Beltane Ranch

We took Spike for a nice walk beneath threatening skies at the regional park near Glen Ellen today. We took the unpaved trail higher up the hill where there aren't many people and we could let Spike off the leash. As it turned out there were quite a few people today but nobody seemed to care about Spike being off leash. We met a dad and his son who looked about 5 or 6 and learning to ride a mountain bike. HIs dad was telling him he needed to get up a little speed so he could 'bounce off' the rocks. Dad told us that the boy inherited the bike from his older brother who hadn't really taken to it . The boy was disappearing down the rocky trail as we talked. Spike was too, on the trail of some unknown critter,  but he always circles back before he gets out of sight

John chose a steeply descending rocky trail which we approached with  caution having forgotten how steep and winding it was. We ran into a couple with a Norwich terrier who told us that they would come up the trail but wouldn't come down it. The fact that it was damp but not muddy made it a lot easier to descend, and the poison oak which used to encroach onto the narrow trail seems to have disappeared. It actually didn't seem as difficult as it used to which made us both feel good as we've been feeling as if we were too rapidly advancing into decrepitude.

I'm pleased to say that we ran into father and son again on the paved  flat trail on the way back to the car. Both looked rather pleased with themselves and each other....

The creek had obviously made inroads over the trail as things were very wet, but the creek itself seemed to have retreated back into its normal channel. The Nun's fire of 2017 started near this park and did quite a lot of damage but things are starting to come back. I took a picture of a 'witch tree' in honor of Halloween and put it in extras. I don't think it will be coming back.

I spent hours wrestling with a new quilt design. John and Dana have both offered their observations and it is interesting that John notices shapes and Dana notices colors. I was ready to throw in the towel and start something new but decided I liked this one well enough to keep wrestling with it. I do reach a point when I need to walk away from it and that point came just after I had wreaked havoc with my sewing table and just before David texted that he is ready to come tomorrow to put in the new sliding barn doors I will have to attempt to create some kind of order out of the. chaos before he gets here.

We stopped to pick up an order of wine from Beltane Ranch which was looking particularly beautiful with a line of geese flying over a longhorn steer grazing beneath. Autumn is my favorite time in the vineyards. We passed some beautiful old vine zinfandel vines which are just being harvested.