Sincere Sympathy to all the family of James Dolan ,as we knew him  He owns the house  next door to us  here in Dromin Listowel and we live just across from his equestrian  centre which is not really an equestrian  school anymore  We were sad to hear of his passing  May he rest in pease   Eleanor and Denis Enright

I was [ how you felt ] when I heard the news of James (Conrad)'s passing.

I didn't know James well, though he was one of the first people I met after moving to Olivenhain. He was offering honey on NextDoor and delivered it to my house, and we talked for quite some time. Another time, on Facebook, he offered cuttings from the succulents on his property, and my best friend, who loved succulents, and I went over and he collected what he wanted. When we got back to the car, there were two jars of honey in the front seat. James was a generous guy. I saw James just four days before he died, at the gas station, and when I said hi, he looked at me as if he knew he should probably know who I was but couldn't place me. I spotted two dog ears above the seat in the truck and asked if that was Daisy, so he let her out.  (She was well behaved.) I so enjoyed his many videos on Facebook showing his dogs and clips from his bee business. Another time he made me an admin on the Encinitas Beekeeping Society Discussion group on Facebook, without telling me (I guess I shared more articles than most), and suddenly I was bombarded with admin notices without the foggiest idea of what to do. After a few weeks I asked him to remove me as admin, and he did. He was such a vibrant, larger-than-life character. The world is a poorer, less interesting place without him. 

Roommates — with Conrad, Jonny Coffin and Timmy B

James puts his hand in fire 

One of my favorite videos of James showing up at city hall using his voice to make a difference and he did and we can all thank him for making Encinitas a Bee City and removing pesticides from Cottonwood Creek Park and other places.