Thunderstorms and Gomphrena

It rained hard here last night. Thunder sounded like bombs going off near the house. Water dripped in through the AC vents in the roof, towels thrown down in the middle of the night. Rivers of pine needles are everywhere, and this morning is hot and wet.

The plants and the people here needed the rain badly. I could hear an irritation in the voices of friends and co-workers, anxious for the final arrival of the monsoon after weeks of teaser showers.

There are two summers here. A hot, dry one, and a hot, wet one. Hot and dry goes from May to June, hot and wet goes from July to August.

Finding annual plants that can take the heat is a challenge. Vincas are a great standby, they are waxy and tough, and almost seem to enjoy the heat. I interplanted them with the tomatoes, which I typically wouldn't do -- so disorganized!!! ;) -- and they look fantastic together, spreading on the ground amidst the tomato sprouts.

I also tried planting Gomphrena this year, also known as Globe Amaranth or Bachelor Button. It's been an outstanding performer, and I love the purple color of the cultivar I chose.

I've also started learning about welding. Here's a welder I found on Amazon, people seem to be raving about it. It says it's a MIG welder, but I suppose you need to purchase a separate tank for the gas. Perhaps getting started with self-shielded flux core (no gas required) is the way to go, especially if it's better for working outdoors.

Sparks

Seems to me like the best blogs have a few characteristics:

1) They're VISUAL. They have lots of interesting and beautiful pictures.
2) They have a POINT OF VIEW. They're inspired by beauty, or wonder, or love. They have passion.
3) They're INTERESTING. They find elements - home remodeling, space, art - that are of particular interest, but with their observations, ...
4) They're BRIEF. They get to the point, and aren't too self-serving.
5) They have an ATTITUDE. (Not all of them, but some of the ones I like!)

I'm going to yoga in about an hour...

One of the rules for this blog is that it's okay to be HONEST here. This is a space where it's okay to be afraid, frustrated, angry, overjoyed. Maybe some of the things society doesn't expect us to ever be. Maybe even BOLD.

I've been thinking about making art lately. We're redoing the cabinets in the laundry room, and I cut a piece of metal bracket with my angle grinder. I loved the sparks and the smell of the metal being worked. I'd like to learn how to weld, make some welded art pieces for the wall. BOLD ones, of course... ;)

Reflections on Big Sur

We spent three days total in Big Sur, staying at the Big Sur Getaway. Really nice hosts, beautiful view. Would recommend it for sure.

Enjoyed our time relaxing on the beaches of Big Sur, enjoying the food, beer and people watching at the Maiden Publick House.

One thing we took away from Big Sur was a bottle of Pepper Plant pepper sauce. We haven't been able to stop eating it. I found some available for order on Amazon. Ooooh, it's so good on eggs. Someone else recommended it on steak. It's just the right balance of tanginess and heat.

I'd like to talk a little bit about Blogging in general. Why do we do it? What's the point? What are the best Blogs, and why? What are the worst Blogs, and why? What purpose do they serve? Are they just lonely egos yelling out into the cybervoid? Hoping someone will hear them, and listen, and follow, and validate them? I'm going to look at a blog of note and think about this...

Back From California, Mercury Rising

Friday, June 19th: Travel from Arizona to San Jose. Stayed with my friend Mike, and his girlfriend Donna, at their place in Los Gatos. Donna's a wonderful cook - homemade cake, lasagne, cupcakes for dinner. Delicious. Mike introduced me to Charlie the Unicorn. He has a series of Charlie the Unicorn shirts. Too funny.

Saturday, June 20th: Breakfast at the Los Gatos cafe. Everything was quick and delicious - especially loved the herbed potatoes. Hiked the Summit Rock Loop. Visited the Thomas Fogarty Winery. Stunning views. Enjoyed the wines, especially the Pinots, but the prices were a little high, and the wines we liked definitely required aging from the point at which we tasted them. After that, stopped at the Cinnabar Winery tasting room. Fantastic wines, comfortable atmosphere. I had the thought to send them a little bit of Cinnabar quartz from Arizona for the tasting room...

My honey and I especially enjoyed the Mercury Rising.

Had dinner at Dio Deka, which was divine. Top marks for their Spanakotiropita "... Oven-baked, crispy phyllo pastries, filled with baby spinach, scallions, leeks, Greek sheep and goat milk cheeses" Little towers of crispy, spinachy, cheesy goodness. The Haloumi cheese, grilled, served atop an heirloom tomato slice was also excellent - salty, oily cheese atop a fresh, tart tomato slice, with just the right amount of olive oil and balsamic.

Sunday, June 21st: Awoke and went to Great Bear Coffee. Stopped back home, then left for the second leg of our trip, but not without a final stop at a winery - Testarossa. Especially loved the Syrah made here, and the pinot we tried was also excellent. I had the humbling moment of trying to swirl the glass of wine hard enough for it to "open" that I spilled red wine all over my shirt. Oh, yeah, there it is - the flush of total embarassment!!! Luckily, I had a change of shirt available. The folks at this winery were very nice and accomodating, and I would visit them for the friendly, authentic atmosphere as well as the quality wines. The history of the winery is also interesting - check it out on the link. I asked the winemaker for advice he had for an aspiring winemaker. He said, "The most important thing to have is patience. Work hard in the field, and go easy in the winery. Let the wine make itself. That, and don't quit your day job." ;)

More on Big Sur and the tasting notes on Mercury Rising soon.

Warrior III and A Nice Zinfandel

Took the dogs to the vet this afternoon. Dogs are so awesome. They tolerate pain with so much grace. (They just got their shots - not a big deal, really.) One of the vet techs said her dog looked exactly like our dog, and asked where we'd gotten ours. Which was a rescue place out on the outskirts of town. Same place as the vet tech. Turns out, our dogs are sisters! Incredibly small world. We'll have a play date after we come back from vacationing in California...

Was trying to do Warrior poses with my sun salutations this morning. I get irritated every time I try to do Warrior III. Got some good advice from Yoga Journal. Here's the link.

I think the key, or the "yoga gold", is what they say about not leaning forward when you get into the pose. It's just about standing up, tightening up your leg. Pose feels much more solid, then. Rather than feeling like I'm going to tip over.

Went to a class tonight. My head hurts from dealing with the world, but I sweated my ass off in yoga, and I somehow feel ... just ... better. I'm thinking about making my way to the Colorado conference in September. Me and my honey are headed to San Jose this weekend for some quality time with friends, followed by time in Big Sur, which I've never seen, and I'm desperately looking forward to.

Had a glass of Dry Creek Zinfandel tonight, purchased at Trader Joe's. Excellent wine!

Dry Creek Vineyard 2007 Heritage Zinfandel

Color: Beautiful deep ruby red.
Aroma: Chocolate/Cocoa. Subtle berry notes as well. I really enjoy the chocolate notes!
Initial Flavor: Jammy fruit, classic zinfandel, good, balanced acidity. A little light in the mouthfeel for my taste.
Finish: Lingering, Gentle Tannin. Nice.
Overall Impression: Good-Good wine. Outstanding value!!!
Again, scale is [Crap, Okay, Good, Good-Good, Outstanding, Nectar of Bacchus].

One of my personal rules for writing this blog is to spend equal time reading someone else's. Read a little bit of "My Place" by Mark Brewer.

I've got to get up early tomorrow to cram some training in at work before our trip. And I'm organizing a retirement event for a member of my team.

Sunflowers Are Glorious

Okay, so I've had a little too much wine last night, don't feel very sharp this morning. I'm up, going to try to focus and do some sun salutations. The sunflowers are glorious in the garden. They are the variety "Lyng's California Greystripe".



The perfect geometry of the center of the flower inspires me.

These should produce a good number of seeds, some of which I will undoubtedly share with the birds.

Sun salutations are a set sequence of postures, beginning with a standing pose, forward bend, a lunge, a push up, upward facing dog, downward facing dog, a complementary lunge, a forward bend, then returning to a standing position. A good friend told me once that beginning your day with a minimum of five sun salutations does wonderful things for you. So that's what I did today. I watch my thoughts as they wander away from the practice, to the past, the future, to ideas of things to build, things to be, to this blog, and as they wander away from the practice, I just notice that they've wandered away, and I bring them back to the practice, to my breathing, to the alignment of the pose.

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1040

Seane Corn is one of my absolute favorite yoga instructors. I got to take a class with her at the Yoga Journal conference in San Francisco in January. A quote of hers that sticks with me when I do yoga is, "If you're moving, and you're breathing, and you're connected to spirit, you're doing yoga brilliantly ... beautifully ..."

A Nice White Wine From Argentina

Our dinner tonight was inspired by a trip to Italy, where we ate a delicious, simple salad made of tuna, lettuce, tomato, corn, and a high quality olive oil. We enjoyed this in Florence, with a view of the River Arno. Here's a picture of the dish from Italy.



Okay, so we used sardines instead, because that's what we had on hand. And no tomatoes. But we could have, because I just harvested a bunch from the garden.

We had a wine from a recent Argentina wine tasting, a 2009 Torrontes from La Yunta winery. Torrontes is a white wine grape, known for producing crisp, aromatic wines.



It paired really well with the salad - nice crisp acidity paired well with the fish.

Wine: 2009 Torrontes, La Yunta, Famatina Valley, La Rioja, Argentina
Color: Pale Yellow
Aroma: Faint. Impressions of Green Apple.
Initial Flavor: Crisp, Acidic, Green Apple, Lemon, Nectarine
Finish: Pleasant Acidity
Overall impression: Good Wine.

Scale is [Crap, Okay, Good, Good-Good, Outstanding, Nectar of Bacchus]. I just made that up, but I think it will work.