Vineyard View

This is more or less the view we have from our kitchen window, although I took the picture during our morning walk from just down the street. There has been a lot of work going on in the vineyards since they began leafing out. Today someone was plowing between the rows, making lines that stand out nicely from the different shades of green. I can attest to the fact that after numerous failed attempts, painting this view is damn difficult.

Ever since our neighbors' oak tree fell down a couple of weeks ago, barely missing their house, there has been growing concern, with the continuing drought, about all the oaks around here. The arborist says that all the trees are weakened. There are three trucks on the street below our house right now, sawing and mulching.

We had lunch today with my Berkeley friend, Phyllis and her husband, Preston. We met them at The Spinster Sisters, and barely managed to interrupt our conversation long enough to order order our meals. It is always nice to see friends from a life that seems like a long time ago, yet as we begin to talk and share stories, it seems like just yesterday.

Time seems to pass at an ever increasing rate as we get older, but has a funny way of becoming fixed, in the mind at least, on certain experiences. For me, our move from one life and neighborhood and house to another completely different life, will always remain a fixed point in my memories. I can still easily slip back into the exhaustion, excitement, the anxiety and uncertainty of those two months in 2012.

As our renovations wind down we can finally begin to feel established and part of our new neighborhood, but it's nice from time to time to reestablish links with the old one.