Sonoma Valley Vineyard

...in winter. One could almost believe it was spring today with beautiful warm weather and blue skies. For that reason, we bestirred ourselves to drive down the valley to the Sonoma Valley Regional Park where we took the 'upper trail', a pretty rocky affair after all the rain we've had. They were redoing a particularly steep rocky bit which made it a lot more to my liking. There were lots of dogs out with their people enjoying the beautiful day and Spike enjoyed meeting them. 

This is such a typical shot of the beauty of the Sonoma Valley with its dry stone walls, ancient olive trees and of course vineyards. The cover crop between the rows isn't mustard but a new flower I have yet to identify but which seems to be replacing poppies or mustard in many places. We even have some coming up in the garden and although it is technically a weed, it is a pretty one so we've left it. 

The disappearance of the California poppies along the roadsides and under the vines is a mystery but, like so many things, I'm inclined to blame it on the fires that have burned so many times in these hills in the last decade.

Speaking of decades, it is now a complete one since we made the move from Berkeley. There are still some things I miss. Who wouldn't find something to miss about a place where one went to college, remodeled a 1907 Craftsman bungalow, raised a family and made all the connections one makes when navigating soccer practices, teacher conferences, teaching yoga classes, busy jobs with lots of travel, joining a gym and so many other filaments in a complicated web? 

Our life here is slower and more rural, but we have never had any regrets...We could have done with fewer wildfires, but the first fire that earned the label 'firestorm' was actually in 1991 Berkeley before we moved. We stood on the sidewalk and watched the flames consume one house after another as it came down the hill, and the steady stream of fire engines from all over the state and beyond as they made their way up Ashby avenue. We had four cats and two dogs at the time and they were all in the bathroom in case we had to evacuate, but the wind changed and the with it the path of the fire.

We often joke about the fact that we did things backward...moving from a close knit neighborhood  where we could walk everywhere from the hospital to the grocery store and the gym to one where we can barely make it up and down our steep driveway. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 was all too close a reminder that our house was on the Hayward Fault.  But the fact is, we were almost forced to walk because the traffic in Berkeley was so bad and getting worse, and the town-gown conflicts with a growing university in the middle of the town with no room to expand were becoming untenable.

I think our spring-like weather is going to be short lived as more rain is predicted for next week. Once again the railing guy, Roger, is supposed to come and install them tomorrow at 9am, and I hope he makes it this time as I'm sure he won't want to be working in the rain.