Sunday, March 23, 2008

A Bouquet for Lyrel

Mimi's irises make their debut at the farmhouse's wet spot out back

Lyrel, so that you may enjoy this post, I will capitalize where necessary and be on my best behavior. Promise. I'm sending you a virtual bouquet (see left) as spring has burst all over your farmhouse in the form of Mimi's daffodils, snowdrops, vinca and irises. Its quite lovely—a postcard that says, "Wish you were here," in yellow, creme, white and lavender. Boy2 and I couldn't resist them and took a cue from a house brownie that had left several bouquets for us to enjoy the week before. The weather at the farmhouse was chilly enough for a fire, but sunny enough that we both could scamper about, searching for the best blooms to cut. Don't worry, I taught him to be a good steward of blooms and we cut a couple from each mound, oo-ing and ah-ing as we went along. Mimi had planted many different varieties I had often admired in the catalogs and its so nice to see them all about the grounds. I then cut some of the tigergrass for greenery and you have a very pretty bush that has the most tiny little white blossoms all along their long stems—they became sweet accents for the bouquet. I don't know if you can see them, they are delicate little things. We carefully arranged them in a parfait glass and then took the bouquet's picture against Aunt Judy's painting in your dining room. Then we had to flee, as they were unexpectedly aromatic and Momma couldn't take it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we. Ps. Your rosemary made it through the winter!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Home

Where have we been? its been a month without a post. is nothing happening at the shoestring vineyard?

of course not. plenty of things have been happening outside. pruning, for instance, is finished.

well, that's certainly blog worthy. where are the pics? where is gerald's commentary?

in the camera and in gerald's head, respectively. west coast pete was out for a week, and ger, west coast and east coast pete pruned; modified two rows from a vertical shoot position trellising to a lyre trellising system, and attended the annual maryland grape growers conference. ger said that was a good meeting. they stopped and saw uncle charlie (never seen in this blog) on the way back. ger has planned and started construction on the bay build out. the cleared site has been cleaned of sticks n' bits and has been seeded with rape seed to help with the erosion.

so they have done quite a bit. why can't we see what's going on? where are the tales of minutia you spill when you have nothing else to report? oh, and the farm diary. we havent seen posts of that for at least six months.

yeh. ive been thinking about that farm diary. i need start transcribing again. as far as the other stuff, as soon as the camera cord and i can find each other again, i'll at least post the slides. tales of the ordinary and other minutiae will have to wait. sadly, our townie is in need of repairs and maintenance, and i am now committed to seeing that it happens. we had our first family weekend without the farm since we went to disney two years ago. it was short, but felt good.

so thats where you've been?

yeh. home. just saying home gives me that happy, hopeful feeling. ger and i hope everyone is blessed to have a home falling around their heads as they pursue many, many adventures, as my family does. and thanks for asking and the interest. i'll catch up again with you soon.