Alexander Valley

The beautiful weather continues and we noticed that the mustard, used as a cover crop in many vineyards, is blooming earlier than usual this year. The vines have almost all been pruned and the mustard definitely brightens things up. The house in the picture was taken from the back across the vineyard and is a converted school.

The Alexander Valley has always been a favorite place of mine. I feel some sort of affinity with it as if I had spent a past life there, or were destined to be there in a future one...In fact, when we were first looking for a house up here, we thought we would like to live in the Alexander Valley. The problem is, unless you want to buy many acres of vineyards at astronomical prices, there aren't very many properties available for anybody....

We were on our way to Geyserville for lunch at Diavola. The picture in the extras is a shot of Geyser Peak which is where the Pocket fire started. (There was a total of something like 23 fires that began in Sonoma and Napa counties on the night of October 8th.) There are geysers up there and a small geothermal energy plant. I'm not sure what it's fate was, but I'm going to try to find out....

After lunch we stopped at Geyser Peak Winery to stock up on sone of their excellent white wines. Many of them are small productions of less than 250 cases and are sold direct from the winery to visitors. They sell out quickly, so we like to go a couple of times a year to buy something that is a a cut or two above what is available in the grocery store.

We chatted with the woman in the tasting room about the fires, the effect of Trump's deportations on vineyard labor, the irreplaceable pruning skill of many Hispanic vineyard workers, and the concerts they will be having at the winery in the summer. Sometimes I feel like we have been hibernating. It's always good to have a 'day off' to visit some old favorites. 

Even though they didn't really need it yet, I washed our sheets today just so I could hang them on the clothesline. It takes both of us to roll out and retract it, but as long as we work together, there is no risk of decapitation, there is plenty of room for multiple loads of laundry, and, as everybody knows, but I had forgotten, everything smells wonderful and, right now, anyway, dries in less time than it takes in the dryer. 

Now I'm going to go up to the garden to pick some kale for a salad for dinner, and then sit down with a nice glass of Geyser Peak River Ranches Sauvignon Blanc.