Wine Tasting

It's no secret that the Woodinville area has become a destination for wine lovers. We've been coming here since the mid-1980s (maybe earlier) when the only winery was Chateau Ste. Michelle. Today there are 4o wineries, each with their own style and appeal. I admit to loving the experience of traveling through the vineyards, stopping by to visit each winery in turn, surrounded by the fruit that makes wineries (and wine) possible.

But something's changed here in the past few years. Wineries have figured out how to provide the winery experience, and great wines, without the vineyards closeby. And if this formula works in Woodinville, why not Covington? Or Maple Valley?

Our Fall wine club shipment is ready to pick up at at DiStefano, one of our favorite wineries in Woodinville. It's a family business, as so many of them are. We love their reds, and also their Sauvignon Blanc. New this summer is an outdoor patio built up on pavers, with tables made from old riddling racks. It's a great place to sit and enjoy our samples.

Today we brought home a treasure: an oak wine barrel that's outlived its usefulness as a storage container for wine. It will have a new life--the base of a table in our wine cellar.

Afterwards, we headed for another favorite, Matthews Cellars. It's a small winery, with a wonderful country location in the Woodinville valley. The people are friendly, the wine is excellent, and we love being able to wander around in the cellar room, inhaling the grape-infused air.

Apple Red

Or, "In Search of Corn." Take your pick of titles. After a morning of gardening, potting plants, sweeping, ironing, laundry, it was time for the great corn and apple search. Dave gently inquired whether I was going to the farm stand in Enumclaw, the last best place for the perfect ear of corn. Hadn't thought of going so far, but I was heading for the library, which was halfway there. So why not?

This sounded like a great chance to take the wee MX-5 for a spin in the country. I quickly revised my route to include Thomas Road to Auburn-Black Diamond Road, which got me to Green Valley, which is probably the perfect sports car road (if there aren't any Sunday drivers in front of me). Today is a beautiful top-down day, not too hot. As I turned onto Green Valley, I spotted a huge sign advertising a produce stand, right there in the valley. Perfect! I'll get corn and apples, and whatever else they have that looks good (baby yellow potatoes, rhubarb for a pie, garlic), then drive the rest of my favorite road.

Multi-tasking was never so fun!

Moving target

Outside my kitchen window is a big camellia bush. It's covered with bright magenta blooms in early spring, and the rest of the year, it provides shelter and food for a variety of birds. The chickadees are especially entertaining. Hung from a branch is a small feeder, which I made from a round Glad container, hung by pale green ribbons (my sister's design).

Today, there's a group of young birds trying to figure out how exactly to get to the seed. The small feeder moves whenever birds feet touch it, a bit of a moving landing pad. Plus the three ribbons are close together, so they can't just fly in and land.

I watched one bird hop from branch to branch, trying to get to the food without actually having to touch the feeder. He gave the closest leaf a couple of jabs, then flew off in disgust.

But by the time I finished washing the dishes, they'd figured it out.

Rocking Chairs

I love rocking chairs. The Windsor-style chair that was always in my parent's house, for as long as I can remember, stood squeezed into the corner by the woodstove, and was my favorite place to sit in the winter. I bought my own, much more modern (and not nearly as well made) at a yard sale just before my marriage. It was more upright and not very comfortable, but I still have the chair. It's now in the cabin. A decade or so later, I found a perfect white wicker rocker, creaky and comfortable, at a yard sale for $5.00. It's also at the cabin, dueling rockers in the upstairs loft bedroom.

When we started traveling in the MX-5 Miata was when we first ate at Cracker Barrel restaurants (which for some inexplicable reason have never spawned stores into Washington). I love the rocking chairs at the Cracker Barrel. Each time we have breakfast at one of these charming restaurants, I threaten to bring home a couple of chairs. Since the nearest restaurant is in Boise, Dave knows he's safe. We're usually in a loaded Explorer heading off on a road trip, or we're in the MX-5 (can you picture the wee roadster with a rocking chair lashed on the trunk?) This trip, we flew to Denver. Sigh… no rocking chairs for the deck at the cabin.

But wait… you can order them online. And shipping is a mere $15 per chair. All you have to do is assemble them. Easy for a guy who builds furniture! Maybe those chairs will grace my deck after all!

Generations

Suzie is my aunt's oldest child, born 6 years ahead of me. I can only imagine the delight of my aunt and my mom when I was born on the same day as Suzie. Probably similar to my delight, when I met William, my cousin Mike's grandson, a vibrant redhead who threw his arms around my knees and shouted "Hi!" when he first laid eyes on me. William was also born on "our" birthday. I love this photo of the three of us!

Farm stands

I love the fresh produce stands that crop up all over in the summer. On the weekends, you can find small roadside stands selling fresh fruit from Eastern Washington. Lots of neighboring towns have a Saturday market, where you can buy produce, crafts, and fresh flowers. Once the stands open up, I don't buy fresh produce anywhere else until the weather turns cold.

Yesterday we stopped at a farm stand in Enumclaw to get fresh-picked corn. This semi-permanent stand boasts fresh-picked corn, produce of all types, fruit from Eastern Washington, and homemade fudge. The stand is surrounded by produce gardens, and the corn fields are a stone's throw away. While I chose my tomatoes from an outside table, two employees were picking produce to replenish the tables. Another stand I like is near Covington. It's on a side road and not visible from the main road, and it's entirely self-serve. They post the prices, you choose what you want, and leave money in the jar. It's a great place for local tomatoes and zucchini.

My favorite produce stand is Carpenito Brothers, which has been in Kent for decades. In summer, I stop there on my way home from work to buy fresh corn, potatoes, and produce. Their corn fields are on the other side of town, and several times a day they haul in corn by the trailer-load, towed behind a John Deere tractor, right through the heart of town.

But Carpenito isn't just a produce stand. In the spring, it's the place for annuals and perennials, and beautiful baskets for Mothers Day. Their towering hills of bark and topsoil are a Kent landmark. In fall, you'll find pumpkins, squash, and chrysanthemums of every color. In winter, they sell Christmas trees and wreaths. They close down only in the early months, then the cycle begins all over again.

Geocaching

Whew... finally finished logging my cache finds from our recent vacation to Colorado (and New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming). Caching is a big part of our lives, especially when we go on vacation. I can still hear Dave saying, "If we rent a car and do this loop road trip, we can add 8 more states to our caching map." Hey, why not? And while we're at it, let's try and do an earth cache in each state, too. So in addition to a conference in Denver, spending lots of time with my cousins, and sightseeing, we also managed to put 2500 miles on a rental car, and travel through 6 states I've never set foot in before. Is this a great hobby, or what?

Blackberries

I love blackberries. Crumble, slump, cobbler, pie, cheesecake, jam... It's a good thing I like the fruit, because my little farm is fertile ground for the thorny brambles. Blackberries grow rampant in the Pacific Northwest, as anyone who lives here can attest. (I'm always amused to get gardening catalogs from the East Coast and Midwest, and see various types of blackberry vines for sale. Come here, and you can have all the plants you want for free.)

I spend 10 months of the year digging blackberry plants out of my flower beds, pulling the vines out of the trees and shrubs, and trying every method known to man to kill them off. But come August, no one touches my vines. In August, and for the next two months, the tiny green berries swell and turn dark purple. Each evening before dinner, I walk out the door, container in hand, and in a few minutes my bowl is overflowing with ripe fruit, warm from the sun. Doesn't get much better than this.

Quail in the Cedar

For the past few months, we've been seeing quail on our place. We'd see the male, or the female, but rarely would see them together. First, we'd see them in the barn. Eventually, they moved into the wild patio garden, just 20 feet from our front steps. Last night when I drove in the driveway after work, I stopped dead at the sight of both adult quail, surrounded by a dozen of the tiniest baby quail you've ever seen. They were flitting here and there, and the parents' heads were snapping back and forth, trying to keep them in sight (a tough job, as they're only about 2 inches tall, and disappeared in the grass). I pulled out the cell phone and called Dave, who was already home. He crept out the front door and along the back of the garage, and we both watched the miracle of baby quail.

Tomorrow I'll take my camera and zoom lens, and if lucky, will post photos.

Monday Morning Came Early

Should be a song title (maybe it is, but I can't think of one). I stayed up too late last night, and 4:30 came very rudely (although waking up to Carbon Leaf wasn't half bad). First day back after a grand 2-week vacation means only one thing: slogging my way through about 350 e-mail messages. I'll come up for air around noon...