Mustard yellow fields, merlot red, verdent green hills

 







yellow fields of mustard

flying to California- I love cloud shadows & somewhere over Pike's Peak

 the Golden Gate Bridge & San Francisco as seen from the bus

Ferrari-Carano winery- goreous gardens plus you get to rub a boar's snout for good luck

one funky vintage store in Sebastopol, California

cherry blossoms, animals & a tree looking at ya on the one lane road leading to the house

the beautiful countryside

i adore bees-these were so hard to photograph because they never lighted for long on the rosemary

the Bubble Room at "J"

my wonderfully dear friends, Leonard and John with me in the middle

March 22-26,2012 = Healdsburg, California. I want to move to the Northern California wine country. It. is. gorgeous.(which makes it hard to choose only a few photos) Plus, my absolutely fantastic friends, John and Leonard, live there. I haven't seen them for about a dozen years, yet it was as though no time had passed from the minute they picked me up at the local airport. I landed in San Francisco and headed out to them via an Express bus- no hassles with traffic! The landscape is magnificent- rolling, lush green hills, dotted with sheep, goats, horses or cows. Fields of yellow mustard and rows upon rows of just budding grape vines of  all varieties. My favorite were the Zinfandel, with their Tim Burton apprearance, all dark, twisted and gnarled, like a grand Halloween candelabra. The guys were the perfect hosts and I was completely spoiled, being waited on hand and foot. We visited breathtaking gardens at one winery, tall redwood trees at another. At the winery, "J", we enjoyed the Bubble Room, where bits of food, exquisitely prepared by the chef, were paired with a corresponding wine so that one could taste the difference that food made on the palate when sipping the wine again. We went hunting in a vintage store for western wear for a future themed party (J & L always throw great parties), but it was a store unlike I had ever seen= a huge covered outdoor spot with pool tables, a bar inside and sooooo much stuff- and so organized! I met their wonderful friends, learned out to play dominoes, and drank wine and gin (not together!), went to wonderful restaurants, both comfy casual and quite divine and had great conversation. I had forgotten what it was like to just sit, relax, have a cocktail, and just talk and laugh. And, it is so quiet where they live. Only a town of 30,000, Healdsburg is only about 15 minutes to Santa Rosa, a small city of 150,000, where you can get everything you need. I so enjoyed seeing my dear, dear friends again. My visit was way overdue, as was my re-learning to relax and enjoy the journey.