mizblueprint

Preservation Architecture

2012-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

The Napa County Planning Commission voted unanimously to allow the rehabilitation of the National Register Aetna Springs Resort. Some of the buildings are pictured here. Although the condition looks awful for some of the buildings, others are in surprisingly good condition such as the Social Hall. This and the dining Hall are reputed to be designed by Bernard Maybeck, though documentary evidence is lacking due to the destruction of Maybeck's drawings in the SF earthquake and fire in 1906. The Social Hall embodies the principals of the Arts and Crafts movement - and far surpasses the Social Hall designed by Bernard Maybeck at the private Bohemian Grove.

The site contains a compendium of styles built from the 1870's Through the 1950's. I will follow up with a more thorough history of the resort in a separate post.

Aetna Springs


Caroline

Social Hall

Aetna Gate

Social Hall

Good advice

Why preservation architecture?

2012-01-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

I received word this past Thursday that a few neighbors of the critically endangered National Register District Aetna Springs Resort will oppose any effort to restore and rehabilitate the most important historic site in Napa County.


Noehill.com

Whatever the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) rationale, there is no objective reason to prevent restoration of the historic resort. In Napa County we have a voter initiative called Measure P that prevents re-zoning of any agricultural lands without a vote of the people. The 672 acre Aetna Springs Resort is zoned agricultural. However, resort use of the property has existed for 130 years or so - many years before there was a Measure P. No change in zoning has been proposed, no new buildings or changes in uses of any of the buildings is proposed, there is an existing Use Permit for the site, and the historic uses are protected under the California Historic Buildings Code and the Napa County Historic Preservation Ordinance.

The extent of the current Use Permit modification is to relocate several structures out of the Swarz Creek set-back to protect the creek; to repair the outmoded septic system and water system; and to provide for accessibility to some of the structures. The nationally acclaimed architectural firm Architectural Resources Group has prepared the restoration/rehabilitation plan according to the Secretary of the Interior Standards.

Why do I care about this, and why should you?

I care about this because I witnessed the destruction of acres of Colonial through Victorian buildings, sites and landscapes in my home town of Greensboro, NC. This destruction of the historic fabric of the community continues to this day. See the apologia for destruction of this neighborhood near the UNC-G campus. I witnessed the bulldozing of tracts of historic homes in Raleigh, NC, while I attended the School of Design at NCSU. I salvaged parts of historic buildings as the rumbling "big yellow toys" prepared to scrape sites clear of historical encumbrances. I began working on historical buildings as a construction worker while attending the University. I have lived in and restored historical homes for over 35 years. My avocation has been historic preservation action for many decades. See Napa County Landmarks' website. My vocation - architecture - has included hundreds of projects involving preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of historic buildings. My passion for preservation of historical neighborhoods and sites has increased over the decades as I have seen the cultural value of the history and physical continuity of "place". We create our own genius loci - or spirit of place - when we create places. Architecture and place-making are some of the most important "callings" of our species.

I hope that all who likewise care about place, genius loci, embodied history, historic preservation, and community will attend the hearing on Wednesday, January 18, 2012.

Persimmons on fire

2011-12-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

I read an interesting article on how to write a blog post. The advice was to delete the first and last paragraphs, so this is a very short first paragraph. No deletion required.

Christmas dinner came together without a hitch, and in a rather effortless fashion. Brother Joe and his wife Nancy sent us a "honey baked ham". We tried champagne and sherry with the ham, but with the leftovers on Boxing Day tried this Simply Recipes Honey Mulled Wine which is also recommended.

After our late afternoon Christmas Day dinner, we had John's famous flaming persimmon pudding. His mother used to serve flaming puddings, with decorations of holly and berries. Here is a video of the pudding:

Courtesy of John, here is the persimmon pudding recipe - his adaptation from the "California Heritage Cookbook" by the Pasadena Junior League.

Persimmon Pudding
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon salad oil
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1 cup Hachiya persimmons, sieved
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger, no smaller than 1/8" chunks

In a mixing bowl, beat one cup sugar and the oil into the well-beaten egg. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and soda. Add this alternately with the milk to the creamed mixture. Mix in the persimmon, vanilla, nuts, and dates. Generously butter and sugar a pudding mold with a hollow center; the sugar coating will slightly caramelize when lit on fire providing a light shell crunch on the exterior.

Bake in the covered mold set in a pan of hot water in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until done. The pudding may be steamed in a water bath on top of the stove for 4 hours, or until done. Unmold onto a serving plate. Use waxed paper between the lid and body of the mold if boiling.

To flame the pudding, warm 1/4 cup brandy, pour over pudding and light. Alternatively, pour 1/4 cup 151 rum over the cake and light (do not warm - read warnings on the label!)

Pudding may be served with a hot lemon sauce, but we prefer it plain.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks, here's some pie

2011-11-24T11:30:00.001-08:00

One of the projects that the Rotary Club of Napa supports is the Pathway Home. Our club hosts the annual "Cycle for Sight & Rotary Ride for Veterans". Members of our club are very involved in activities with Pathway Home veterans, including special outings, regular bowling nights, volunteering at the Veterans Home, distributing a home made quilt to each veteran, and of course raising money for this privately funded effort. Veterans in the program may have traumatic brain injuries, post traumatic stress disorder, physical injuries, and sometimes disfiguring injuries. Please click on the links to learn more about the program, and plan on riding or volunteering at the next Rotary Ride on Saturday, April 21, 2012.

One of the little things we do is make homemade pies for the Pathway Home veterans for Thanksgiving. Yesterday the Rotary pie delivering crew requested the recipe for the pie I brought - so here it is. I hope the pie made the trip safely all the way from Napa to Yountville. There were some hungry looking fellows driving the truck.

I used the recipe published by David Lebovitz on his blog. I generally followed the recipe, as David recommends that practice when first making a recipe. This kind of pie - containing pecans, chocolate and bourbon - is one that I have known for years as a "Kentucky Derby Pie". There is a similar trademarked name. A lovely recipe for a similar pie can be found in "The South, the Beautiful Cookbook" - which uses ground pecans in the crust as well as unsweetened chocolate and dark corn syrup in the filling. Since I have always made a pie crust with a pastry blender, I thought I would try this method for making the crust. David also recommends NOT pre-baking the crust so that the filling and crust fuse together. We have not cut the second pie I made for our Thanksgiving, so I will report on the results in the comments section.
I did not have quite enough light corn syrup, so added a bit of dark corn syrup. The dark chocolate chips I used were 60% chocolate by Ghiradelli. These are large chips.

Chocolate Pecan Pie by David Lebovitz

The crust:
1 1/4 cups (175g) flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
4 ounces (115g) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1-inch (3cm) cubes
4 tablespoons (60ml) ice water

The chocolate-pecan filling:
3 large eggs
3/4 cup (150g) packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup (200g) light corn syrup, rice syrup or golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (30g) melted butter, salted or unsalted
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 2/3 cups (190g) toasted pecans, very coarsely chopped
3/4 cup (120g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1. To make the crust, mix together the flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. (Or use a food processor.)
2. Add the cubed butter and mix until the butter pieces are broken up and about the size of small peas.
3. Add the ice water and mix just until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch (30cm) round. Transfer the dough into a 9-inch ( cm) pie plate letting the dough ease into the pan, rather than pressing it in. Tuck the overhanging dough underneath the area above the rim of the pie plate, to create a double width of dough, then crimp the edges and refrigerate until ready to fill.
5. Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC) and position the oven rack to the center of the oven.
6. In a large bowl, which together the eggs, brown sugar, syrup, vanilla, salt, melted butter, and bourbon.
7. Stir in the pecans and the chocolate chips then scrape the filling into the pie shell and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the filling puffs up slightly but still feels slightly jiggly and moist in the center.
Let pie cool completely before slicing.

Serving: Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream is a good accompaniment to pecan pie.
Storage: Dough can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to three days, or frozen for up to two months.
The pie is best eaten the same day although will keep for up to three days, at room temperature.

To go with the pie, my dear husband John made some of his special vanilla ice cream. We may have enough left for our Thanksgiving dessert later today!

Preservation Blues

2011-11-21T20:10:00.001-08:00

An interesting post by far away friend John D. Poole on his preservation picks for this past week got me thinking about how the preservation world changes, and how it remains the same. There are some abiding principles for historic preservation that are embodied in "the Secretary of the Interior Standards and Guidelines" developed by the National Park Service decades ago. About when I started my career in architecture. These have morphed over the years to include Standards for preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, reconstruction, cultural landscapes, and energy efficiency (the newest).

clancytheys.com

A long time ago, and many miles from here, I had the opportunity to work on the North Carolina Governor's Mansion. I wrote a little blog piece on that experience. Some time before that, while still in architecture school, I worked on the North Carolina State University campus. In English vernacular, I caused "a nine days' wonder". The buildings I spent my first summer in construction working on were Berry, Becton and Bagwell dormitories. It appears that they have been rehabilitated again. I find internet links by two firms with photos of the buildings, possibly an architecture and landscape architecture firm.

clhdesignpa.com

After applying for construction labor jobs at 17 companies, including the one my father worked for - I found myself still without a construction job the summer before my senior year of architecture school. I had the rather naive thought that since many of my classmates (all men) worked for higher wages outdoors instead of cooped in a massive underground bunker of a drafting room, that I would do the same thing. I did not realize that no women had yet broken the gender barrier in construction in North Carolina. With Clancy & Theys Construction Company, I decided to make my stand. I was rejected by the General Superintendent after two visits to the field office. As I departed the office on the second visit, it occurred to me that the administrative office was upstairs. I walked up the drive to the upper level of the building, in the front door, and encountered Linda. I told Linda that I'd like to see Mr. Clancy or Mr. Theys. She smiled and showed me right to Mr. Theys who was discussing labor for the NCSU dormitories project with with job Superintendent, Mr. P. Against his every instinct, compunction or religious belief, Mr. P. ended up with the first woman on his crew. By end of summer he took the newspaper crews and photographers in stride. Clancy & Theys got some good publicity, and I got the kind of experience that a pioneer receives.

I learned a few lessons that summer. One of our best laborers was a man the same age as my father. John A. was illiterate, but could operate any kind of equipment and fix things with tie wire that looked unfixable. He taught me how to do heavy labor all day without killing myself. He worked on all the subsequent projects I worked on, and was one of my mentors in the field.

By 1977 I was the Superintendent, and he worked on my crew.

med.unc.edu

We worked on the rehabilitation of McNider Hall, University of North Carolina School of Medicine. It has probably been renovated again since then. Mr. Theys asked me one day when I was "back at the shop" putting gas in one of the trucks what I wanted to become in the construction business. I answered "a superintendent".

He said, "Do you think men would take orders from a woman?"

I said,"If she's the boss they will."

Within a month I was Assistant Superintendent, and in a few more, I was Superintendent. The men did take orders from a woman.

Making blueprints

2011-11-13T21:13:00.001-08:00

I joined Twitter in early July to tweet about Napa Porchfest. I use the same name - "mizblueprint" - on Twitter. At the time I wrote the first thing that came to mind as my introductory line, "I used to draw for a living. Pushing a mouse and plinking a keyboard is not quite the same thing."

My earliest languages were English and crayon. My Mom was amused when I drew portraits of my family on the wall above my crib. I remember what those drawings looked like. I drew each family member as a cookie. With arms and legs, feet, hands, faces, ears - and one with a bite taken out of it. I learned years later that in the universal visual language of children, the drawings were rather typical. They may have been a little earlier than many, but I talked early also.

I recall drawing incessantly. After I learned to read, I alternated reading and drawing. Then swimming, bikes and childhood games filled my days. In the evening, I would draw. Mom saved and framed some early work, and I sold a drawing at about age 12. This was to my father's boss, but he actually hung it in his living room, so I was pleased.

At the end of sixth grade, I wanted to study art with a wonderful teacher who emigrated to the US after escaping from Hungary ahead of the Nazi invasion during World War II. As one of six children by then, I had to choose between piano lessons and art lessons. Not a difficult choice, really. By seventh grade, my art teacher suggested that I might have the skill set to become an architect. Click! What a perfect fit, thought the twelve year old me. I could draw for a living.

In those days, my father often had blueprints at home due to his job as an engineer and construction manager. These were real blueprints with blue backgrounds and white lines. I recall the change to diazo blueline prints, which were the material of my life in architecture for many years.

The childhood idea of drawing for a living changed as computer drafting developed. For almost 15 years I continued to draw with graphite and ink on vellum as the world of computers altered the practice of architecture. Now my opening quote is a rather poignant statement about the in-between state in which many of my generation find ourselves. Are we computer jockeys? The visceral feel of the pencil or pen against the paper - the sweep of the arm - the flourish of a free-hand sketch on yellow "flimsy" - the former tools of our trade - are rapidly disappearing. A colleague has given up his office and returned to a home office. He has also returned to hand drawing. Is there a place for that in the business of architecture?

And what about the childhood idea of drawing for a living? "I used to draw for a living. Pushing a mouse and plinking a keyboard is not quite the same thing."

Mills Peak Fire Lookout

2011-09-26T22:22:00.001-07:00

Our annual trip to "Camp Rutabaga", also know as Diablo Campground near the Sierra Buttes - was delayed till September this year. Last weekend we finally got into the Sierras for some camping, hiking and tall tales. After huge snowfall last winter, there was snow on the ground and on the trails much later than usual this summer. A friend who intended to hike for a month on the Pacific Crest Trail beginning in April had to cancel his sabbatical. Too much snow made the trail impassable.

We went up to Mills Peak fire lookout station and found a "manned" fire lookout. The building was built in the 1930's and has weathered the severe conditions very well.

I spent some time talking with the Ranger who also "manned" the fire lookout. He said that there would probably be over 150 visitors on this beautiful September Saturday. Through the glass you can see him looking off toward the northwest with his binoculars.

There is a panoramic view of this lakes region of the Sierras. The Sierra Valley, source of the Feather River is easily visible to the east, with Mount Lassen visible to the north.

It's hard to believe that we have come back to this area the past four years, and had not been up to Mills Peak. What other treasures lie waiting in these mountains?

More Politics and Persimmons

2011-08-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

In November 2008, after the presidential election I posed a question in a blog post: "Last night, for the first time we both saw the movie "All the Kings Men" starring Broderick Crawford. This morning I looked up Huey Long in Wikipedia and wondered the fate of our new president elect, Barack Obama. At the outset of his political career the character Willie Stark was that rare phenomenon - an honest man. Abraham Lincoln was an honest man who came to the presidency in a time of national crisis. Will Barack Obama be more like Abraham Lincoln or the fictional character Willie Stark?"

As the presidential race for 2012 heats up this summer, many journalists, bloggers and political hacks have begun the process of analyzing the successes and failures of Barack Obama.

According to Drew Westen's piece in the New York Times on 8/6/11 "What Happened to Obama?":

"A somewhat less charitable explanation is that we are a nation that is being held hostage not just by an extremist Republican Party but also by a president who either does not know what he believes or is willing to take whatever position he thinks will lead to his re-election. Perhaps those of us who were so enthralled with the magnificent story he told in “Dreams From My Father” appended a chapter at the end that wasn’t there — the chapter in which he resolves his identity and comes to know who he is and what he believes in."

Westen makes a case that we need a president whose stories make sense of what we are going through. Abraham Lincoln told stories that made sense of the carnage and sacrifice of the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt created a narrative that explained the economic crisis of his era and his concrete plans to end the Depression. "Beginning in his first inaugural address, and in the fireside chats that followed, he explained how the crash had happened, and he minced no words about those who had caused it".

Further, Westen concludes, "when faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze. Instead of indicting the people whose recklessness wrecked the economy, he put them in charge of it. He never explained that decision to the public — a failure in storytelling as extraordinary as the failure in judgment behind it."

From a somewhat different perspective, David Frum writing for CNN, 08/29/11, "Obama's three big mistakes" concludes that "Obama made three crucially bad economic decisions in the first year of his presidency". These included allowing the Democratic Congress to "lard up" the stimulus bill with huge sums that did not create jobs, build infrastructure, or stimulate the economy. An interesting parallel with the 1930's is that Roosevelt built infrastructure on a massive scale that we still depend on today. Of the ARRA funds expended, only about one dollar in eight has gone to new infrastructure projects.

We can expect a new initiative from the president this September to stimulate job growth. I expect that it will be too little and too late. His enemies on the right will not accommodate a plan to boost Obama's image before the 2012 election. And Obama has not demonstrated that he will fight the right wing bullies.

The persimmons are dropping prematurely this year, and there will be a small crop.

Napa Porchfest 2011 - Part 2

2011-08-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Napa Porchfest was embraced by the artists, homeowners and residents of Napa. As I drove around the morning of the event distributing yard signs, I found porches all spruced up and ready for visitors. In Spencers' Addition, also known as "The Alphabet Streets", lovely signs sprang up in gardens.

One house had shade tents set up and chairs for guests. Another had a colorful sign for the artist playing later that afternoon. Another house had a popcorn machine ready for the crowd.

On Warren Street in Old West Napa (my neighborhood) there were shade structures, chairs, sidewalk decorations, food and wine ready for visitors. A great young band named Anadel played here.

At our house, John set up monitors on the porch to show the keyboards of the two grand pianos so that visitors could see all the hands in action. The group, comprised of John, Melissa, Jeremy and Anne - played a program of Beethoven and John Phillip Sousa. Mayor Jill stopped by to see "Eight Hands Afoot" in action.

There was a lot of interest in the classical piano ensemble - so much so - that visitors arrived a half-hour early to get seats. Fortunately we had some seats available on the porch, as some guest did not seem to get the message that they needed to bring their own chairs.

People arrived on foot, a few by car, and many on bicycles. The video spot that John created which included the Eagle Cycling Club and members of the Napa Bicycle Coalition helped get the word out that the best way to get around to the 28 venues in 3 hours was to ride a bike!

Charlotte Watter did an outstanding job as the expert representative of the fictional "Napa Heritage Society".

Other videos for the event can be found at the Napa Porchfest channel on Youtube.

Feedback from the community has been extremely positive. People were thrilled that this event was FREE, was for local residents, featured local talent, and focused on our own very special neighborhoods. We definitely plan on having a Napa Porchfest in 2012 - so put July 29, 2012 on your calendar now.

Napa Porchfest 2011 - part 1

2011-08-01T23:19:00.001-07:00

While it is still the day after, making this yesterday's news, I wanted to reflect on Napa's first Porchfest. Porchfest is a music festival bringing home-grown music out of parlors and garages and onto the porch. The idea was originally spawned in Ithaca, NY. in 2007. Louisa Hufstader brought the idea of porchfest to Napa through the wonders of Social Media. Those are capital letters because Social Media has become such an important internet gorilla that it carries extra special weight. Google especially would like to be a Social Media gorilla. But that is another story.

Social Media in this case was a Facebook link to an article in the Somerville Patch about Somerville considering having a porchfest. Thea Witsil, friend, book lover, and even bigger music lover - chimed in immediately with the comment "Let's do it here in Napa!" The discussion blossomed - online - then we expanded it to a real face-to-face meeting with all who expressed interest invited. Our ad hoc committee was born under the auspices of Napa County Landmarks, whose board had the unanimous good sense to see a great community event in our historic neighborhoods as a good way to carry out our mission.

Between January 10 and July 31, 2011, Napa Porchfest was born. (My daughter Anna Pfeifer is on the left).

It was not an easy birth, because none of us had done anything like this. Thea wrangled music; I wrangled venues, permits, and logistics; Louisa wrangled media, press and Social Media outreach. When we found ourselves stranded with a web address but no web master, John L. Poole, aka "JLPorchfest" stepped in and built a database and Napa Porchfest website that could serve up information on not just the musicians, but photos of all the houses and a map combining everything. Then he proceeded to make promotional videos, one of which serves up the houses like Anette's chocolates.

We could not foresee all the logistical problems and possibilities - which was probably a good thing during the process. Sunday morning it felt like Yazgur's farm before the rain. Fortunately, we did not have hundreds of thousands of concert goers, and the genial Napa crowds ranged up to the hundreds. They took seriously our request that everyone "pack it in and pack it out", ride bicycles, and bring chairs and sunscreen.

"Blonde on a bike"

We pulled off a free music festival on 28 private porches in residential areas featuring over 40 musical groups and over 120 musicians. I attribute the success of the event to strong personal ties and relationships, and also to Social Media (Facebook), which brought this idea to a little "marketplace of ideas" where it could bloom.

Is Google arrogant?

2011-07-06T23:16:00.001-07:00

Are you on the A list?

With a great media buzz fomented by selective invitations to media and online "influencers" to try out Google+, I of course was curious to try out the new applications myself. Notice the past tense "was". I spent time this morning instead watching the live feed of the facebook roll out of their new applications.

I was an early adopter of Google Wave, even going so far as installing an open source program providing similar applications. Once it was finally rolled out to us commoners, I found Google Wave to be a robust and useful set of tools and was unable to share them with anyone. A group of us collaborated on a project using Google Wave, but the other members of the group had to install the program and learn to navigate. Other than that one project, which happened to be the City of Napa application for the Google Fiber for Communities grant - I have had no use for Wave. I was waving to myself.

Google Buzz, on the other hand turned out to be a disaster of a completely different sort. I finally rationalized that it would be safe enough to upload all my contacts to gmail in order to more easily format them for use in "Vertical Response" for political email. This was several thousand contacts. What could go wrong?

It seemed like a few days later (though I don't recall how many), Google Buzz was sprung on all gmail users and exposed all of one's contacts as "friends". All visible to everyone on the list. As a careful facebook user, I kept my friend list to myself during the last election to prevent political rivals from "poaching" or mining the list for their own purposes. Imagine my shock at seeing my political email contacts exposed in one click of the switch. Of course this flaw was quickly noted by other users, and a work around, then patch deployed. Nevertheless, I have not used Buzz ever.

This brings us to the unfortunate current circumstance where Google is rolling out a new product to go one or two better than facebook, but more slowly and more inefficiently. By the time Google is ready to let the common folk past the velvet ropes, there may be few commoners remaining. The Google+ group page has many threads and comments by frustrated geeks who cannot add their friends to their circles. Oops. Google did not seem to notice that Google+ is supposed to be a social application. What good is it if your friends are not there?

Image via CrunchBaseAll us commoners will be video chatting on facebook - and not have to log into Skype to do so. 750 million other people + myself are on facebook's "A" list. No wrist band, no bouncer.

I like that.

Banana slugs in Napa

2011-06-19T16:14:00.000-07:00


Napa County banana slug

On Saturday morning members of our Rotary Club were invited by one of our members to hike in the Moore Creek Preserve in Napa County. This is a piece of property that will be part of the Napa County Open Space District. The creek drains into Lake Hennessey, the largest water supply reservoir for the City of Napa. The lake is located in the eastern hills of the valley near Conn Creek Rd. and the Silverado Trail, off of highway 128.

Very unexpectedly, we came across banana slugs. In 2009 we had a delightful hike in the redwood forest of Santa Cruz County - but Napa County is not a "coastal" county in California. And our remnant redwood forest is predominantly on the west side of the valley, with a stand of redwoods near Angwin that are reputedly the easternmost redwoods in California. Banana slugs seem to live in conifer forests. While there are some second growth fir trees in the Moore Creek Preserve, this is not a redwood habitat.

It is beautiful country, with a still running creek in the bottom of the canyon, heavy oak/madrone/maple and fir forest - surrounded by steep hills covered with oak savannah.

The trail is rough and not quite finished. The park will open next year - we hope in the spring. The trail we took is partly an old logging road which crosses the creek a half-dozen times. My feet were damp after the second crossing.

Some of the banana slugs we saw were spotted like old, overripe bananas. Their color was muted, not the pure electric yellow of the ones we saw in Santa Cruz at Big Basin Redwood Park. Still, they are a sight I never expected to see on this little hike.

I also did not expect to see wildflowers, but a few clung to the edges of the trail and to the rocks of the hill. Ferns filled the low areas next to the creek.

There seemed to be some seams of serpentine rock, and a wild mix of trees that included gray pines - which like serpentine soil. We missed the presence of Craig and Millie, birders who could identify all the birds we heard.

We had a jolly crew on the hike. I had a weird realization today as I sat down to write. I think I was the eldest member of the group.

I'm sure this earns me no special distinction, but I was winded on the steep sections of the trail and obviously need more conditioning before setting out on a major hike.

John kept me company as I gradually started to fall back in the group. I could always use "taking photographs" as an excuse for slowing down, but actually started to feel pain in my repaired hip.

Thanks to John our host and guide for homemade oatmeal cookies when we got back to our vehicles.

Nocino part 2

2011-06-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

A year ago I made some Nocino, or Liqueuer de noix - green walnut liqueur. The traditional time to harvest the green walnuts is next week on June 24. The previous blog post explains the method. Making Nocino requires patience, just like making wine.

We tasted the Nocino on Saturday. It has been resting in the dark in the cool basement. I actually forgot where I had stored it and had to do a search in the special rare foodstuffs (liquors) area of the cellar.

At the time I bottled it, the Nocino had a bitter, bitter taste. So bitter, it seemed like it had crawled out of a bile duct. I questioned whether the bitter flavor would ever go away. Now the Nocino has a complex spicy, nutty, tannic flavor and still has a somewhat bitter edge. It needs a little more rest, but has become very promising. Visualize this deep amber liquid poured over fresh vanilla ice cream. Surely it will be worth the wait.

Limoncello

2011-06-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

Meyer Limoncello is one of the ways we use up some of the hundreds of lemons produced each year on our old Meyer lemon tree. I had the tree moved about 15 years ago to make way for the deck and re-built dining room. While the backhoe was here doing the footing excavation, I had the backhoe operator scoop out the already root-pruned tree and placed in a large new hole near the garage. The tree may be over 40 years old and is extremely vigorous.

This recipe has evolved over the three or four times I have made it. The original recipe I used had zest of 20 lemons. This was not enough. I next tried 24 lemons, and had a better batch. This last time I used 30 lemons and have a really great color and lemon flavor. It may be that you can use as much lemon zest as you can cover with the vodka.

Meyer Limoncello
1.5 Liter bottle 100 proof good quality vodka
30 (or more) lemons, zest only, no white pith
Combine vodka and lemon zest in a large glass jar with a tight fitting lid. I use a glass jar with a metal bail and rubber gasket. Place in a dark cupboard, take out and stir or shake every day for at least 40 days.
____________________________________
simple syrup:
4 cups sugar
5 cups water
Simmer 5-7 minutes, cool. Add to the liquor mix. Let rest another 40 days+/- in the same cabinet. Filter through cheesecloth into bottles with metal bails with stoppers or with tight fitting lids. Store in the freezer.

We still have many, many lemons, so stop by to pick some up for limoncello, preserved lemons or lemon marmalade.

after dinner music

2011-06-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

Cover of Ludwig van Beethoven

It appears that scribefire, a blog editing tool, is not supporting youtube video clips. Back to the onboard editor for this post.

Yesterday was an eight hands/two piano session which turned into a marathon of sorts, beginning at noon and lasting till ten in the evening. There were breaks early for lunch, for afternoon refreshment, then for dinner - but the pianists continued after dinner.

Music for the afternoon included Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Joplin, Beethoven (two complete symphonies, including all repeats), and Wagner. In honor of my recent concert at the Napa Valley College where we had a chorus of over 100 singers plus orchestra performing the final movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, John and friends played the entire symphony. Launching into the chorus section prompted a choral outburst from at least two pianists - "Freude!"

For dinner we had southern California style tacos courtesy of John, Rancho Gordo beans, a fresh vegetable platter, guacamole, and olive oil citrus cake described about a year ago. After dinner, another light piece by Wagner:

Paeonia 3

2011-05-31T18:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more images of peonies from the American Peony Society convention held in Oregon May 27-29, 2011. Can you pick out the "best in show"?

2011-05-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

Paeonia 2

2011-05-29T09:01:00.001-07:00

With an uncertain internet connection, I am dividing the trip posts.

After visiting Brooks Gardens on Friday, we had the pleasure of touring Adelman Gardens. Adelmans' has an enormous commercial cut peony operation as well as commercial production of peony plants, grass seed production, winter wheat and other crops that are rotated on the 100 acre +/- farm.

I took a real fancy to this tree peony - "Leda" - on display at the Adelman retail barn.

A grandson of the Adelmans drove the tractor pulling the people movers during a late spring downpour. In the south we would have called this rain a "gulley washer" or a "frog strangler".

We next visited Piet Wierstra's Oregon Perennial Company, where a hail storm kept us in the cut peony production shed for a few minutes. We then visited the greenhouses where peonies have several weeks head start on field grown flowers. At Mr. Wierstra's house we found these four speckled brown and white eggs on the ground at the base of a peony, with mother squawking in alarm that we might molest the eggs.

Paeonia 1

2011-05-28T22:12:00.001-07:00

The 2011 American Peony Society Convention is being held in Wilsonville, Oregon. This is the first time the annual convention has been held on the west coast - or even west of the Rockies. Weather has been as difficult in the Pacific Northwest as in many parts of the country - with bloom time delayed by about three weeks.

A field trip to several commercial growers on Friday had tents, umbrellas, rubber boots, tractors and a ferocious hail storm. Since many attendees came from across the country, the show went on.

John and I revisited the Peony of Unusual Size ("Haephestos") at Brooks Gardens. It is a tree peony with deep red dinner plate sized flowers on a woody plant about 5-6 feet tall.

I did not notice on a previous trip that there are many Siberian Irises planted in the gardens with the peonies. This time I noticed the irises and the huge field of Siberian Irises planted beyond the showy growing area for the peonies. John is off in the distance beyond the irises.

From a closer point of view, this flowering fruit tree framed another large tree peony.

Where Men Win Glory

2011-04-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

My latest book selection for the Bolgia Book Club was Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer.

Our book club is a little different than most. It has been around for eight years. It is equal parts men and women. The books are selected by the host. Our order of rotation and basic rules are contained in a pickle. The pickle is passed when the next book is revealed at the end of the meeting. There is always food and wine (we live in Napa, after all.)

I heard about a new local book club called the "Commando Book Club" - which does not allow food or beverages. Our group would not long survive with such austerity.

The last book we read was The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason. I thought the Pat Tillman story might be a fitting follow up to a rather fey attempt to re-write the story of Odysseus. There was almost universal acclaim for this book, and it is a hard crowd to please. Don't they look hard to please, critical and picky? In this photo they are sipping a small glass of homemade limoncello. Do I need to provide the recipe? The big jar on the table is the new batch - about 35 days into the first stage prior to addition of the simple syrup. The rose is our latest Leap of Faith bottling - 2010 Merlot Rose.

We had a wonderful conversation about war, kleos, what is a justified war, heroism, epic poetry, and of course the life of a remarkable man told by one of our great story tellers.

We also had spring lamb stew:

...and a luscious savory mushroom (and chanterelle) bread pudding.

We ended with two kinds of homemade cookies and lemon milk sherbet made two ways, one with Meyer lemons, and one with Felicia's sour lemons. After the side by side tasting, sour lemons are better for lemon sherbet. Meyer lemons are too sweet and lack the tang of the Eureka lemons.

Paeonia redux

2011-04-24T22:09:00.001-07:00

The garden feels the fine effects of a bountiful winter of rain. Almost two years ago we went to Oregon in late May to visit iris and peony farms. The post Paeonia shows some of the photos from that trip. Now our own tree peony "Hephaestus " has set buds and bloomed for the first time in our yard. This huge bud is just opening.

The colors of the irises, roses and peonies rival the jewel windows in the Rhine House at Beringer vineyards. I just toured the site again on Friday in preparation for a conference later this summer.

I thought this looked more floral than the picture I snapped of the jumping trout.

At sunset an orange iris lit the west side of the yard. This was my reward for Easter afternoon weed pulling.

garden walk

2011-04-17T21:39:00.001-07:00

After a long wet winter, flowers and fruits are everywhere in the garden. I took a long delayed look at the garden today and snapped a few pictures in advance of the next rain storm.

We have a special love for peonies - tree peonies, Itoh hybrids, and herbaceous peonies. This is one of the tree peonies, just opened this week, and full of buds for weeks to come:

One of the other tree poenies, a blushing deep rose that hides its center:

The fruit trees - apples, cherries, fig, quince, avocado and citrus - are all blooming. The pears and plums have already set fruit.

Tiny pears:

Morello cherries:

apple:

quince:

and first ever blooms on the avocado tree:

We do not know if the avocado will set fruit, but are eager to see what happens this year. Sadly, the "Elephant Heart" plum flowered very early and did not get pollinated. We see no fruit at all on the very vigorous tree planted two years ago.

We have neglected the garden this winter, just as I have neglected this blog. Music, politics, work, and a host of activities have kept us both distracted. Spring renewal is happening anyway.

Thorsen House - part 3

2011-01-19T12:00:00.001-08:00

Just because I have the pictures - here are a few more of the Thorsen House by Greene and Greene in Berkeley, CA. Anyone who has found their way to this blog post (third in the series), has an interest in the details of a seminal Bungalow style Greene and Greene building. This is a window on the south side of the "ell".

Looking up at the inside corner of the "ell", note the wide overhang, carved rafter tails, and carefully crafted copper downspout. Every surface has the same attention to detail as the front door.

Our little group examines the dining room. David Monroe and Berkeley Mills designed and created "kit" dining room chairs for the residents of Thorsen House to assemble.

Even the servant's quarters in the attic received the special attention to detail that every other part of the house received. Though simpler in overall design, the balusters, tucked-in drawers, baseboards, and doors are carefully designed.

Sigma Phi will be raising $10 million for the seismic strengthening and restoration of the Thorsen House so that it will survive for centuries to come.

Thorsen House - part 2

2011-01-18T19:49:00.001-08:00

The theme of this post is "interior finishes and details". This is one of the stained glass and wood ceiling fixtures. Note the original canvas over plaster ceiling finish, which has not been altered. Every surface in the house has the same attention to detail - even the wood wainscot has eased edges and wooden pegs. The photo below is just inside the front door, where again the original canvas over plaster finish on the wall above the wainscot can be seen.

One of the rosewood (?) sconces in the living room/parlour. The mauve tile has restrained detail - but see below how the dining room fireplace is finished out...

This is a corner of the fireplace mantel and tile.

...a detail of the fireplace tile:

This one is the mysterious "peace" symbol. 1909. Is it original, or a careful and clever 60's addition to the house?

One more post, with some more photos. I find it hard to choose which ones to show.

Thorsen House

2011-01-17T23:03:00.001-08:00

An opportunity to visit the Greene and Greene designed Thorsen House in Berkeley, CA arose over the past weekend. John and I charged up our camera batteries and took advantage of a break in the winter fog to see one of the only Greene and Greene houses in northern California - and a unique 1909 example of the Bungalow style of the Arts and Crafts movement. The house is now owned by the Sigma Phi fraternity. Frederick Law Olmsted designed the street as well as the adjacent U.C. Berkeley campus. Mrs. Thorsen was the sister of Nellie Blacker - owner of the Blacker House in Pasadena (completed 1907).

Window to front hall

The brothers of Sigma Phi were having an all-day work party when we arrived. The house was being scrubbed, buffed, and vacuumed - as well as the front and back yards being weeded, raked and trimmed. An alumnus who had been deeply involved in preservation efforts for the house spent 1 1/2 hours showing the house and answering questions.

This is an occasion where photos speak more eloquently than words.

Stair landing at the second floor

The veranda sheltered by the "ell" of the building creates an oasis of green in the heart of the residential block.

Next post: interior details and a peace sign pre-dating the 60's free speech movement by over 50 years...

Sea of Love

2010-12-13T22:10:00.001-08:00

The sad, bitter, awful and unwelcome phone call came on Saturday, October 30, 2010. Big brother Jeff was in complete renal failure due to complications from chemo therapy for advanced colon cancer. The chemo therapy was not going to prolong Jeff’s life, but had cut it drastically shorter.

We all dashed as quickly as transcontinental airlines allowed to the hospital in Melbourne, Florida. Big bother Joe and little sister Janette were already there, and little brother John followed a mad, indirect route to finally arrive on Sunday afternoon.

What we found there in that kind institution was a “Sea of Love”.

There was the familiar childhood “sea of love” in our close brother/sister relationships that never change or grow up. A big brother is a big brother all his life. A big sister or little sister keeps that special role and the memories flowing from it.

There was the familiar friend, teammate and schoolmate “sea of love” with Jeff’s wife Judy whom we have known all our lives.

Most obvious and overwhelming was the “sea of love” created by Jeff’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Or was it a sea that flowed from Jeff toward them all? My hope is that all of us feel that kind of love in our final hours.

I pulled out some old photos of Jeff as a child, a young man, a young father - but have been unable to post them. Maybe soon. This is the last photo of the five of us together, after our sister Jane's funeral in 2004. It seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago.

the great escape

2010-10-14T22:24:00.001-07:00

This evening our little group met up at a local winery whose owners sponsored a release of two rescued owls. The winery is Folio - the Michael Mondavi Family Winery. I was very curious about how owls are released. The non-profit group that rescues these birds and other wildlife is the Wildlife Care Association. They operate on a shoestring budget, yet rescue 5-7,000 wild animals per year. The great horned owl above was rescued about 14 years ago and could not be released back into the wild due to a broken wing. She nurtures young orphaned horned owls and acts as an ambassador for the Association. I took this photo with a close-up setting, and the owl did not blink.

This little screech owl is blind in its left eye, so is also an ambassador and foster parent.

At dusk all the excitement was about this -the release of two barn owls in the organically farmed Carneros vineyard surrounding the Michael Mondavi Family Winery. Two new owl boxes have been installed at the edge of the vineyard. Rob Mondavi hosted the crowd of birders, wine enthusiasts, and local Napa families eager to see the young owls take wing. I talked to many present, and most of the guests were Napa area residents. We were all so glad to support the mission of this small and effective group.

don't come home till dark

2010-09-10T23:08:00.001-07:00

As I left this evening to walk in one of the large precincts in Napa, my husband called out "Don't come home till dark!" This is something my mom used to say as she shooed the six of us out of the house. Sometimes she even locked the door after us. Perhaps the purpose was to prevent us from watching too much TV -- but I think the noise just got to her at times. I recall a dull roar from the house, punctuated by whoops and hollers. I had to smile because it brought back so many childhood summer memories.

Local political races include lots of knocking on doors. The great thing is to see all the different neighborhoods in Napa. Here's a magnolia grandiflora from the east side of town:

And here is a planting of edible strawberries by a front walkway - spilling out of strawberry pots and covering the ground:

Here I am at the end of a long hot Saturday, still smiling.

Camp Rutabaga

2010-08-17T23:44:00.001-07:00

"Camp Rutabaga", also known as Diablo campground in the lakes region near Yuba Pass is named for a now famous local practical joke played on Francois and Gerda by this man in black. The sign reads "Camp Rutabaga - Home of Great White Hunters, Lumber Jacks, Bootleggers, Wild Catters & Beautifull (sic) Women". After a day on the trail, I asked that "Filthy Politcians" be added - but Francois assured me that the "Beautifull Women" was sufficient.

Jasmine was bushed and did not stray from the camp.

Francois and the campfire.

Fleeting insect companions for the local wildflowers.

Morning light

2010-08-16T22:11:00.001-07:00

Early morning light in the campsite - enough to read by. John McPhee's book, "Assembling California" is a fascinating account of geological explorations of California. It explains why we have gold here, what serpentine rock is, and why we have earthquakes. The route up to the Yuba Pass area traverses all the zones discussed in the book.

We decided to take a hike from the Tamarack Lakes area over a high trail pass, then down to the Sardine Lakes. Jasmine fetched sticks and had a vigorous swim:

Lilly John

The ladies in green amongst the wild flowers watched and chatted about bunnies.

A shocking turn of events happened as we started on the trail and Jasmine was attacked by one of a pair of Malamutes. Her face and ear were torn, but there was no heavy bleeding. We pampered her over the rest of the hike, and John and I dropped back as we let her rest in patches of shade. Her age (now 10 years) started to show as she slowed the pace. The extreme rockiness of the trail was hard on her paws. The route was about 4.6 miles - up about 700 feet, then down about 800 feet.

It's a long way down to the lakes - Lower Sardine on the left and Upper Sardine on the right. The trail comes out at about 7500 feet of elevation, well below the peaks beyond. We passed the "Young American" mine ruins below the trail. The trail began to look more and more like a narrow mining trail suitable for ore carts. Across the valley with the lakes are the Sierra Buttes. On the tip of the highest peak is an old fire lookout station:

We returned to "Camp Rutabaga" hot, dusty, torn and worn.

Yuba Pass and the Feather River

2010-08-14T22:37:00.001-07:00

In the Sierra Valley high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is the source of the Feather River. On our way to camping at "Camp Rutabaga" near the Yuba Pass we went off-road on a ranch road and found the source of the Feather River. This high valley wetland harbors Sand Hill Cranes and Black Angus.

They look so natural together.

Ducks, barbed-wire, pick-up trucks and clear mountain air got us started off on a mountain camping get-away.

2010-08-04T20:13:00.001-07:00

young wine and a long engagement

2010-08-04T20:10:00.001-07:00

This is such a delightful video by my young friend, Laura and her fiance, Jarrod. Laura is the daughter of friends John and Cyndi with whom I have been making wine since 1993. If you watch the video, you will see that the charm of making wine has been transmitted to another generation. Laura is a graduate student, and the name of the wine refers to their desire to wait till completion of the degree before getting married. John and Cyndi make cameo appearances.

Where in Napa is...

2010-08-03T18:23:00.001-07:00

This brightly painted house is in one of Napa's earliest neighborhoods. Where might that be?

While enjoying a visit from my brother John Inman and his wife Patti, we walked around this neighborhood. There are some lovely hydrangeas on the same block:

We also had an opportunity to go to the Saturday farmer's market by the Oxbow Public Market:

Our visitors were very impressed with Napa. The farmer's market trip was prompted by a dinner at Grace's Table and a quest for the smoked olive oil used in one of the dishes. It is definitely available at the Saturday market.

Muir Woods

2010-07-30T00:22:00.001-07:00

Patti and John Inman are visiting Napa for a few days before heading up to Lake Tahoe. Last summer we visited the giant sequoias in Yosemite. While talking about trees, it became apparent that these east coast residents thought the giant sequoias and coast redwoods were the same trees. So off we went to Muir Woods, the only old growth redwood forest remaining in the bay area.

As a well-known bird watcher, John was as interested in the fauna as the flora. Down the trail is John with his binoculars scoping out the tops of the trees.

Just over the barrier is Redwood Creek, with many spotted Salmon fry. The young salmon were abundant and healthy looking. We did not see any banana slugs thundering through the mosses. Of course this is a much dryer time of year than when I last went to Big Basin Redwoods.

Michael Pollan is rather green

2010-07-24T18:36:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of the unripe "Michael Pollan" tomatoes from Wild Boar Farms taken this afternoon in the garden. According to the catalog, "Fruit with no BER (Blossom End Rot) developed a pointed nipple on the bottom. Taste is very different from the Green Zebra. Much less tartness, more mild with good sweetness. Very positive response at the Farmers Market. They stuck out and people really liked the flavor. As I ran out later in the season, customers kept asking about them."

As you can see, no BER on these tomatoes. The color is untouched - they are really this green. The plant (along with many others) was purchased back in April after a tomato demonstration at the "Pumpkin Patch". Most of the plants are now over six feet tall, after following the advice on how to promote top growth on indeterminate plants.

These are immature "Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye". Some day these tomatoes will be the heirloom tomatoes of our time.

I've been re-reading "Gardening for Love: The Market Bulletins" by Elizabeth Lawrence, edited by Allen Lacy - two of the great garden writers of all time. Elizabeth Lawrence was the Sunday garden writer for the "Charlotte Observer" and Allen Lacy was garden writer for the "New York Times" and the "Wall Street Journal".

According to Miss Lawrence:

"Reading the market bulletins is like walking through a country garden with sun on the flowers, in their very names: princess feather, four-o-clock, love-in-a-mist, bachelor's buttons, Joseph's coat, touch-me-not, kiss-me-at-the-garden-gate, ladyfingers, redbird bush, rainbow fairy, pink sunburst." She could just list the common names of plants and have a lyrical passage.

The market bulletins were published by the departments of agriculture of mostly southern states. Some may still be printed. Southern gardeners (mostly women) traded seeds, plants and cuttings for "pin money". Miss Lawrence tried to verify the botanical names of many of the plants - and added to her garden along the way. Eudora Welty seemed to have played a pivotal role in introducing Miss Lawrence to the market bulletins. It's comforting to know that in this homogenized United States of Generica, such places and practices persist - even in Napa and Suisun, California.

Juli's yellow french beanstalk ~ traded John's red pick-up truck for these magic beans, now about nine feet tall ~ growing in a half wine barrel ~ trellised with two large stacked tomato cages ~ pretty soon we'll be able to climb up to the sky.

Leap of Faith

2010-07-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have to remind myself at times that my friend who lives in Italy is not on facebook and that she does not see things that I post in that forum.

Last Saturday was the annual Napa Home Winemakers Classic held this year in Yountville. Proceeds from the event support the Dry Creek- Lakoya Volunteer Fire Department. As we have been doing since the 90's, our home wine making group "Leap of Faith" entered a wine in the competition and poured our recently bottled 2008 Cabernet from the Oak Knoll District.

photo by John Poole

My husband John snapped this picture as we lined up with our award for the top Cabernet of the competition (no first place awarded). We tried to get him to put down the camera and join us, but to no avail. Next year we may get a group shot with everyone in it.

This wine tasted special in the barrel. After discussion and blending tests, we decided not to blend it with the Merlot/Cabernet Franc in another barrel. Usually we produce a "Bordeaux blend" with at least these three grapes and call it "Trinity" -- but this year bottled the Cabernet Sauvignon by itself. The Merlot is still in the barrel, which is now the American new oak barrel that held the Cabernet. If we go another year in the barrel, that will be a record for us.

John took lots of photos, and his son Laurence got to taste many wines as good or better than commercial wines of Napa. John as designated driver did not taste.

The sunflowers on our table were glowing from the late afternoon sun. We made some sangria (with one of our wines, of course) expecting a hot afternoon, but the weather remained sunny and warm. Near the end of the event we pulled out some of our "blue ribbon first place" 2007 Syrah Port - a big winner from last year. With chocolate.

Wine makers trade wines near the end - and we had to turn away some who wanted to trade for the port. We poured it all.

plum cake

2010-07-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

Today we bottled wine for the Leap of Faith home wine making group. We work now in John and Cyndi's garage (so we can call ourselves "garagistes"). They have hot and cold running water and electricity, things lacking in the old carriage house we used for years. While the carriage house has apple, fig and lemon trees - John and Cyndi's has a plum tree. On the counter were these perfectly ripe plums - asking to be eaten and to be baked in a plum cake. Cyndi asked for the recipe - so here it is. The picture above is a pluot cake from last fall and the pictures below are from today.

"Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King is a highly recommended book for those interested in how an enormous Renaissance dome is constructed. John read it before their trip to Italy...

Plum Cake
adapted from a recipe at "Sweet Amandine"

1 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
4-5 plums, pluots, or other small stone fruit (or 1-2 C. berries)
1 T. raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 8 or 9 inch springform pan and slice fruit thinly. Mix flour, baking powder, lemon zest - add sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil. Stir till mixture forms a thick batter. Place batter in pan and arrange fruit on top. Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not over bake - but do remove as soon as cake tester in center comes out clean.

I've made this cake with pluots and with plums - and will see tomorrow how the plum version turned out.

Nocino, or Liqueur de noix

2010-06-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe I've been wanting to try since last summer at the Napa Home Winemakers Classic. A bottle of an intriguing brown liquid was brought out from underneath one of the pouring tables, and a small amount of an aromatic liqueur poured into the wine glass. I had never tasted anything like it. On reaching home, I started looking for recipes for "Nocino" and found several, including one for a "liqueur de noix" or "green walnut liqueur" by David Lebovitz, a favorite author and chef.

Unfortunately, this requires green walnuts, and by July the Napa walnuts were too mature to be cut. The shells had already formed. I made a mental note of the date for harvesting the green walnuts - June 24.

I picked the walnuts at my friend Cindy's house this afternoon and bought a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka for this batch. The gallon glass jar is one I use for making Meyer lemon "limoncello" - also an Italian favorite.

Because of the size of the jar, I decided to make one and a half recipes of the green walnut liqueur. A recommendation from several of the recipes is to use a heavy cleaver to cut the walnuts. Tap the cleaver into the side of the green walnut (keep fingers well away) and let the weight of the cleaver slice the walnut in half, then quarters.

I mixed the sugar, lemon and spices with the vodka before adding the walnut quarters.

The walnuts are still green and firm and the shells are forming but still papery. They looked just about right.

Ingredients:
3 3/4 Cups sugar
1 1/2 Liter vodka
3 sticks cinnamon
15 whole cloves
1 vanilla bean split lengthwise
zests of two Meyer lemons removed using a vegetable peeler

Mix vodka, sugar, spices, and lemon zest in gallon glass jar. Stir till the sugar is dissolved. Add the walnuts. Close jar and let stand on the counter for two months, shaking the jar every day. (For limoncello I put it in the cabinet and shake it every day for 40 days, add the sugar syrup and shake it every day for another 40 days.)

When it's ready to bottle, filter the liqueur through cheesecloth and pour into clean bottles.

According to David Lebovitz, this liqueur de noix will keep for years in a cool, dry place. It can also be stored in the refrigerator. Supposedly good on vanilla ice cream. We shall see!

Olive Oil Citrus Cake

2010-06-15T22:40:00.001-07:00

Several people have asked for the recipe for this citrus-olive oil cake, so I am including it here. It is adapted from a recipe at "Sweet Amandine" - whose author, Jess - adapted it from the cookbook "Rustic Fruit Desserts" by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. A photo of the cake I made is in this post.

At the Napa Rotary Club meeting last week we had a speaker from Round Pond who lead us through an olive oil tasting. The blood orange olive oil reminded me of this cake. The olive oil tasting may be a wonderful alternative for Napa visitors who are not big wine drinkers. We certainly had a great time at Rotary slurping and swallowing some spicy virgin olive oil and the much more delicate and mellow blood orange olive oil. Round Pond also makes a Meyer Lemon olive oil.

1 ¼ c. cake flour
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 T. plus ¾ c. sugar, divided
Zest of 1 ruby grapefruit
Zest of 1 blood orange
Zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1 ½ t. vanilla extract
squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1 c. fruity (not spicy) extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a paper towel, coat a 9 x 2 inch round spring-form baking pan with olive oil, then sprinkle it with the 1 T. of granulated sugar.

Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together twice. Using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and zests on high speed for five minutes, until the eggs are thickened and lighter in color. Yes, you need to mix it that long. Add the vanilla and juice, if using. Turn the mixer down to medium-low speed and drizzle the olive oil into the batter, pouring slowly along the edge of the bowl.

Add the dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is golden and slightly domed in the center. Cool to room temperature in the pan.

Glaze (optional- I omitted this):

¾ c. powdered sugar
2 T. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Sift the sugar into a small bowl. Add the grapefruit juice, and whisk to combine. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake.

Wrapped in plastic, this cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Good luck with that!

Yield: 8-10 servings.

Mean girls

2010-06-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

I was struck by the meanness and pettiness of Carly Fiorina's on-mic comments about Barbara Boxer. The linked film clip is 4:19 long - and also includes cutting remarks about Meg Whitman. The hair comments come after the hamburger homily.

( - Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)

Why do I care? Why does anyone care about such trivial comments? Why has this caused so much commentary on blogs and editorial pages?

I think the meanness demonstrated is that of a "mean girl". One of our great fears as humans is being cast out, not belonging to our group or tribe. There are the "mean girls" of our early teen years, the even worse "mean girls" of our high school years - and as adults we see social and political cliques and cabals trying to rule many fiefdoms. In spite of these divisive elements, our human nature requires belonging.

As a child I belonged to the most stable and permanent kind of a group: a family with six siblings. These tight bonds shielded and protected us from bullies and mean girls. The feeling of having a real posse - two big brothers, their friends, plus mine and those of my younger siblings - gave me a feeling of invulnerability in any confrontation. It did not occur to me that I could get hurt in a fight before I could call in the cavalry. Just the knowledge that they were all available gave me a probably unwarranted confidence. The sibling bonds are strong ones.

BFF's - "Best Friends Forever" - do not always turn out that way. I wonder if the staged friendship of eMeg and iCarly will withstand the stresses of a campaign season?

There are some interesting facts on the Fiorina Facts website. She cut tens of thousands of US jobs, and shipped others overseas. This mayhem continued in a bitter and stormy environment until Carly Fiorina's job was cut by the HP board.

While Fiorina was CEO, HP sold millions of dollars worth of high tech gear to intermediary shell companies selling to Iran, despite trade sanctions against the country.

As thousands of HP employees lost their jobs and the company's stock value fell, Fiorina was compensated with more than $108 million, including salary, bonuses, stock, and a $21.6 million golden parachute when she was fired. She also acquired two corporate jets that cost $1 million per year to operate.

Politics may be a risky investment for some of those millions of dollars. "The trouble is, by and large, CEOs have turned out to be pretty mediocre politicians." According to the Washington Post:

Even when they manage to get elected, CEOs often are surprised to learn that their skills in the boardroom do not easily translate to the business of governing. Former Goldman Sachs head Jon S. Corzine discovered this when he was ousted as New Jersey governor last year. "You don't have the flexibility you imagined. There's no exact translation," Corzine, a Democrat, later told Newsweek.

I recently returned to my hometown for a high school reunion. My old friends are wonderful people - and were distance not such an impediment, could be great BFF's. They are my "high school heroes" list in facebook land. However, I did hear a few whispers from a "mean girl". All these years later, can it be that such behavior is a character flaw and not a stage of adolescent behavior? This is something voters will decide in spite of millions of dollars of carefully modulated messages. So, this little kerfuffle may have a larger significance.

Blue Oaks

2010-06-06T12:33:00.001-07:00

We went on a little back road quest in Napa and Lake Counties - late spring - looking for blue oaks and quiet country vistas. Napa County is a magnet for visitors, but the vast majority of them crowd a small area of the Napa Valley floor along Highway 29. Most of the county - almost 450,000 acres - is oak woodlands, fir and redwood forests, and valleys that are unknown to visitors. All these lands are protected with agricultural zoning that prevents subdividing parcels smaller that 320 acres.

One of my step sons from southern California drove us on this little jaunt. We wended our way through Chiles Valley and Pope Valley, past the still slumbering Aetna Springs Resort and into northern Napa County. This part of the county has serpentine soils and has been the crucible for volcanic activity. Most of the mining and hot springs of the county are located in this area. One of the magnificent trees native to the area is the Blue Oak. In southern Lake County, near Guenoc (now known as Langtry Estate) - is this Blue Oak.

It was a perfect place to pull off the road. No traffic, just a quiet view of the lake full to the brim after a winter of rain. We shared a late afternoon picnic from the trunk of the Chevy Malibu. The serving table was a boogie board on top of a case of wine from Nichelini in Chiles Valley. If this doesn't make you yearn for a convertible, you lack a car gene.

Up-town at the Uptown

2010-05-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

The long and excruciating slide into oblivion of the 1937 art deco Uptown Theater in Napa has been halted. By 1990 this movie palace had been converted to a discount second-run 4-plex movie house with sticky floors, vestiges of the old interior poking out in unexpected places, no air-conditioning, and broken seats.

I stopped by the theater on the afternoon before the grand-reopening, and found about 20 construction trucks lining the curbs and people furiously working to satisfy the building inspectors' temporary occupancy permit inspection.

A few days ago there were still plywood panels instead of doors in the entrance openings. It looked like the building inspector required the door panic hardware and closers be installed before the public could come in. With all the action, the mood was still upbeat and excited.

After the show by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy the crowd lingered under the restored marquee and canopy sparkling with neon and incandescent lights.

Check out the line up for the next few months at the Uptown Theater website.

In the garden

2010-04-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

Early fog and heavy dew, then sun within a fifteen minute window on my way to work this morning. The commute is 30 seconds to several minutes, depending on what is in bloom or ripening. Peonies are blooming - and one popped while my back was turned.

Artichokes are starting to push through the outsized foliage.

And strawberries are not there - yet.

not basketball

2010-04-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

It finally dawned on me why today was a particularly lovely and uncrowded day to learn about heirloom tomatoes from wildboar farm and to hike in Sonoma County Sugarloaf Ridge Park. We were not watching basketball. Walking down the sidewalk in the town of Sonoma at the end of a busy day I overheard a woman telling her husband that Butler was in the final four. Logging into facebook this evening a high school friend commented that she was going to grudgingly root for Duke. From these two scraps of information I expect that the final game is Butler vs. Duke. We shall see...

Meanwhile, we spent the day learning about heirloom tomatoes from a local grower and hybridizer, finding such interesting varieties as Berkeley Pink Tie-dye. Chuck and Felicia came to the class to learn more about how to grow great tomatoes. We shall see if the advice improves our tomato crop this year. We have so many small plants that we will need to host a tomato festival in September.

After "class" we went with friends Craig and Millie to Sonoma County to hike in one of the state parks, hoping to see birds and wildflowers. We saw turkeys taunting us because they seemed to know that they were in a protected zone and no spring turkey hunting season applied to them.

There were some early wildflowers, but they seemed a bit confused by the weather that has been very warm, then freezing, now wet, and finally a day of sun.

Views from the Sugarloaf Peak trail are stunning. In such an intensely farmed region, there were only a couple of hillside vineyards visible from the trail, and none from this view looking over the Sonoma Valley north of Kenwood.

There were wildflowers and lichens:

I was struck by the color contrast of the madrones and manzanitas in this greenscape. Ireland must be as lush and green as this landscape. But clinging to the hills are also these richly colored California natives.

Please forgive the formatting anomalies. "Scribefire" and blogger are both being difficult.

winter tomatoes

2010-03-30T22:32:00.001-07:00

In the earliest days of spring, we only dream of summer tomatoes. This coming Saturday we will learn more about local heirloom tomatoes.

This evening I sat down with my son for a dinner of stale bread and canned tomatoes. This sounds rather stark and reminiscent of depression era frugality, but was prompted by a half loaf of stale sourdough bread. There are many recipes in Italy that make use of day old - or week old - bread. The recipe consulted uses fresh tomatoes - unavailable this time of year even here in California, the vegetable basket of the country. A substitution of a 1lb 12oz can of San Marzano tomatoes worked perfectly. I got the idea here at Sweet Amandine, in a post/recipe about the simplest tomato soup. The cookbook I consulted was one of my favorites, Italy: the Beautiful Cookbook.

As we waited for the soup to simmer, we talked of poetry. My son seemed more and more enthused by the aroma of the soup - and when we finally got to eat it, he went for thirds, apologizing for no leftovers. He also took the book of poetry back to his lair to study at his leisure.

Tomato and stale bread soup

3 cloves garlic, diced fine
2 tbsp. fresh sage leaves, finely minced
1 tbsp. fresh oregano, finely minced
3 tbsp. fresh basil, finely minced
1/2 c. olive oil
8 oz. stale bread, sliced
5-6 c. homemade chicken stock
1 lb. 12 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 glass red wine
salt and pepper to taste
grated Romano Cheese and minced basil for garnish

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and herbs and saute till fragrant. Add bread and stir to heat and absorb olive oil. Remove from heat and place bread slices on broiler tray; broil till lightly browned, put back in soup pot. Heat stock in separate pot to add to soup. Place tomatoes in large bowl; use immersion blender to lightly blend, leave plenty of chunks. Add bread and tomatoes to soup pot, raise heat to medium. Add 4 c. heated stock, more if thinner soup is desired. Add 1/2 glass wine, taste for seasoning. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Blend in basil, garnish each bowl with cheese.

My son thinks this would be outstanding with a huge meatball in the middle!

Google fiber and Napa

2010-03-20T23:04:00.001-07:00

This post has a simple title - referencing the Google fiber for communities initiative announced by Google in February and the City of Napa application to be considered as a location for installing this super high speed fiber optic network. A friend in one of the giant tech industry companies alerted us to this right after the announcement; and another local tech wiz sent a message a couple of hours later.

As a city council member, I was intrigued by this prospect and immediately looked up the announcement and reviewed the application requirements.

I set up a facebook page named "Napa Needs its Fiber!" and John created a small website for residents to log support at napafiber.net.

Fast forward to this past Friday.

A furious editing session for an op-ed piece for the local newspaper on Google docs and Google wave - complete with six people writing and editing at the same time. It was intense and suggested a future where high speed connections could facilitate a full multi-media collaboration.

The Napa City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Google fiber application. Other local governments and agencies have also supported the application. Here's a draft - probably slightly different from what will be published:

Dear Editor,

Google is looking for places to install a fiber-optic network capable of 1 Gigabit per second speed for internet access. The 1 Gigabit speed is twenty times faster than the fastest premium cable modem service offered; and several hundred times faster than the average cable and DSL subscription. Google hopes that in the city where this network is installed it "will make Internet access better and faster for everyone" and will serve as a model world wide. The City of Napa is now working on an application to the Google Fiber for Communities project, and it must be completed by March 26th. If Napa is selected, all eyes will be on our city.

Why would this super high speed internet access be valuable and important for Napa? And why should Google consider Napa?

Consider the benefits to business, education, and the environment.

Having better speed may open up more opportunity for business attraction of clean industries in our corporate park and in our downtown business district. Retail, tech industries, manufacturing industries - it’s a tool to use for efficient business. Every school from kindergarten to the Napa Valley College will enjoy better access and new opportunities to engage and educate students by using 21st Century tools. It's an opportunity to improve our workforce, to bring jobs to Napa, to have Google employ local contractors as they build their network, and for residents to benefit both for leisure and business use. All opportunities equal a sustainable future.

Over the last 18 years in partnership with the Napa business community, Napa Valley Unified School District (NVUSD) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation our community has developed and sustained the nationally acclaimed Napa New Technology High School. We believe that the City of Napa is a critical partner in our efforts to continue to innovate and provide every student the opportunity to learn the essential skills they’ll need to be successful and productive in our society. Many of our families do not have access to high speed internet at home so the City of Napa winning the Google fiber grant would provide valuable educational resources to all of our students.

The Napa community has proven its commitment to large scale infrastructure improvements in the innovative $400 million dollar Napa River Flood Protection project. In the same way this community has played a role in revolutionizing flood control and the way the Corps of Engineers does business, we have the opportunity to break new ground in providing business, education and the general public unprecedented efficiency in accessing the information that is critical to success in today's world.

Because just saying we want it is not enough, we're asking you to register your support at our web site - napafiber dot net. With the registrations, we can say to Google: here are the subscribers to the Internet in Napa, you don't need a marketing study, this is the raw data you need.

Agencies can show their support by providing resolutions and letters demonstrating Napa's solid support for high speed fiber. Google needs an enthusiastic and unified community before it invests millions of dollars in the selected city's infrastructure.

We urge all residents and businesses in and near the City of Napa to show Google what working together can accomplish. Take these steps now and help make a difference in Napa.

Ad Hoc Committee to Bring Google Fiber to Napa

Mike Parness

Juliana Inman

Brad Wegenknecht

Lisa Batto

Mark Morrison

John L. Poole

Olive oil

2010-02-22T19:03:00.001-08:00

I enjoy several food blogs, including Sweet Amandine by a young woman named Jess who has a way with words as well as recipes. I was intrigued by the recipe in this post entitled "Piece of Cake" since the main ingredients are citrus, eggs, and olive oil. I had just pulled the last blood orange from the tree in the garden, as well as a handful of perfect Meyer lemons. It was a chilly Friday after work, and guests were to come for a late supper. I suggested that since we were going to the fish market, perhaps we could stop at the local grocery for a grapefruit - the only ingredient not on hand for this unusual recipe. At the fish market were lovely pieces of sole for John's perfect sole meuniere.

As promised in the cake recipe, this luscious confection is light as air, a lovely yellow, and has a perfect crumb. Sometimes it is best not to name all the ingredients in the title of a recipe. Who would want to make an olive oil and grapefruit cake? I suspect that the grapefruit and the fruity olive oil are what gives this cake such a distinct "long finish". The flavor lingers long after the cake is gone. We served it with a tiny glass of Sauternes left in the refrigerator from Thanksgiving. I wondered if the wine would hold up from such long cold storage, but it seems to have maintained its special qualities.

I thought of using some of the local (about one mile away) olive oil from a friend's olive grove, but decided to use a very fruity Italian oil since this was a dessert cake.

Ah, chilly winter, candlelight and seasonal fruits!

Haint Blue number 2

2010-02-03T10:27:00.001-08:00

I've been looking up at porch ceilings for many years. Growing up in the south, I found that porches are ubiquitous. Some have upholstered furniture, some have the requisite wicker furniture, some have swings, gliders, rockers or benches. A porch must be wide enough (six feet minimum) to sit and to allow one to get into and out of the furniture. After looking at porches for many years, I realized many in the south have blue ceilings - "haint blue" ceilings, that is. I find it interesting that haint blue is almost as ubiquitous as the porch itself - even being found on the ceiling of this 1892 Queen Anne Victorian in Napa. (A previous post shows the original paint hidden under the layer of stucco applied in the 1930's.)

We love our porches in Napa. My neighbor started a tradition last summer of inviting friends and neighbors every Sunday afternoon for a sit on her porch. What a lovely tradition!

Both of these houses were designed by Napa Architect Luther M. Turton.

before the next rain

2010-01-28T19:49:00.001-08:00

In the midst of our relentless string of winter storms, this rainbow made a quick appearance. We spent the day last Saturday racking wine at the little ranch on Big Ranch Road (2009's), then at the garage on the eastern side of Napa (2008's). This is a view toward the eastern mountains from Big Ranch Road in the Oak Knoll District. I posted a picture from this series on my facebook page - and seemed to get more response than usual. Those of us living in California are just glad to get a small break in the weather.

Not everyone in the world is on facebook, however - and facebook does not serve all purposes. Missy is way off in Italy, showing pictures of the Tuscan snow, rain on the floor of the Pantheon, and glorious food even in the depths of winter. She does not appear to be a facebook user, and I'm thankful for the more thoughtful and thorough postings about her life in Italy.

John and I each caught swine flu, with just enough time between bouts to make a fresh batch of chicken noodle soup. Soup with lots of the secret cold and flu fighting ingredient - freshly grated ginger. This batch was courtesy of double turkey carcasses from a Thanksgiving of twenty-two guests. I made a huge batch of turkey stock, knowing that the winter could be harsh.

On my first day of high fever, John brought me the last of the winter roses and soup. On a tray. I felt like an ailing Jane Austen. At the time, I barely managed to snap a picture, but knew that this would be the last of the roses till April. We usually have some early ones -- ones as large as dinner plates. These are the hardy, fragrant, persistent ones, a bit brown on the edges, with some yellowing leaves - but fearless flowers all the same.

Hang Gliding Yosemite

2009-12-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a unique perspective on Yosemite -- half dome, Yosemite Falls, panoramic views, and hang gliders.

Hang Gliding Yosemite

(This image courtesy of wikimedia)

Now I get it - the hang-gliding thing...
Click the link above to see a really neat video.

Jellin'

2009-11-10T22:48:00.001-08:00

It is harvest season in Napa. Our wine group, "Leap of Faith" has just pressed out the cabernet sauvignon for 2009. The merlot was pressed about two weeks ago. We brought home several buckets of prime cabernet grapes to make jelly again. Here is the recipe. After getting the first batch made and sealed, I tootled off to sing with the Cinnabar Womens' Chorus. Dear John volunteered to make more jelly in my absence.

The drive to Petaluma is about 45 minutes each way, so rehearsal and commute takes about 4 hours. What greeted me on my return was a counter full of freshly sealed jelly jars, dozens and dozens of them. Such riches of fresh and juicy jelly. There may be many stockings full of yummy ruby lushness this Christmas. Two years ago John made several batches of huckleberry jam - almost all gone now. No longer will we search the pantry for that last jar of jam - the basement larder has been re-stocked.

haint blue and the porch

2009-10-30T00:09:00.001-07:00

The front porch is an American architectural element with origins in western Africa, brought to the colonies by slaves. The porch as we know it today, and as popularized in "pattern books" in the age of Victoria was added to the southern colonial vernacular plantation house by African craftsmen. Although the "stoa" of ancient Greece and the "portico" of Rome were formal elements used in some European classical traditions, the vernacular buildings of the American colonies - based on vernacular forms of England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and others - did not have a "porch" as we know it today.

According to Michael Dolan, Author of "The American Porch", in answer to the question, "What was the most surprising thing that you learned about the American porch?"

A: That the porch as we know it – a social institution -- came from Africa. Pre-colonial Africans built roofed platforms at the fronts of their houses, raised off the ground to keep out insects. Families lived out there, greeted their neighbors, conducted business. One early European visitor likened these structures to stages – he had no other word to use, which suggests how remote the idea of the porch was to Europeans. When Europeans began enslaving Africans and brought them to the New World,the first thing their captives had to do was build their housing. Africans built what they knew; their vernacular architecture traveled with slavery,gradually absorbed by the dominant cultures of the New World. Folklorists Jay Edwards, who’s at Louisiana State University, and John Vlach,who teaches at George Washington University, have shown how the porch came from Africa to Brazil to the Caribbean to North America.

Here's a Queen Anne porch designed by Luther M. Turton in Napa, California in 1892:

Note the sky blue ceiling of the porch. The house had been encased in stucco in about 1930 - and when the stucco was removed in 1991, the original ceiling color was exposed:

Now, having grown up in the south, attending architecture school there, and living amongst the remnants of colonial and plantation era buildings - I never thought twice about a sky blue porch ceiling. Porch ceilings seemed to almost always be blue. In college was the first time I heard the expression "haint blue" describing a porch ceiling. A friend's mother had grown up in Charleston, SC and referred to a ceiling as "haint blue". The African American language spoken in the "low country" of coastal South Carolina is called "gullah". "Haint" was explained as "haunt" or spirit -- and the story went that porch ceilings and wide overhangs on the exteriors of homes were painted a sky blue so that "haints", "haunts" or spirits would think they were the sky and pass right on through. This kept spirits from haunting or lingering around the home. There is no official "haint blue" color. The intent was to fool the spirits.

Obviously in 1892, in Napa, California, the African tradition was honored even though the basis of the tradition was never known.

Happy Halloween!

Oak Knoll, Oak Alley

2009-10-13T19:31:00.001-07:00

The practice of historical architecture provides access to some places not usually seen from the "public right of way". Where would you suppose this house is located?

... You would be wrong. This is not Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana, pictured below with a clip from their website. This is a grand Victorian mansion (first built in the 1870's) in Napa County's Oak Knoll District. The house was altered in 1949 to replicate the 1837 Oak Alley Plantation - and quite successfully at that. The Victorian tower, porches and "gingerbread" were removed, the porches expanded, and the hipped roof altered. Even the dormers were added. The setting is on a true "Oak Knoll", with the drive curving through a natural savanna studded with 70 to 80 mature valley white oaks (quercus lobata). The stand of valley white oaks is the largest and oldest I have seen yet in Napa County, with most of the trees appearing to be hundreds of years old. All of the owners of this ranch since the 1800's have refrained from cutting the oaks and planting grapes, prunes, walnuts or any of the cash crops grown in the Napa Valley since the 1840's.

Oak Alley Plantation has an equally distinctive allee of 28 live oaks lining the walk to the river - the Mississippi River. The trees may have been planted in about 1710. The link above is to some photos of the trees taken by "Larry" - a member of the Louisiana Native Tree Society.

Love, tissue

2009-10-10T20:42:00.001-07:00

For two months this summer we had a boomerang kid living at home and working at Trader Joe's. One of the delightful work stories was about a little girl riding in the grocery cart seat and clutching a box of tissues. She was excited and sparkling and told my daughter, "we got some love, tissues!"

The little girl then went on to quote all the messages on the tissue box. She was too young to read, but had memorized the box.

We love our Trader Joe's almost as much as the little girl loves her "love, tissues". An unofficial commercial for Trader Joe's:

And after a long day at the store, birthday dinner and three layer carrot birthday cake!

old house blog contest

2009-09-22T12:41:00.001-07:00

A tweet via facebook from a really old house owner alerted me to a little blogger contest on the Old House Web. Here's the link to the contest: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/blog/announcing-old-house-blogger-contest/#comment-2444

The suggestion is to log-in and vote. I submitted "the wabe"; because, unlike Tweedledum and Tweedledee declaiming the longest poem they knew, this is a mercifully brief post - with picture, ghost winery, murder, and land use suspense in very few words. The winery is the historic Franco-Swiss winery (also known as "Crochat Winery").

on the verge

2009-09-20T22:46:00.001-07:00

We are on the verge of something. This past week the Napa County Planning Commission unanimously approved and recommended to the Board of Supervisors that a zoning text amendment be adopted that will allow the restoration of the historic Franco-Swiss Winery (Crochat Winery) - a unique stone gravity flow "Ghost Winery". The picture above is one of the old hoppers used when the winery was converted to a perlite manufacturing plant. Unfortunately, many of the upper floor joists were removed to allow for the hoppers, furnaces and conveyors used in perlite production. As a result, the exterior stone walls are unbraced in many locations.

Here's another section of roof about to collapse. The concrete patch on the left is one of the many areas with joists removed.

On the north side of the building this intriguing red door remains, although the steps and landing are long gone. Notice the finely cut stone surrounding the door opening. Quoins at the corners of the building are equally well fashioned. The rougher rubble stone originally had a plaster finish.

Commissioners had a wonderful tour of the winery and barn buildings, on the verge of ... restoration? demolition? collapse? We shall see in a few more weeks.

Polity

2009-09-19T19:34:00.001-07:00

Historian and State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr spoke at the League of California Cities conference this week. His talk on cities and the classical idea of "polity" supported our understanding of the importance of local government/governance.

I felt like a groupie getting my new copy of "Golden Dreams" autographed. Mr. Starr's talk was near the end of the conference, but I stayed dutifully through the last vote as the delegate for the City of Napa. Due to cutbacks everywhere, the conference was shortened by one day. Thus, I got on the highway back from San Jose at about 5:15 pm. The rush hour drive was worth it for the discussion of Aristotle, the history of city government and the pueblos of California.

San Jose's inner city decay has been restored and revitalized. I loved the neon sign for The Sainte Claire Hotel:

This sign is quite a landmark all by itself.

Bolgia Book Club

2009-09-15T14:50:00.001-07:00

At long last my turn to host the Bolgia Book Club rolled around once again. The club is a coed group, 16 strong, comprised of equal numbers of men and women. After a suitable period of time agonizing about my next selection, I finally went with "pleasure" - as in - a pleasure to read, and a narrator recounting the pleasure of discovering her passion in life - Julia Child. The book selection was "My Life in France".

The food was particularly outstanding, as everyone worked to live up to the standards set by Julia herself.

I prepared Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child, and John prepared creme brulee a la John Poole. A salmon mousse appeared, vegetable side dishes, figs and tiny tomatoes from our garden, wines, bread and new Syrah Port from our home winery.

It turns out that several of our members have been professional chefs - working at such famous locations as the Diner in Yountville (now closed) and the French Laundry. Thumbs up all around for "My Life in France" - and a rollicking good time discussing food, passions, life's work, and memories of Julia and how her magnum opus affected our lives. It's the best beef stew in the world, by the way. Highly recommended!

Sierra Buttes and Yuba Pass

2009-09-14T21:27:00.001-07:00

After months of walker, crutches, cane, physical therapy and "rehab.", I was able to return to the Sierras to hike on the remodeled hip. My goal was to get back on the trail by the end of summer, and by my accounting, Labor Day weekend still counts officially as "summer". Over the long weekend John and I met friends Francois, Gerda, Melt, Bob and Karen to camp at the Diablo campground near Sardine Lake. Melt towed Francois' classic Jeep up to the home base campsite, and we took this amazing little mule up a logging/fire trail part of the way up to the Sierra Buttes. We then hiked the rest of the trail up past the Pacific Crest Trail to the fire lookout on the top of the Sierra Buttes.

The Sierra Buttes are ancient rock formations that have fist to head-sized cobbles metamorphosed into a composite showing a range of colors and cobble types. These aren't little bitty crystals.

The top of the Buttes has a fire lookout station perched on the crest, with precarious steel stairs anchored into the rock.

The views are stunning in every direction, and as the highest point in this part of the mountain range, it's all downhill from here.

Even on a sunny day, we're bundled up for the wind - puffy purple vest for me, and fur coat for Jasmine!

history mystery

2009-09-02T22:22:00.001-07:00

Historical sites, buildings and records have fascinated me for decades. As a child I roamed the back roads and historical traces remaining in my home town. A colonial era roadway, stone arch bridge, miller's house ruin, mill and mill pond was one of the sites I intermittently visited. To my enduring dismay, this whole group of sites was destroyed in order to build a major cross town freeway in Greensboro, NC. As historic sites across the nation were decimated in the 1950's, 60's and 70's - I acted in my college town to snatch building parts prior to the bulldozers moving in. Most of these relics were sold in about 1984 before yet another cross country move.

My friend Missy will recall the bandsaw cut railings rescued from an eastern NC building - some used for a restoration in Raleigh, NC, and the remainder given to a restoration effort in Little Rock, AR. All of our marriages ended - in the 70's 80's and 2000's.

I found recently a fabulous Library of Congress site. On this site can be found thousands of Dorthea Lange depression era photographs, ans well as many thousands of other documents. This is truly one of the Federal Treasure troves available.

Pose an historical question - and some unexpected results may follow. Check it out! After reading "Thomas Jefferson, American Sphinx" by Joseph P. Ellis, I searched for photos of Monticello and found a treasure trove. Likewise, in seaching for "turpentining" I found the Dorothea Lange archive.

stagger lee

2009-08-25T22:18:00.001-07:00

The internet makes it possible to re-connect to a long vanished past in many surprising ways. We can now access maps, photos, documents, film, and virtual cemeteries. A small and growing group of alumni from design school began posting notes and a few photos in a facebook group, and now the archive has grown to include all kinds of ephemera from the intervening years. We are spread across thousands of miles, and took wildly different paths. The postings have become more and more creative and are as unlike the dry university sponsored page as can be imagined.

There are also music and cultural connections that are meaningless to those who never lived in our little slice of the south. Another southerner posted a recent "status update" about going dancing - western swing dancing - and I posted a wikipedia link to the official state dances. Of course I commented that the Shag is the official dance of two states. Her response to the video was that it looked like "Riverdance gets drunk at a fraternity party!"

"Shag:The Movie" - starring Annabeth Gish, Phoebe Cates and Bridget Fonda shows the southern beach culture and dance. For those in UK countries, it is not what you might think! A road trip movie... check it out.

What would Julia do?

2009-08-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Cover of My Life in France

I discovered even before my recent marriage that my husband was an excellent chef. I did not realize the significance of the first meal he cooked for me, though.

That meal was a tour de force featuring sole meuniere and a souffle. I discovered that his batterie de cuisine was extensive, and that he had mastered eggs, butter and puff pastry. His well worn and appropriately spotted cookbook collection included the entire works of - Julia Child.

After marriage my walk partner loaned me a book she was sure my husband would appreciate. It was the Julia Child memoir "My Life in France". The Pasadena connection was only one degree of separation - as his step mother had visited Julia and Paul Child when they lived in Paris.

I read the book also - and thought about it quite a bit. My turn to select the book for the Bolgia Book Club was approaching, and I dithered for two months. What book to choose? History (Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson on the current list), adventure ("Down the Great Unknown" about John Wesley Powell's trip down the Colorado River), something new ("The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao") - or something dear to both our hearts?

Around here the term WWJD now refers to "What Would Julia Do?" -- so the answer was simple after all.

It is coincidental that the new movie "Julie & Julia" opens this week as the book club reads "My Life in France"... or is it? The first meal in France that awakened the senses of Julia Child was a luncheon featuring sole meuniere...

Forever

2009-07-28T07:23:00.001-07:00

Yosemite

2009-07-26T22:18:00.001-07:00

Living in California it is hard to imagine not having visited Yosemite; but this year another brother, John, and his wife Patti visited - and asked if we would like to go to Yosemite with them. We took a whirlwind trip up to the high country to show them the highlights of this vast park. It's an impossibility, though. Most visitors see the Yosemite Valley, but see none of the high country, the giant sequoia groves, Hetch Hetchy, the Tioga pass, the high alpine lakes, the charming historic Wawona Hotel. Ah, well, we did the best we could in two days.

The Merced River

Being a fan of all things historical, I took them to the Ahwahnee Hotel.

Patti, John and Anna at the first overlook...

And here's Patti enjoying a little light reading in the Ahwahnee lobby.

Finally,a little hiking... and I got to try out the new and improved hip joint.

Que Syrah

2009-07-21T22:31:00.001-07:00

The annual Napa Home Winemakers Classic was held last Saturday, July 18 at St. Supery Winery. Our home wine making group, Leap of Faith, dutifully entered our wine in the competition for the 15th year. Now they only permit one entry per group/label. Of course our new hardly even bottled yet 2007 Late Harvest Syrah Port won a first place. It is "hardly even bottled yet" in that we only bottled 8 bottles for this event. The rest of this lovely wine is still in the barrel, waiting for our labels to be printed. We will get together before the harvest this year and spend a day bottling.

Last year we entered the 2003 Zinfandel Port (about 20% late harvest Cabernet) and won first place. Even though we have made port only twice, we seem to have struck a nerve or a taste bud.

The day was beautiful - and not too hot...

The event benefits the Dry Creek - Lakoya volunteer fire department and is staffed by young and good looking firefighters. It is not a bad way to spend a lovely summer afternoon in Napa.

Napa fourth of July

2009-07-05T17:40:00.001-07:00

This year we stayed home for fourth of July, along with everyone else in town. We were invited to a wonderful barbecue - and the host was surprised that almost everyone accepted. A last minute email went out to round up additional tables for the feast. This was not just any barbecue, but a southern (specifically North Carolina) barbecue. The menu included pulled pork, corn on the cob, sliced fresh tomatoes, black-eyed peas, cooked greens, potato salad, cucumber salad, okra and tomatoes, cole slaw, soft rolls, Napa wines, pecan pie, black bottom pie... Guests brought some starters - including pimento cheese, chopped liver, deviled eggs, and catfish pate.

Earlier in the day we had a home grown parade - with the Wells Fargo stagecoach as the big "shew".

After our leisurely afternoon, we ambled down to the river to watch fireworks.

It was a great day to think about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton - subjects of three books I've read this past month.

the wabe

2009-07-04T16:01:00.001-07:00

There is a wabe in Napa County. A wabe is defined as, "The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a "wabe" because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side."

This is a rare wall mounted sundial - missing its gnomon. The gnomon is the piece that casts the shadow on a sundial. This building is one of the last unrestored "ghost wineries" of Napa County - a winery built before the Volstead Act - known as "Prohibition" -- 1920 - 1933. This winery site was also the home of a real ghost resulting from an awful murder in the 19th century. Our hope is that the ghost of Jules Millet has finally reached a peaceful rest.

Practicing in the area of historic architecture has many rewards (mostly uncompensated) because the stories are so rich and varied - stories told by the owners, the buildings, old photographs and historical documents. If we successfully obtain a Use Permit and zoning text amendment for this site, it will thrive again as a winery. In September we will know...

Classic Napa Tank House Needs New Home!

2009-06-21T11:00:00.001-07:00

Wouldn't you love to have this classic Napa water tank house on your property? Not exactly free, as it will cost about $20,000 to move it, but still - you could not build it for that. Base of the tank house is 14 feet square, height is about 38 feet, and it needs to be moved from its location in the City of Napa before July 31, 2009. Information is posted on the Napa County Landmarks group facebook page, and will be posted on the Landmarks web site next week. I will forward any serious requests to the owners.

If you live in Australia or Connecticut, the moving expense may be prohibitive!

8 hands

2009-06-17T00:11:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a day of vigorous ensemble piano music, with two Beethoven Symphonies (#3 and #7), Haydn, Mendelsohn, and Tchaikovsky. Here's a little clip of some Beethoven.

I have had to learn how to convert .mov files to a format that will work on youtube...

John made some delicious blueberry muffins to greet the other pianists - then later we has a lunch break for chicken salad, cold poached salmon, vegetables, fruits, "Arnold Palmers", and ginger ice cream and blueberry frozen yogurt for dessert. There was plenty of sustenance for such exertion.

... or a brick

2009-06-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

Another choral music post, this time with a direct window to a Columbia University version of "Brick" by Ben Folds. I prefer this arrangement to the one Ben Folds liked. Not so much "beat box" - and it has female voices!

Hit by a boomerang

2009-06-09T17:43:00.001-07:00

It happens... cast or launch the kids into the world, and sometimes they land like a boomerang at 10pm during a dinner party. Without much warning - blam!

For the next couple of months, we tiptoe around the now adult child - familiar (if not regressed) in some ways, and wildly evolved in others. Is this something to wish for or dread? We shall see in a few weeks. It is sort of like a lab experiment. Remember the mold project?

Smith River

2009-05-28T23:05:00.001-07:00

The clear aqua blue water of the cold, fast middle fork of the Smith River is visible from the top of the gorge. During our recent road trip, we meandered through this wilderness area on the way to I-5, known as "the Five" in southern parts of the state. One way to recognize southerners is their use of the word "the" (pronounced "thuh") before an interstate freeway number. BayAreans look at each other quizzically when a Southlander lets loose "thuh 101".

The water in the undammed Smith River is so clear that you can almost see the fish from here.

2009-05-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Irises

2009-05-26T22:35:00.001-07:00

Having spent hours looking at irises - even attending an iris society competition, this picture of a little girl running through the Schreiner's display garden was my favorite. It does not even have stunning irises in the frame, but still... the joy of running in a garden wearing a favorite flowered dress and pink shoes shows how liberating a lovely garden can be. Many fine specimens in the show garden and acres of field grown irises to select from:

At Cooley's, the hunt was on:

...and another small out of the way garden with irises and tree peonies:

This being the tree peony of unusual size (Hephestos), like the rodents in "The Princess Bride". A much younger version of this one came back to Napa with us:

Exbury

2009-05-25T22:44:00.001-07:00

Stopping at Greer Gardens in Eugene, OR - we looked at rhododendrons, azaleas and shade loving plants. The nursery is now hemmed in by urban development, and the 13 acres or so of mature specimen plants and nursery grounds are likely to become a condominium development in the future. Right now, though, the operation persists. We discovered this rose/orange splashed Exbury hybrid azalea in the far reach of the grounds, then found one smaller one gallon sized plant to bring back to Napa and try in the garden. Colors are deeper than the native azaleas in the Azalea Preserve near Arcata - and this is a deciduous azalea - but still... we shall see how it adapts to the Napa climate.

Paeonia

2009-05-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

The backroads of the fertile Willamette valley are home to a mind-boggling array of horticultural nurseries. Plants include rare peonies, irises hostas, ferns, rhododendrons, azaleas, evergreens and - grass seed. Lots of grass seed. But the sight of several acres of peonies in bloom is definitely something to behold.

____________________________________

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I'm sitting back home in Napa after an ALL day drive back from Oregon, sipping some homemade Meyer Limoncello (recipe to follow some day) and posting these pictures. John of course did all the driving - probably due to my still slightly creaky left hip. Sun-baked describes the feeling. The weather was glorious over the Memorial Day weekend - and the nurseries were prepared for a seasonal onslaught. The flowering season for peonies and irises is NOW. These are not hoticultural plants that give months of flowers. We saw some mature tree peonies of unusual size, much like the rodents in "The Princess Bride".

Tomorrow - irises and enormous tree peonies...

Roadies and Rhodies

2009-05-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

On our current road trip to Oregon to seek out irises and peonies, we stopped near McKinleyville at the Azalea State Natural Reserve. I had never seen these soft pink native azaleas (Rhododendron occidentale) before.

The reserve seems a neglected little corner of the California State Park system, and I expect that the spot is rather forlorn most of the year. But this week, the azaleas are in bloom, and in a few locations can be seen in proximity to similarly sized native ceanothus, also in bloom. Late May is the time to see these plants.

hard headed hard hat

2009-05-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

Thinking about the long and winding trip from this lovely pile of bricks to current land use skirmishes in Napa, I must remind myself at times that I am still that "hard headed hard hat" who broke the gender barrier in North Carolina over thirty five years ago. The main reason my construction career was not limited to one intense summer during college was this building - the North Carolina Governor's Mansion.

A week or so after marriage and moving back to an 1870 cottage in Raleigh, NC about two blocks from this home, I noticed that the building had a familiar construction company sign posted. I wanted more than anything to go into this house and to work on it. I also needed a job. Should I work in an architecture office drawing toilet room partitions and running blueprints - or march up to the door and seek a laborer job with my former employer? Not a hard choice, actually...

Mr. C-, the superintendent looked startled and nonplussed at my effrontery to be standing there asking for a job. I'm a "girl", for heaven's sake. Girls don't do construction work. He needed laborers - right then - and asked if I had any experience and could do the job. Looking around the jobsite, suspiciously clogged with men within earshot, I noticed Mr. P- my former superintendent. Looking a bit further, I noticed a couple of other superintendents I recognized. I said, "Mr.P- can vouch for me."

"Hey P-, do you know this girl?"

Mr. P- (who was working, not lurking) turned - and wreathed in smiles came over to greet me. "Great to see you again. What are you doing here, Juli?"

"I'd like to work on the Governor's Mansion. I love this house!" I said.

Mr. C- and Mr. P- talked for a minute, while I greeted Mr. P-'s son Arthur - also working on the project. Arthur was a quiet, quick moving carpenter whose hammer loop always squeaked in a rhythmic way. He pointed out several other superintendents working on the job. All were master carpenters, and the company, Clancy & Theys Construction Co. had put every top craftsman on this job. I knew this was the right place to be. Mr. P- did the sales job for me, and I started that day.

Within a couple of months I was assistant superintendent for Mr. C-.

The Governor's Mansion was so close to my house, that I walked every day. I still have my lunchbox and hard hat, but the thermos is long gone. My 1953 deluxe cab Chevy pick up truck sat quietly in the drive, happy to be a weekender truck working on the weekend project...

Ben Folds Acapella

2009-04-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

An NPR driveway moment happened today featuring Ben Folds who has discovered college acapella music. The newscast, if you missed it, is in the link and is about 8 minutes long. For many of us BOCA (Best of College Acapella) has been an annual treasure.

I recall my brother John becoming a "barbershopper" in middle school. John is now a big Ben Folds fan and lives once again in North Carolina. Funny how that works. My own kids became "barbershoppers" in high school, then went on to college acapella and beyond. I felt the pull to sing again myself and joined a choral group. There is no feeling to compare to ringing a chord with a well-tuned choral group.

Silver Apples of the Moon - youtube version

2009-04-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

I dreamed

2009-04-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Susan Boyle, amateur and unlikely singer, gives an unforgettable performance. Over 4 million views (in one day) on YouTube - but embedded viewer is disabled, so you must click on the link. The song is "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables:

I Dreamed a Dream

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.

And still
I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

Silver Apples of the Moon

2009-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a video link for a little W.B. Yeats:

"Wandering Aengus" - also known as "Silver Apples of the Moon" performed by the Cinnabar Women's Chorus in Petaluma ... our Monday evening choral group.

I may try posting a link to the youtube version also, but let's see how this works!

Potholes in Memory Lane

2009-04-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

In preparation for a hip operation, I pulled out some of my hundreds of anatomy drawings dating from the 1960's (middle school and high school) and 1980's when I taught perspective drawing at the Academy of Art College (now University) in San Francisco. Of course memory lane has its potholes.

All the drawings are of properly functioning bones and muscles. No age or arthritis damage is evident anywhere. Within the past year, though, I discovered that I needed a bit of structural repair. After some discussion, tests and research I just had Birmingham Hip Resurfacing.

Crutches on stairs were the first challenge. With 13 steps into the house and no ramp, it was essential to master this before leaving the hospital. I'm still scooting around the house with the walker or crutches - but have been liberated now by being able to climb into the truck and drive!

Banana slugs and fungi

2009-03-01T22:29:00.001-08:00

Just for a little truth in labeling, this post includes banana slugs and fungi. There are also waterfalls, redwood trees and undulations.

Yesterday we had a spring walk in the woods at Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Note that the trail description says that the elevation is 200-400 feet. Seems easy enough, although the trail is labeled "strenuous". It turns out that the 2-400 foot elevation change happens about 12 times in the 12 mile loop we took. These turned out to be "undulations" or extremely large sine waves. Otherwise, a delightful day in the redwoods hunting fungi, banana slugs and waterfalls. We went to the Berry Falls, Golden Falls and Silver Falls - here's a copy of the official park map.

Berry Falls

Along the way we found lots of fungi sprouting from downed trees and vegetable detritus. Colors ranged from virulent green to pink and dayglow yellow/orange. I'm sure they all have names.

Chuck, Felicia, Francois, John and I were the group. By about the half-way mark, my bum hip began to give trouble - so our return trip was a rather leisurely stroll for the seasoned hikers of the group.

We lunched at the base of the first (and highest elevation) falls of the group on West Berry Creek. John, having hiked the trail several times, did not reveal the delights in store. Especially the rappelling down the face of one of the falls. I asked, "is there another way down?" and John's one word answer - "No." Hmmm... 6 miles up a creek with an airplane cable to hold on to to get down. I guess I'd rather do that than try to walk back around...

We were truly stumped a few miles down the return trail where a pair of redwood trees had fallen across the path giving a chest high by 200 foot long barricade. Up and over, or down into the canyon to go around? We tried several methods and all emerged on the other side of the barrier.

The UC Santa Cruz mascot was thundering through the mosses...

...and fallen and fire scarred trees gave contrasting texture and color to the wet green canopy of the forest.

On the way home to Napa, exhausted and hungry (at least the hungry part was true of all of us) we stopped in Albany/Berkeley for the best pizza in the Bay area - Zachary's.

NCL-CHC part 1, workshop #1

2009-03-01T18:19:00.001-08:00

NCL-CHC part 1, workshop #1
Wood window repair

NCL-CHC part 1, workshop #1

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NCL-CHC part 2- workshop #1

2009-03-01T17:46:00.001-08:00

Part 2 window repair

NCL-CHC part 2- workshop #1

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NCL-CHC1part 3 workshop #1

2009-03-01T17:43:00.001-08:00

Part 3 window repair:

NCL-CHC1part3

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NCL - CHC workshop #1

2009-03-01T17:14:00.001-08:00

Chimney repair - workshop #1

NCL - CHC workshop #1

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NCL-CHC workshop #2

2009-02-27T16:32:00.001-08:00

I'm trying this program (slideshare) to post power point presentations. Let's see if this works.

NCL-CHC workshop #2

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Could not resist...

2009-02-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Take the Quiz here!

Online quizzes - a waste of time? Here is one for only those familiar with all the Jane Austen novels. This also seems to only apply to the female gender, as I did not see any male characters in the list of results.

Having just read The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, the quiz just fell into my internet lap and I could not resist. The Uncommon Reader is a brilliant novella. I do not want to spoil the plot as it is delicious. Jane Austen makes a cameo appearance.

pick up trucks and old houses

2009-02-11T00:41:00.001-08:00

Having worked on old houses for my entire adult life, it seems fitting that I have also had a pick up truck during these past decades. The first vehicle I purchased was a 1953 Deluxe Cab Chevrolet pick up truck (black). After having several "parts trucks" I purchased another running 1950 Chevy pick up that has now been gathering cobwebs in the garage for over two decades.

The 1950 truck had been in great running condition, but was stolen in 1985. The thief did not know how to drive a straight drive and destroyed the transmission... meanwhile I parked the truck in the garage - and it moved from garage to garage in 1990 and continued its sleeping beauty life.

In 2008 there was finally a need to use the garage for another purpose (wood shop) - so an eager southern California purchaser drove here with his pick up and a trailer to take the old truck to a new life. Wonder of wonders, he drove the same Chevy truck as I do, since my regular vehicle is a newer Chevy pick up (black). The 1950 truck now resides with my step son.

The black Chevy has been to the dump, the lumber yard, the plant nursery, the gravel yard, to pick up grapes and wine barrels, high schooler road trips, college moves, camping trips... and on many construction sites around Napa County in the course of my work. As much as I imagine driving a convertible sports car, I face the reality that to pick up a load of mulch for the garden, I need a truck. Do I really want to become one of those people who has to borrow a pick up truck? I think of the bumper sticker that reads "No, you can't borrow my truck".

Chicken soup

2009-01-28T00:05:00.001-08:00

Last year I did not get a cold. I now see this as an opportunity lost to have some of John's special chicken soup. A rather nasty cold is currently being passed around - and I finally succumbed. John sprang into action and scored many packages of chicken necks (plus some whole chickens) from one of our really good locally owned grocery stores, the Brown's Valley Market. Not to give away the recipe, but it requires a lot of time and lots of fresh ginger. He uses a French mill to extract as much chicken goodness as possible. The soup is what Julia Child would have called "chickeny".

21 quarts of the best chicken soup resulted.

I've been reading a memoir of Julia Child - "My Life in France" - and enjoying it very much. John is one of the few people I know with a complete collection of Julia Child's cookbooks. As I wrote recently, around here WWJD means "What Would Julia Do?"

Wood Window Repair

2009-01-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

Cabernet Jelly

2009-01-10T18:47:00.001-08:00

This is a recipe for perfectly ripe high quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. These were picked October 19, 2008 at 25.6 brix.

6 1/2 Cups Cabernet juice
4 Cups sugar, divided
1 cup water
1 packet (1.75 oz.) "Surejell" (pink - premium package)

For 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 Cups juice you will need about 6 1/2 pounds grapes. Remove stems by hand and mash grapes with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Simmer in large non-reactive pot for 10 minutes. Drain through cheesecloth in a colander. This should yield 6 1/2 cups juice or more. Mix pectin with 1/4 cup sugar - mix into juice. Bring to boil. Add remaining sugar and boil one minute, stirring constantly. Put jelly in prepared sterilized jars, add lids as directed in your canning instructions and process 10 minutes.

Why do I give out this recipe? Because it worked for me - and there are no recipes that I could find on the internet for real top quality wine grapes. We racked the cabernet sauvignon and merlot wine today and the jelly recipe came to mind. The cab is in a new oak barrel from Demptos here in Napa. It is as yummy as the jelly, but needs quite a while to be ready to bottle. Maybe 2010.

Mr. Lincoln

2009-01-08T13:45:00.001-08:00

I recently finished reading "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is quite a bestseller now, with the newly elected President Obama also an admirer of Mr. Lincoln's ability to harness the talents of his former political rivals for the presidency. After reading the book - which was a very "quick read" for such a lengthy tome - I really wanted to have a companion book of the stories told by Abraham Lincoln. According to Ms. Goodwin, President Lincoln's ability to entertain with a constant stream of uproarious stories helped him immeasurably in his campaigns, his friendships, and his governance.

Several "Mr. Lincolns" are also new residents of the rose garden John planted the last couple of weekends. There are at least 50 (and more planned) bare-root roses now planted in the yard of the Fox Cottage next door. My contribution has been nominal - some help with layout, a trip to one of the local nurseries and bringing back one truck load of mulch and helping shovel it into the garden. John has acquired the roses, turned over and amended the soil, prepared the planting beds, laid out the roses, and planted them.

As the new president launches into his term, the roses will leaf out and flower - putting on a magnificent show. Will admiration of Lincoln's successful strategy lead to similar success?

persimmons - what are they good for?

2009-01-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

A new favorite for the large, sweet Hachiya persimmons - Persimmon Frozen Yogurt

For this recipe (and other sherbets and ice creams) a 2 quart Cuisinart counter top ice cream freezer works very well.

2 C. plain yogurt
1 1/2 C. persimmons pushed through ricer (defrosted frozen pulp works especially well)
3 Tbsp. Meyer lemon juice
1/4 C. + 2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. Cointreau
1 Tbsp. vodka or Kirsch
large dash freshly ground cinnamon
smaller dash freshly ground nutmeg

Process in ice cream freezer. Pack in containers for freezer. In spite of being a low fat frozen yogurt, the alcohol keeps the texture from being too icy.

Hoppin' John

2009-01-01T15:28:00.001-08:00

This note is not about husband John hoppin' around the rose garden or brother John hoppin' around the golf course. It is about the southern tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day to bring good luck in the new year. We can certainly use some this year, so here is a basic recipe for "Hoppin' John".

4-6 slices thick bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
black pepper and salt to taste
1 cup brown rice (any mixture - I used brown plus red wehani)
2 1/2 cups water (to start)
1 -20 oz. bag frozen black eyed peas

Cook bacon in large pot. As it begins to brown add onion and garlic. Add salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook till onions are soft. Add water and rice, cover and simmer about 35 minutes. Add black eyed peas (add additional water if it gets too dry) and simmer about 25-30 minutes more. Do not use "fresh" (reconstituted dry peas) - frozen peas are fresh frozen and the only way to get fresh peas in winter! Some recipes dress this up in many ways. Simple or fancy - you choose.

Happy New Year!

bubble lights

2008-12-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

This year I was late getting to the all important task of putting up the Christmas tree. Even during the really bad times of life, this task has always been accomplished. The second week of December, while searching for the tree holder and decorations, I came across a box with decorations I did not recognize. Were these from my sister who died in 2004, my neighbor who died over ten years ago or left by one of the kids? In the box were gold tinsel, older strings of large bulb lights, glass ornaments - and a string of bubble lights!

The bubble lights just had to go on this tree. One of them ended up next to an ornament made by sister Jane - a sweet cross stitch sampler in a heart shape with criss-crossing messages about "glory to god" and "lamb of god" made in 1988.

As John saw the tree for the first time, he immediately noticed the lights. In a rather subdued way he let me know that the ornaments and lights had been boxed up since a last futile and painful attempt to share Christmas with his sons. Christmas had been a big celebration when he was home with his kids, and feasts and carols abounded.

Slowly, the feasts and carols return. Some of the ancient winter carols are the most haunting wails of loss and redemption. But others are rollicking wassail songs!

persimmons redux

2008-12-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

This past Friday I became a woman possessed. I looked out of the dining room window and noticed a large mockingbird eating the persimmon at the left of the picture. While I have been willing to share the bounty of the fig tree, and did not hoist a net over the tree this summer, I have only these 7 lovely persimmons on the newly planted young tree. The weight of the fruit is so great that it bent the main stem (it can hardly be called a trunk).

I shrieked and called Jasmine (the perfect dog) to help me roust the mockingbird from his perch on the wobbly branch. Jasmine ran down the stairs and eagerly chased the bird.

The persimmons were carefully harvested and brought inside to finish ripening in the dining room in a place of honor. The cake plate is a "Fire and Light" Mother's Day present from Anna.

I left the half eaten one for the mockingbird...

"Fire and Light" is a recycled glass manufacturing company in Arcata, CA. They make lovely things out of a now abundant resource. Unfortunately, the store selling these pretty and useful things has been affected by the recession.

But here in Napa, perhaps they will be a persimmon pudding. Perhaps they will be a persimmon frozen yogurt.

In our women's chorus for the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma we just sang our Christmas concert. One of the songs was a Randall Thompson setting for the Robert Frost poem - "Come In". The mockingbird was not invited in, though he sought to "better his perch"...

As I came to the edge of the woods,
Thrush music -- hark!
Now if it was dusk outside,
Inside it was dark.

Too dark in the woods for a bird
By sleight of wing
To better its perch for the night,
Though it still could sing.

The last of the light of the sun
That had died in the west
Still lived for one song more
In a thrush's breast.

Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music went --
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament.

But no, I was out for stars;
I would not come in.
I meant not even if asked;
And I hadn't been.