Mendocino, California, became Cabot Cove, Maine, for the television series, Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Landsbury. The picturesque Victorian town is located 9 1/2 miles south of Fort Bragg on Highway 1, and three-and-a-half driving hours north of San Francisco.

Margaret and I are staying a mile east of town at the home of a friend. Her new house was build on land owned by her family for decades. Sue’s house is surrounded by a pigmy forest (heavy alkaline content in the soil). The pigmy forest is in a region of California known for its giant redwood trees, so the little trees are of great interest to botanists and geologists.