El Molino Central...

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this delightfully decorated Mexican restaurant for Flower Friday. The outdoor patio behind it can be glimpsed in the picture and there was a steady stream of people coming and going. I suspect the more sober citizens of Sonoma probably object to this decor. They objected to the facade of an ice cream parlor on the square painted bright pink) but I think it is delightfully exuberant.

We were on a mission to purchase a graduation gift for Julia and were glad that we went straight from coffee as the traffic in the town was already getting heavy and the streets around the square almost impassable, especially at the corners. We were lucky enough to find a parking place and since Spike was still in the car, John took him for a walk around the square while I went into the shop. Spike got very excited passing the duck pond but alas was not allowed to plunge in as he would have liked...

Gift purchased, we walked back to the car, dodging a growing tide of tourists. The young women wearing long dresses were faring better than one young lady struggling with a very gauzy short skirt which was blown up around her waist in a gust of wind. Another was wearing a dress so short and so tight that she had no such struggle but walking behind her, we marveled at how it clung to her shapely bottom without creeping up as she walked her dog, a handsome springer.

Older couples sat in the park, canes resting against the picnic tables scattered about,  mothers pushed strollers or chased toddlers, a woman passed on the pavement at a good clip never lifting her eyes from a book in her hands. At least it wasn't a phone. There was a time when there were chickens running around in the square, but their numbers grew along with the numbers of cars and visitors and it wasn't safe for either, so the chickens presumably found good homes elsewhere.

As we drove back through the Sonoma Valley we marveled as we do every time how beautiful it is. The hills are turning golden and the  vineyards are green and sculpted in tidy rows along the rolling foothills.
A lot of the houses that burned in the fire in 2017 have been rebuilt and one hillside was covered with a big flock of sheep...a much better way to mow the fields than with a noisy gas powered tractor. The sheep eat the weeds and fertilize the ground at the same time….

We're waiting for an estimate from David, but it looks like plans to replace our wood porch  and railing with a composite and a metal railing. It probably won't be done before fire season since that has already been declared, although I did read that Sonoma  County is slightly more moist than elsewhere in the bay area. That probably won't last long as we are having hot weather and gusty winds, a bad combination that everybody has come to dread....

We're hoping that having burned through here two years ago, there probably won't be much fuel for a fire. That magical thinking worked last year....