Spring Reflections

Travels with Heart, By Annie Martin Bowler Vol 24 April 1, 2025

In early March, I went on a quick walk at dusk and was blessed to catch this stunning winter sunset. John and I enjoyed hearty chicken-vegetable soup and Baker & the Cakemaker’s lemon-rosemary sourdough bread for supper along with some fun conversation. Afterwards, we relaxed watching Ted Lasso for the second time. We needed some light entertainment and know that humor is a perfect way to silence more serious worries. Best though, is that Ted Lasso offers a timely reminder that kindness is king.

That evening, John brought in the latest bowl he'd turned on his lathe. He turned long ago but has recently taken it up again; it’s been amazing to watch his skills grow and to see what he creates! Much of the wood for his bowls came from Flower Farm trees that needed to be taken down or fell during storms. John has faithfully stored all of this wood to be repurposed for something beautiful.

Placer County has lost one of its best this month. Don Kleinfelder was smart, funny and hard-working and was dedicated to helping the kids and families that need it the most. Don led Child Advocates of Placer County - CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for 17 years. During that time, Don created all kinds of programs, from mentoring of parents to dogs spending time with teens in Juvenile Hall, in order to help kids and their families.

Don made volunteers key to Child Advocates' success which allowed donation dollars to go further. I had the pleasure of helping Don hosted numerous volunteer appreciation events at the Flower Farm. The smiles on volunteers’ faces were telling: this work is gratifying! Want to more? click here for the Child Advocates of Placer County website

In all honesty, this has been a difficult time for me. I worry about the state of our country, our very democracy. I hesitated to bring this up here but I believe that most of us love our country and hope for the best for all, so I'm forging ahead.

What am I worried about? I worry about the divisions among Americans, for those who will be harmed by all the federal funding cuts that help the poor, our hard-working retirees, all students, but especially those with special needs, and all marginalized people. I know some immigrants have committed crimes and agree those should be deported but the large majority of immigrants do not deserve to be demonized; immigrants are key to Americas life! They are good hard working people who grow and pick our food and help our country in so many other ways!

I would love to have honest conversations with those who think differently. My hope is we can work together ensure the country we love is stable and that we can grow to become a more perfect union. Please contact me at amartinbowler@gmail.com if you’d like to talk.

Spring is a time for rebirth and apparently, social gatherings. I’ve shared a few of the wonderful events that I attended in March. The sum of it all is that there are many people in our region that are doing great work lifting people up. I am grateful to the organizations and those that run them for their efforts!

I stumbled upon a St. Baldrick's head shaving event recently. at the Galleria Mall. This foundation shaves heads each March to raise funds for research for childhood cancer.

Yesterday, I and longtime friend, Sheila Chilton, attended the Child Advocates of Placer County's annual Spring Tea. If you long to dress up and have a fun afternoon while raising money for a great cause, this event is for you. There even was an adorable hat parade.

Visit Placer hosted its inaugural Tourism and Quality of Live Summit at the Flower Farm recently. It was great to see so many people wanting to learn how play can be an economic driver and why protecting the quality of life of our region is so important.

Our three youngest kids attended Live Oak Waldorf School In Applegate. We hosted LOWS annual Masquerade Ball fundraiser at the Flower Farm recently. It was a great night and we had lots of fun with all kinds of dear, longtime friends.

We celebrated John’s birthday this month. We were just kids when we married; we’re not so young anymore but it seems to me that we’re enjoying each other’s company more than ever. I hope for many more fun adventures with Johnny B!

We gathered a fun family party to celebrate John. The kids were playing catch with a football which soon got stuck in an Oak tree; they threw balls into the tree, trying to get the football down but had no luck. At one point, there were 4 or 5 balls stuck in the tree and none left to play with. The rescue crew stepped in. Fran tied a string onto a little pencil case filled with rocks and after many attempts, got a ball or 2 down. Next, Jake duct taped a tennis ball onto an arrow and successfully got the rest of the balls down. It was great entertainment! If we ever got stuck on an island, we decided we’d want Fran and Jake on our team!

The launch party for the Sierra Protection PAC was heartwarming gathering. Learn more about this PAC at the Sierra Nevada Alliance website here.

And finally, I spend a lovely afternoon at Karen Killebrew's house making kimchi from homegrown cabbage with good friends. Yum!

Happy spring to you, my friends!