‘Pure flower power’: Getting nosy with Pacifica’s Shen Aroma Farm

Mary Pancoast of Shen Aroma Farm’s blooming brand is based on her creekside patch of land in Pacifica. From those idyllic headquarters she grows flowers, keeps thriving hives of honeybees and offers a variety of handmade products, all infused with scintillating scents from essential oils and produced with an environmentally friendly ethos. 

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Seven secret gardens of the 650

The Peninsula is flush with large-scale gardens like Gamble Garden, Filoli and Montalvo, but there are many gardens hidden in plain sight that are there for you when you need them.

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Redwood City was dethroned as a world flower capital; now one mural pays tribute

Peruvian-born artist Claudio Talavera-Ballón talks Redwood City’s history of Japanese internment, farmworking and his addiction to oil painting “This is what I like so much about muralism — it’s that opportunity to reach the most humble, who are the greatest appreciators of art. The least able to afford a framed painting are the most likely to appreciate one.” — Claudio Talavera-Ballón. (Images courtesy of Claudio Talavera-Ballón) It took just over two months ...

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