Patt Morrison

2 months ago | thebrunswicknews.com | Patt Morrison

It was time. Time, in late March, for me to see what early January had done. From the flats of Pasadena, I drove uphill, into Altadena, with my heart going steadily downhill at each ashen block.

2 months ago | sacbee.com | Patt Morrison

It was time. Time, in late March, for me to see what early January had done. From the flats of Pasadena, I drove uphill, into Altadena, with my heart going steadily downhill at each ashen block. On the radio, KUSC was playing one of the most celebrated of operatic works, a poignant duet from "The Pearl Fishers," the music of friendship and loss. That was the soundtrack as I went looking for familiar places in a landscape now as unfamiliar as the back of the moon.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Patt Morrison

Hendrena Martin’s house burned down in the Eaton fire. Her home, which her father built, was a place she imagined passing on to the next generation. It was time. Time, in late March, for me to see what early January had done. From the flats of Pasadena, I drove uphill, into Altadena, with my heart going steadily downhill at each ashen block. On the radio, KUSC was playing one of the most celebrated of operatic works, a poignant duet from “The Pearl Fishers,” the music of friendship and loss.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Patt Morrison

The January fires burned down the ranch house and other historic buildings at Will Rogers State Park. This historic postcard shows the grounds and the home of entertainer Will Rogers. The places that burned, in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, have passed from the “here and now” to the “once were there.” The land, though — the land keeps telling its own stories, layered stories older than the ashes.

Mar 1, 2025 | latimes.com | Patt Morrison

Picturesque Solvang, Calif., might be the next best thing to actually living in charming but chilly Denmark. Fond of Danish almond kringle? Have warm feelings toward Copenhagen’s favorite son, Hans Christian Andersen, and his little tales about lovelorn mermaids and ugly ducklings? And yet you love the West Coast warmth, and the closest you’d like to get to living in charming but chilly Denmark is the California town of Solvang?