san francisco chronicle articles

Q: My 15-year-old cocker spaniel is extremely arthritic and, as a result, quite lame. He frequently stumbles, his interest in food has declined and lately he's taken to sleeping behind the bushes (something he's never done before). He doesn't appear to be in...

He was a big galoot of a dog with an orange-gold coat and a blaze of white on his head and chest. But at the adoption fair, it wasn't his striking coloring that caught the attention of Unity Barry, it was his eyes. The size of quarters, they were like shiny...

You never know what you'll come across on Craigslist. Jennifer Jones can vouch for that. While searching for a midcentury dresser last fall, she happened upon a rental listing for a four-bedroom Eichler in the Oakland hills with a bay view. Smitten, she...

I spent my first 5 years living in the Vanderveer section of Brooklyn, NY. My very earliest memory in life was of a large stack of Little Golden Books that sat on the floor, next to a big 1950's style sofa. Not too far away was the metal pedal car I shared...

Trees enhance your property and its value, so when they need attention it makes sense to be careful about their care. Bay Area Consumers' Checkbook and Checkbook.org evaluated 81 tree care firms and found that when your trees are ailing the best approach is...

Beware the ides of March is as good a piece of advice for the gardener as it was for Julius Caesar because of the attack of late-season frosts, which are particularly dangerous when plants are beginning to leaf out with new growth. March is also the month...

There's something wonderfully simple about screw-top swivel stools - especially those that have an industrial flair. The Giotto height-adjustable stool, which was designed by Italian designers Jonathan De Pas, Donato D'Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi in 1975, has a...

Wine barrels have a useful life of about five years, but their oak planks, stained wine-red on the inside and weathered on the outside, have an undiminished appeal for East Bay craftsman Christopher Loomis. He reuses them to make his sculptural Vitis...

It may sound strange, but working in sales and business development in the software industry proved good experience when Kriste Michelini changed to a career as an interior designer. "As much as you'd like to think that design skills are enough," she...

Flowers scent a garden, but they have lots of company. Flower fragrance is about reproduction; leaf fragrance is generally a side effect of strategies for water conservation or pest protection. Plant resins with chemicals toxic to insects can scent foliage...

Sometimes botany gives you a "Jeopardy" moment about a particular plant's origins. In the case of sisyrinchium, the category would be "plants that could be a grass or an iris for $200." This charming California perennial is better known as blue-eyed grass, so...

Q: This very odd-looking plant is growing in my neighbor's yard in San Rafael. She has no idea what it is, but we live near Dominican College and the head gardener there spotted the plant one day and took seeds. Now they have several large ones growing at...

When lighting designer Michael McEwen ran out of time to finish the Glass Onion chandeliers he was to install in the Jay Jeffers-designed Great Room and Loft for the 2009 Metropolitan Home San Francisco Showhouse, he didn't panic. Installing the large...

If interior designer Jeannie Fraise could be a color, most likely she'd be orange. Perhaps that's why her newly expanded Hayes Valley boutique, Lotus Bleu (housed in the former Symposium bookstore space), is nothing short of a real-life Candyland, stocked...