California Wine Country

Scheduling is becoming a problem for us. Memory doesn't serve as well as it used to, the good old calendar hanging on the wall in the kitchen has been surpassed by two iPhone calendars that don't speak to each other and we live in two different places--Berkeley during the week and a little farmhouse in Sonoma County during the weekend. So it was with mixed reactions that we received a phone call from Santa Rosa daughter asking us to retrieve VIP baseball tickets from their kitchen, forgotten in their rush to hit the road to LosAngeles to visit #1son, and meet them as they doubled back to pick them up. At least we're not the only ones....

In our absence across The Pond our garden has gone on without us and the little vineyard is bursting with grape clusters. There are little green marbles appearing on the tomato vines and the zucchini plants are bursting with their famous blossoms. If only I had any idea how to fry them up into delicate, crispy morsels as the Italians do so splendidly! The peas are finished and the green beans haven't yet made an appearance, so for a few more weeks, we must rely on the produce section at the local market. Friends are coming to dinner, and will undoubtedly bring eggs fresh from their hens, along with a nice bottle of wine made by someone they know.

The windmill belongs to our neighbor who intends to use it to water his vineyard if he ever gets around to hooking it up to the pump.