Good morning and welcome to another chilly day on the central coast. I’m not talking big sky Montana cold, but snow fell in the Santa Cruz mountains two nights ago which forced me to put on some warmer shorts. The winter storms have been wild and the one that blew in January 4th from the Gulf of Alaska was as powerful as anything we’ve experienced in the last five years. The battering of the coast by the winds and surging waves is reshaping West Cliff Drive as the most recent storm knocked a huge chunk of cliff onto Its Beach. The funny thing is the boulders that landed in the sand were as soft as butter-you could literally break the sandstone with your fingers. A week later I was still thinking, “I can’t believe it’s not butter.”

Something else came down besides rain during the Friday frenzy of wind and pounding surf. There was a sea stack standing on Its Beach that is now history. You can see in photo #1 a shot of the stack on a beautiful morning followed by a shot of the pool under the arch during our recent red tide. #3 is your arch sunset shot followed the sea stack at low tide. Said the Baltimore Raven, “Never more” and that’s what happened to the stack. Shots #5 and 6 are what this outcropping of rock looks like now. Oh, what a difference a day makes.

Life is very much about change. Death is a somewhat different story. Cynthia Beal wants to be an Oregon cherry tree after she dies. Myself, I’m leaning more towards an avocado, persimmon or dutch apple. She has everything to make it happen-a body, a burial site and a biodegradable coffin. Beal, the owner of The Natural Burial Company in Portland, says “it is composing at its best.” The company, which opened this month, is selling a variety of eco-friendly burial products, including the Ecopod, a kayak-shaped coffin made of recycled newspapers. This could actually work. I’d be wrapped up like a tuna melt in the New York Post and have something to read while I’m on my way to sports heaven.

Biodegradable coffins are part of a larger trend toward “natural” burials, which require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments, laminated tiskets or caskets . Advocates say such burials are less damaging to the environment. Cremation was long considered more environmentally friendly than burials in graveyards, but its use of fossil fuels has raised concerns. It’s like they say about cemeteries, people are just dying to get in.

Eco-friendly burials have almost been as popular as fish n’ chips in Britain for years, but industry experts say it’s starting to catch on in the U.S., where “green” cemeteries hosting natural burials have sprouted up in California, Florida, New York, South Carolina and Texas. You knew if there was “green” there might be sprouts involved.

The market is potentially huge. U.S. funeral homes generate an estimated $11 billion in revenue annually and that figure is sure to grow as baby boomers age. There are already specialty funerals, featuring caskets with custom paint jobs and urns with the insignia of a favorite team. Industry experts say eco-friendly funerals are just an extension of such personalized end-of-life planning. What could be more comforting than to spend eternity comfortably residing in a New York Yankee urn.

Biodegradable containers cost from around $100 for a basic cardboard box to more than $3,000 for a handcrafted, hand-painted model. It could be a beautiful sunrise coming up over the Pacific Ocean or the cast of the Bob Newhart Show. “It’s hard to say if it’s a fad or if it’s here to stay,” says Bob Fells of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. “We are certainly positioning ourselves that if this is what the community wants, we are ready to serve them.” One body at a time.

As usual, I like to stay on top of the important issues of the day and I say, mission accomplished. So join us again on Friday as we serve up some of nature’s finest from the central coast. And not to let the bobcat out of the bag, but I see some guest bloggers making an appearance in the future. As Cuba Gooding Jr. shouted over the phone to Tom Cruise in ‘Jerry McGuire,’ “Show me the beauty.” That’s what we’re here for. And a few laughs. Enjoy the Robert ‘Sea’ Stack. Loved him as Eliot Ness on “The Untouchables.” I guess what happened to that rock will always be an unsolved mystery.