Friday, September 17, 2010

and heavenly Napa Valley....

After a day in downtown San Francisco, we headed up to Napa Valley. I had no idea how beautiful it would be, it was a gorgeous, warm day, high 80's.  The best vineyard was V. Sattui, where we ordered amazing sandwiches from their Italian deli and sat under the oak, olive and eucalyptus trees.  Ok, so this is what heaven feels like!
are we in Italy now?!
heavenly picnic under the massive oak and eucalyptus trees
the olive trees were so beautiful...I'm thinking future painting


after a cool summer, grapes still on the vines

beautiful autumn leaves


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

colorful San Francisco!

I just returned from a wonderful trip to San Francisco, visiting my brother and his family.  My sister in law Sandy and I took a couple of trips, one into the city and the other to heavenly Napa Valley.  Luckily we chose Thursday to visit sunny downtown San Francisco - it was farmers market day at the Ferry Building.  The colors were an absolute feast for the eyes - bright red strawberries, brilliant yellow sunflowers, a full palette of squashes and tomatoes.  As always, I find the country in the middle of a city!















Monday, September 6, 2010

goodbye summer?

so, how is it possible that it's Labor Day?  The question here around Seattle is not "where did summer go?"...it's "summer, what summer?".  Seems like we went from spring to fall overnight.  Today it's a chilly 56 and raining.  But despite all those cool, cloudy days, my flowers were in their glory...brilliant hues of hot pinks, periwinkle blues and lemon yellows.  For me, summer means flowers....I long for my sweet peas to bloom just to inhale their heavenly fragrance, to see what colors the hydrangeas will be, to watch my bright blue bachelor buttons open after coaxing them along from seed.  And, of course the battle with the slugs and snails :)  As all these beautiful blooms fade in the next few weeks, I'll be planting my fall pansies with their cheery faces, and hoping that maybe, just maybe we'll have some sunny, Indian summer days.