“I’ve got two maps of the Russian River wine country and I’m not afraid to use them!” I was preparing Lonnie for a wine jaunt as part of the Berkeley house-sitting gig. Cousin Susan was taking off for a week in Barcelona and had asked if I’d like to stay at her lovely little house in Berkeley and take care of her doggie, Rezzie. Rezzie is a dog who loves one thing in this whole world: walks. Not being a dog person, I don’t know if this is typical dog behavior but I suspect it might be. And walking in the Berkeley hills is terrific exercise and great fun. The houses are charming and individual. The trees tower — mammoth pine trees, some of which surely are redwoods, spreading sycamores sturdy oaks and lofty eucalyptus shade the streets and add gravitas to the houses. Dog-sitting Rezzie is pure joy! And Berkeley is within easy… Read More »
It’s a wine miracle! Well, sort of …
The beginning of last week an unexpected but very welcome e-mail popped up in my in box. It was from UPS saying I would receive a package on Friday. I had not ordered anything from anyplace so I was nonplussed. Back around the holidays I received notices about a supposed UPS delivery that was waiting for me and all I had to do was open the attachment to get the tracking info. Of course I did not open any attachment, but I did contact UPS several times. So as I was looking at this e-mail, I realized I had not received any such notice for several months and perhaps the bogus notices were back … or not. I scrolled down and saw the shipper was Maloy O’Neill winery in Paso Robles. Really? Could it be? Maloy O’Neill went out of business a couple of years ago. Let’s go back a minute to the fun, heady time when I… Read More »
Sonoma county – tree with moss … a LOT of moss
Last November I was visiting Sonoma with my friends Lois and Nancy. We drove through the countryside, visiting wineries (oh, yeah) and just enjoying the beauty of God’s nature. Nancy took this picture of an incredible tree covered with some kind of moss — Spanish moss? Absolutely breath-taking. It had been a magical day with special wine tastings pre-arranged through Lois’s business at a winery in Windsor (where I ended up buying several bottles — no surprise) and another one which was an “event” with the wine maker personally pairing his wines with hors d’oeuvres. Later we took a drive through some of the incredibly beautiful hills. Nancy, who was driving, doesn’t drink which is a good thing because some of the roads were very steep and wind-y. We stopped a few times just to look at the views and tramp a bit around the hills. At the top of… Read More »
