Smoke Tree

At least that was the reason for taking this shot. It’s on the right with the ‘smoke’ for which it’s named showing it’s full growth. I had intended to take a more close up picture but was taken by the bright yellow rudbeckias which get taller and more lush every year.

Our dinner at Willi’s last night was a great success. We were given a very large tall table in front of the bar and didn’t restrain ourselves to staying in our seats, as that would have made it very difficult to speak to anyone at the other end of the table. Best of all our waiter was Rafael who gave me a big hug…quite a change from his former rather restrained self. He had his hands full wrangling our group, serving small plates and.lots of wine and beer.

Perhaps a bit of backstory is in order. We have been going to Willi’s and being served by Raphael since we had to drive from Berkeley for my foot surgeries and post op visits at least fifteen years ago. At the time, Willi’s was in a converted house on the other side of town. We always scheduled my doctor visits so that we could stop at Willi’s on the way home for lunch. They were so accommodating with me on crutches and we loved the food. It went from being kind of a drag to being one of my anticipated ‘social events’

It was at Willis’ that we hatched our final plan to move to Sonoma County. At first we were going to rent our Berkeley house and rent something here for a year to see if we liked it. That didn’t really work out, but Ruta put us in touch (from India!) with Kelly and Maureen, who had a little farmhouse for rent in Sebastopol. We lived in that farmhouse every weekend and in Berkeley during the week for three years, and became great friends with Kelly and Maureen.

In September 2017, the Tubbs fire burned down 5,000 houses in Santa Rosa. Dana came to our door at 3am and told us to pack our bags, we needed to evacuate. While we were doing that she was looking at her phone and said, ‘Willi’s is gone’. In the midst of all the chaos and confusion, it was like a gut punch. It felt as if we had lost a good friend and we did, in a way, for we didn’t see Rafael again for a couple of years. But we did see Kelly and Maureen….

The story will be continued tomorrow, as we have to leave for one of our ‘hors d’oeuvre’ dinners with the Friday morning coffee group soon. We are leaving the dogs in their own for the first time since Spike had his surgery. It seems about tine….