The Farmhouse

It has occurred to me that a bit more explanation of yesterday's wine making process might be in order. I am often accused of being increasingly like my mother when it comes to storytelling, but bear with me as I go back a few years to explain how we found ourselves at King's Hill Cellars yesterday. This might take more than one day….

Back in about 2008 OilMan and I found ourselves in Willi's Wine Bar having lunch. Perhaps we had been to see the foot surgeon who "remodeled" both my feet, requiring many visits for cast changes and x-rays. Once again we discussed the possibilities of moving to Sonoma County, a subject we frequently discussed, but rarely resolved. It was just too difficult to decide to move away from the house we had called home for almost our entire married lives.

Perhaps it was the delicious food, the beautiful weather, or the bottle of wine, but we were feeling mellow, and decided that perhaps we could rent our house to a visiting professor, and find a place in Sonoma County for a year to test the waters. Difficulties with this plan ensued. We had a hard time finding anything suitable to rent for a year. There were furnished "holiday rentals" that looked like hotel suites and were too expensive. There were run down rural properties that were off the grid and had pot plants growing behind them. The suitable places wouldn't take dogs.

The solution came in the form of our friend Ruta, who taught Indian cooking classes in our neighborhood until she and her husband Neville decided to move back to Goa. Where property managers and realtors had failed us, the perfect property came to us via India. A San Francisco couple, who had also taken cooking classes with Ruta had a small farmhouse* in Sebastopol which they wished to rent. Within days, Ruta had put us in touch with Kelly and Maureen, we saw the farmhouse, fell in love with it and began making plans to use it on weekends. It was a compromise, but it suited us well, as we could test the waters without moving out of Berkeley.

To be continued….

*My picture today is a photo grab from my computer archives, slightly fiddled with and doctored.