New Year's Resolutions

Ah, 2010 is passed. 2011 is upon us. What shall we make of this year? What will we accomplish, endure, achieve, feel, see, experience? Where will we be rewarded? Tested? Where will slow progress be made? Where will we feel overwhelmed by forces that oppose us? How will we react? Where will we experience "upward victory"?

"Set gentle goals, and meet them."

My gentle goals for this year are to:

1) Spend an average of an hour a day doing something to enhance the vibrancy of my body-mind. If I'm unable to do something on Friday, a two hour hike on Saturday would let things average out. Yoga, meditation, chi-gong, an hour at the gym, tai chi, hiking, biking, breathing exercises, a mindful walk - these are all candidates.

2) Reduce my credit card debt by half.

3) Teach something - a class for kids, a class at work, statistics for a friend

4) Train in something - sculpture, work related things

5) Create a sculpture

Again, I've had so many delicious wines lately. I've been a big fan of Earthquake Petite Syrah through this holiday period. I managed to get a case of CigarZin from Cosentino before the announcement of his winery's closing - sad. The wine tasted even better than before I knew it was the last vintage. Such rich fruit, deliciously balanced.

I'm going to review the VINTJS 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Pronounced "Vintages", it is a Trader Joe's proprietary brand, with the indication that it was "Vinted and Bottled by Maxwell Creek Winery, Rutherford, CA". I found a Maxwell Creek Winery in McLaren Vale, Australia, but nowhere was I able to find Maxwell Creek Winery in Rutherford, CA. Hmmm. And the labeling doesn't imply that the grapes are sourced from Napa Valley, either. Not a fan of this approach, so far.

The wine I am trying is the VINTJS 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Alcohol is 13.7% by volume.

Color: Pale Straw

Smell: Moderately aromatic. Notes of Lime, Banana, Green Apple, Mineral.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied.

Initial Flavor/Attack: Light, crisp. Lime is dominant

Evolution/Mid Palate: Lime, Apple

Finish: Pleasant acidity, lingering.

Overall Impression: Okay/Good. I'd give it a B- or C+. Ambiguity about source of fruit is annoying.

(Again, scale is [Crap=F, Okay=C, Good=B, Good-Good=B+, Outstanding=A, Nectar of Bacchus=A+])

It's Been Too Long!

Oh, Blog, how I've missed you! Life and work and sleep get in the way so easily of the things you love to do. So much to write about!

I've visited Hong Kong and Japan since I last posted.

I've had so many fantastic wines.

I built a 2' flagstone retaining wall around an unsightly mound of dirt in the backyard.

Winter has come to the low desert.

We've had a couple of freezing nights this week, and I spent the morning cleaning up the frost damage to my summer vegetables, especially the peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. See you next year, fellas... ;(

Some of the vegetables are in raised beds, others are in Earthboxes. I'm a huge fan of the Earthbox. I felt compelled to write after noticing that the Poblano pepper plant I was cleaning up, which had been growing in the Earthbox, actually grew into the grapefruit tree above it. I was harvesting Poblanos 10 feet in the air! The pepper plant was enormous - I wish I had a picture of it before the frost got to it. Here's a picture of the harvest, again, from a single plant (poblanos on left, a few bells on the right)...

I am such a fan of the Earthbox because it is easy to use. No weeds, low maintenance - especially if you have the watering refill done via drip irrigation. The Earthbox is what is known as a self-watering container. There's a reservoir of water on the bottom, and the plants can drink as much as they like. There's also an air hole, allowing the roots to get oxygenated. It also incorporates slow-relesase fertilizer, allowing the plants to feed themselves as much as they wish. It's an ideal, water and space efficient growing system. The plants do great inside them.

This pepper plant, I gotta tell you, was a tree!

See http://www.earthbox.com for more information. I've ordered some earthboxes, and had others loaned to me by friends. They're also available on Amazon here.

I need a few posts to even begin to open up how inspiring the gardens of Japan were. A few pictures of what I saw...

Koi Pond

Walkway at Fujiya Hotel in Hakone

Zen Garden at Silver Temple, Kyoto

Golden Temple in Kyoto

Grounds of the Silver Temple in Kyoto.

I went to a wine tasting recently featuring Argentinian wines. Argentinian reds are primarily Malbec, Bonarda, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Several wines were featured by winemaker Dante Robino, whose wines I was extremely impressed with.

The Bonarda grape is thought to be originally from the Piemonte region of Italy. There is some uncertainty about which precisely which old world "Bonarda" grape is planted in Argentina, but genetic testing points to Italian Charbono, aka French Corbeau.

A description of the wine from argentinawineguide.com:

"Bonarda wines can be lighter-bodied and fruity, full of cherry and plum flavours, with light tannins and moderate acidity. However with concentrated fruit from older vines, and especially when oak aged, Bonardas can also be big, fruity, dense and tannic wines with deep colour and fig and raisin characteristics."

The wine I am trying is the Dante Robino 2008 Bonarda.

Color: Deep Magneta / Purple

Aroma: Mineral notes. Some blueberry and plum. Not too strong on the nose.

Mouthfeel: Medium to heavy-bodied.

Initial Flavor: Cranberry and raisin. Strong but balanced acidity.

Finish: Long, lingering, nice acidity and tannins.

Overall Impression: Good Wine. Solid B.

(Again, scale is [Crap=F, Okay=C, Good=B, Good-Good=B+, Outstanding=A, Nectar of Bacchus=A+])

Concrete Countertop and An Outstanding Value On A Delicious Petite Sirah

I had the impulse after a long yoga class to do a petite sirah tasting at home. Part of it was the impetus to return to this blog, and have something to inspire me to do so. The two weeks leading up to September 1st were very intense at home and at work, and I've spent the last week feeling a bit hung over from the exertion.

I can't share the fruits of the work work, but the home work was an enormous facelift on our guest house, including new floors and a new kitchen.

(I've been interested in metalwork, stone, and concrete lately. So I decided to try a concrete countertop. Here's some photos...)

Laydown of leftover cabinets, plywood, and wonderboard

Concrete (sand mix, w/ brown powdered colorant added) was added to a form, leveled, and allowed to cure for 24 hrs

The finished kitchen!

I found the following book to be enormously helpful: Decorative Concrete by Sunset Magazine.

So on to the Petite Sirah...

Petite Sirah is an interesting grape. It began in the 1880's at the University of Montpellier, in the Rhone region of France, when Syrah vines pollenated Peloursin vines. The botanist who discovered this was named Francois Durif, and the plant is sometimes referred to as Durif. The resultant vines are highly resistant to Downy Mildew, and the grapes were traditionally used to add body to inferior wines. In California, it is still sometimes used that way today.

The wines made from Petite Sirah tend to be dark, acidic, with herbal and peppery notes, and with flavors of blue fruit, like plums and blueberries.

One of the wines from my Petite Sirah tasting was the 2008 McManis Petite Sirah.

Color: Inky purple.

Aroma: Blue fruit.

Initial Flavor: Strong blueberries, chocolate, and subtle smoke.

Finish: Fruit, Tannin. Paired well with creamy rich pasta sauce. Drops off quickly, typical of petite sirah, but some lingering chocolate.

Overall Impression: Good-Good wine.

Again, scale is [Crap, Okay, Good, Good-Good, Outstanding, Nectar of Bacchus].

I purchased it for $11.55 from my local wine retailer. Outstanding value.

Two Moths Fucking and a Shiraz-Viognier

I saw these two little lovers outside our front door this morning. Isn't the green amazing? It really stood out against the brick. I tried to identify them, but no luck.

I tried a Shiraz-Viognier blend last night. So for me, each wine variety has a personality. Shiraz is a serious, big, bold wine, with an undercurrent of fruit and fun. So is Zinfandel, if made well, even juicier, a little less bold. Cabernet Sauvignon is also big and bold, but with less of a fun side. Pinot Noir is serious, but with a subtler side, refined, sexy. Angelina Jolie. Cabernet is maybe a little more like Condoleeza Rice. I respect it, but wouldn't necessarily want to sleep with it.

I like Shiraz quite a bit, and can't come up with a movie star to describe it. The Marilyn Merlot thing is very wrong. She's not a Merlot. Maybe she's a Shiraz. Or Christina Hendricks / Joan Harris from Mad Men. She's a Shiraz. When I think of Merlot, I think of Rosie O'Donnell. There's more to say here. Maybe more on this later. Comments welcome.

So when you take a Shiraz and blend it with Viognier, what's that do to the personality of the wine? Here's what we tried:

Terlato-Chapoutier Shiraz/Viognier

http://www.terlatowines.com/wines/australia/domaine_tc/product.asp?Id=625

I have to say, I did quite enjoy what the Viogner did. The nose was fruitier, the flavors a little softer, maybe a little diluted from a typical Shiraz, more softly fruity, more apricot than black cherry. I still love the full-strength Shiraz, but this was a nice departure. Stood up to red meat just fine.

Color: Ruby red.

Aroma: Light Fruit / Apricot

Initial Flavor: Balanced mouthfeel.

Finish: Lingering, Gentle Tannin. Nice.

Overall Impression: Good-Good wine.

Again, scale is [Crap, Okay, Good, Good-Good, Outstanding, Nectar of Bacchus].

Explosions

There's pressure built up from the heat and dryness, and it's released with a good, blessed, drenching rain. It's been nice the last few days.

Color Explosion!

The rain has caused the Texas Rangers (Leucophyllum frutescens) to explode in color. Look at the blossoms littering the ground below the shrub! They look like this all over the city. I've had these shrubs at the last two places I've lived, and they're beautiful and really well suited to the climate here.

The other explosion that's been happening in the garden is the dreaded Silverleaf Whitefly. They started showing up around mid to late May, and now they're really thick on the squashes, collards, kale, and to a lesser extent, the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. These are some of the toughest pests to deal with.

How do you know you have them?

1) The veins on your squash plants take on a silvery color, which soon takes over the leaves. Stems also become lighter, eventually becoming almost white. This is the signature of silverleaf whiteflies.

Severe Silverleaf Whitefly Damage On Squash Plant

2) When you brush the leaves of your plants, a cloud of white insects flutters around

3) Inspection of the underside of leaves shows the larval stage. These guys are immobile, and are the ones that cause the real damage by sucking plant juices and excreting the silvering toxin.

Whitefly larva on underside of eggplant leaf

Zoom In Showing Whitefly (Bottom Right Center) And Larvae

I've been exploring ways to control them - lately, I've been using a mix of pyrethrins and neem oil, coupled in with some liquid seaweed extract for the health of the plants. This is an organic approach, and requires spraying frequently - weekly, even - but I haven't been able to keep up lately. I read recently that sprays of mild dish soap and water are effective. I've been exploring systemics (oh, no - the dreaded word for organic gardeners!) but I'm not sure I want to go there yet. Yellow insect traps (whiteflies love yellow) are another option. I'm also thinking about just letting the garden go dormant for the summer, maybe Mid May - Late August. Any thoughts out there?

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... ;)