Dinner at Salt and Stone

I will confess at the outset that this lovely event took place last night. Now that we can celebrate birthdays again, Will and I have decided that we should celebrate in style whenever possible to make up for the fact that we really didn't celebrate anything last year....he assures me that as long as he isn't paying he is happy to do all the arranging....anytime.

Salt and Stone is a restaurant in the Sonoma Valley with a great view of the hills. There has always been a small outdoor patio here but the current owners have expanded it enormously and put in a huge pond with a small waterfall, nice plants and even a bull frog who serenaded us with his unmistakeable call and then sat motionless while we tried to figure out what was rock and what was frog! There is indoor dining now, but is is extremely noisy. The best part of the outdoor patio is that we could all carry on a conversation at a normal level.

The weather was perfect for outdoor dining, and as the sun went down and the super full moon rose above the hills*, outdoor heaters were lit, jackets were fetched from the car and we soaked up the fact that we were all enjoying a delicious meal at a restaurant toasting Jim on his birthday. 

There was a total eclipse of the moon beginning at  around 2:15am...a  super blood moon* viewed only from a few places including the West coast of North America. I did manage to stumble out of bed in my nightie and bare feet to attempt to photograph it,  but all I achieved was very cold feet. I used to be able to take good hand held shots of the moon, but I think there just wasn't enough ambient light during the eclipse...either that or the lingering effects of the lovely Merry Edwards pinot noir prevented a steady hand.

Nothing much happened today aside from a rather chaotic Zoom Pilates class. Chaos on this side because Caroline was here with her fearsome red vacuum cleaner which Spike was intent on attacking investigating and John, who was supposed to be keeping Spike outside but wasn't. It was chaotic on the other end because Sherisse, the teacher, was having internet difficulties and also because she was teaching from the studio while a rather raucous class was going on there at the same time

There were two different grass fires today in Santa Rosa (one quite near us) accompanied by seven warnings from three different  agencies  sirens, and helicopters. It's good to know they're on these fires quickly, and the alerts also included the information that the fires had been put out, but it's still nerve wracking.

*Super because it's elliptical orbit carries it close to the earth making it appear huge and blood because the moon is directly in the earth's shadow and is struck by the light filtered through the earth's atmosphere.  

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