True, Morocco is largely a desert country. But during our two-and-a- half-week visit in early October, as we traveled through most of the North African country’s 1,200-mile length, we discovered that Morocco consists of far more than sand. It boasts vast mountain ranges, cities teeming with verdant gardens amid their millions of inhabitants and even a 1,100-mile-long coastline.

Tim, it’s a very long story, and don’t think I’m crazy. I’m building a new home and wondering if I can install all the electrical wiring myself. It’s not a big home, but it’s got all the things going on you’d normally have in a home, including quite a few three- and four-way switches.

Novel drugs may offer fresh ways to reduce heart risks beyond the usual medicines to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Smoke billowed out of a hole at the center of a grass-covered tepee as I passed plates of cured moose sausage, flat bread, cheese and cloudberry jam to the seven other strangers gathered in this traditional Sami home in Sweden’s northernmost Lapland region.

The images are out of this world, but, for José Francisco Salgado, the music comes first. Salgado is an astronomer who creates films to accompany orchestral music. This weekend, he’ll present three of those films with the Spokane Symphony. Sharing the stage with him will be astronaut Anne McClain. The program will feature “Un Bal,” a movement from Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique”; “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy; and Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” “It’s a beautiful presentation of things in the solar system,” Salgado said.

Spokane Area Youth Choirs and Le Donne Choir, a group for women, will be celebrating choral music during the free KPBX Kids’ Concert on Saturday at Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ.

Like many of you, I allow my houseplants to spend the warm summer on our deck. My collection includes a large jade plant, three equally large Christmas cacti and a real Southwestern desert cactus; all with family histories. While they were outside, they got plenty of light, water and air. Now that they are back inside, it’s a different story.

Father Joseph Cataldo bought a lot on Main Avenue between Washington and Bernard streets in 1881. The site was home to Spokane’s first Roman Catholic Church, and later its first Catholic school.

This time of year,

With medical concerns about “sitting disease,” standup desks or adjustable sit-stand stations are increasingly popular for desk workers. While it gives employees chances to change positions, there are mixed results in studies on actual health benefits. Local experts say it is the movement that counts.

Few tourists are aware of the history and cultural turmoil Hawaii has undergone over the centuries to become what it is today – a rich and complicated multicultural society contending with that history and navigating challenging political realities. So a pair of Hawaiian academics recently took it upon themselves to challenge that stereotype.

TV and streaming picks for Nov. 3-9.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Alexi Matousek is new to Providence Spokane Heart Institute, but people might recognize him from NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” 2017 city finals in Cleveland. Matousek also does Haiti rural health work.

The Obamas’ purple-and-chartreuse English garden-themed state dinner for the British prime minister at the time, David Cameron. A lavish wedding in a sultan’s palace in Istanbul under arches of hanging wisteria. A magical Winnie the Pooh storybook ball featuring a giant beehive and hundreds of bottles of honey.

The numbers were stunning. Nearly 2.9 million songbirds have disappeared from North America’s forests and grasslands since 1970. About 90% of those losses are coming from just 12 families of birds we all know well including sparrows, blackbirds, warblers and finches. The study was done by a consortium of bird researchers including the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and was published online in Science Magazine this past September.

For the first time, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and its law enforcement partners will accept vaping devices and cartridges during its 18th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Oct. 26.

On Nov. 6, two Spokane orthopedic surgeons plan to join a U.S. volunteer medical team in Cuba to perform about 65 joint-replacement operations for arthritis patients.

A tai chi class in Salt Lake City is more focused on building a community for homeless people than mastering martial arts moves. People have said the class helps them relieve stress, build a routine and make friends. Bernie and Marita Hart began teaching the class three years ago as Utah’s homeless population increased, and the need emerged for such activities.