Allulak), "Inukshuk" (Like a Person), 1981-82. Photo by BF Newhall

Nothing seems to be off limits to the floral designers who’ve filled the courts and galleries of the de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco this week with arrangements of flowers, twigs, branches, seed pods, pussy willows and succulents for the museum’s annual exhibition Bouquets to Art.

Bouquets to Art at the de Young — Where Poppies Dance and Cactuses Are Petit Fours

March 20, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

bouquets to art -- a floral arrangment that looks like a cake. Photo by BF Newhall

It’s not too late to catch a bus – or a plane – and head out to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the annual Bouquets to Art show at the de Young museum — including a flower arrangement that looks like a cake. It’s on till Saturday, March 23, 2013, but if you can’t make it to the real thing, here are some fun photos I took the first day.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

There’s a Pollinator in My Pollinator Garden

woodland-skipper-butterfly

The columbine, the statice and the armeria had been planted only a week earlier, but already there was a pollinator in my pollinator garden.  Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

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  • A Case of the Human Condition
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TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

mouth-of-outrage

Grievance and Outrage — Good in Small Doses

Jon Newhall sitting on our deck quietly, seen through a window, with trees. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

Why Meditate — When I Could Be Sweeping the Garage?

A photo taken probably 1962, when Barbara returned from summer in Europe with souvenirs for family. Barbara Newhall photo

My Big Brother Loves Me — The Cataract Chronicles Continued

a 50-year-old woman with gray hairs -- author Barbara Falconer Newhall. Photo by Jon Newhall

Gray Hairs. Wrinkles. And Kids Who Won’t Stop Growing Up

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