Tarantella

Things are bigger in Ventura. This cactus, for example -  it's thirty feet tall.

This giant Bird of Paradise dwarfs its owner...

...and this spider that almost ended up in my hair was huge!

A good part of her web did end up in my hair - she was not amused. "Pregnant and I still have to rebuild my web - really!" 

I rescue snakes, I love that we have a king snake in our yard - very shy, but sometimes we see him sliding smoothly along the base of a step, or around the bbq. I find garter snakes under rocks and boards and carefully put them in a safe place, away from the birds and the little boys.But I'm not a spider fan. In fact I wrote a story...

Tarantella

I had my arms full of the groceries I was bringing in from my car when I saw him - a big hairy black tarantula, waving his legs in distinctive creepy tarantula fashion.  He was on the back door mat, heading for the kitchen door. I expect he would have knocked politely if I had not screamed. I don’t know if spiders have acute hearing, but my scream shook the walls and vibrated down the street.

From the safety of the street I called my mom - not home. Rats. She is tarantula fearless. She hangs her bath towels outside to dry and frequently has an eight-legged hairy hitchhiker on her bed when she's folding the dry towels. She scoops them up and gently sets them outside. But she wasn’t home.

I called Wally. He was at lunch with a friend, and was unsympathetic. 

“Just pick up the doormat and drag it outside.” Ah, but that would mean being in the same county - the same room -with the hairy beast.

“He won’t hurt you.” Yeah, but I might hurt myself trying to get away if he so much as twitched.

He refused to come home from his lunch date to rescue me. In normal circumstances I am a most capable person - we were all girls; we learned to install garbage grinders (when we  were expecting dinner guests in an hour, but that is another story.) We learned to hang drywall, and to paint, to rewire lamps and light switches, to move furniture and catch mice. But this was too much. Even for me. Drag the mat? Is he kidding?

“Just leave it until I get home.”

Yeah, and wonder for the rest of my life every time I go into the garage if the hairy beast was about to drop from the rafters down the back of my neck. Nope. I did what any self-respecting capable woman would do.

“Honey, I’m checking in to the Lafayette Park Hotel. A suite. And I’m calling a realtor - the house will be on the market by the time you get home.”

Mornings

We changed Ally's life by rescuing her, but she has changed our lives more. Besides the morning wiggles and kisses we now walk after breakfast, and the mornings are astonishingly beautiful. We walk through Diablo...

...down deserted streets. We see deer, squirrels, turkeys, owl pellets, and the most beautiful skies...

Happy Halloween from Ally - and her grateful new family.

Grapes!

We harvested our grapes today. Steve, our vineyard manager, came at dawn. I joined him after I woke up enough not to stumble - a big cup of hot tea helped.  We picked before the sun was up...

The grapes are all along the bottom of the vine...

...and of course being grapes they're all twisted up in the vines and twizzled around the wires...

Eventually we got them all picked.

Steve picked about twice as fast as I did. I bet he can stand up today, too. Dorothy Parker was right - getting old is not for sissies. But we had a good crop...

...and eventually I will be able to walk upright again. Isn't wine an ancient painkiller? 

Ron Morgan and Loot

I took two friends and went to a class at Loot in Lafayette. Ron Morgan, author, lecturer, storyteller, flower arranger, decorator, genius and one of the funniest guys around gives Monday classes. Sign up - they sell out in a heartbeat. From a pile of sticks and seeds...

He creates the most beautiful things. He will change the way you look at flowers, at your garden, at your neighbor's garden (his stories about cutting from other peoples' gardens will have you holding your sides). This was his contemporary class, and while I prefer big jumbled mixed up bouquets I came home inspired. A few of his creations...

he recommends placing these facing into a mirror. Who'd think of that?

The pile of sunflowers becomes this - 

This rather hideous vase is transformed...

...into this.

into this.

Apples and amaryllis (and red twig dogwood)

Two fig leaves and a few green calla lilies

Start with some cranberries

and add a few flowers - add candles if you like. Instant Holiday.

His shop is full of wondrous things

displayed in color-coordinated vignettes.

I have a thing for this color green

and when I got home I found a huge praying mantis (very pregnant) exactly this shade of green on the leg of my ladder. I moved her to the garden - I hope her babies will be happy in my garden and stay.

Ron tells the story of going to lecture somewhere in the south. He had agreed the ladies would bring their own containers and he would tell them how to arrange in their containers. One sweet little old lady in a Chanel suit and Ferragamo pumps came up with a container dripping with brightly colored ceramic fruit and cherubs. She said "Mistuh Morgan, this has been in my family foah generations.  What should I do with it?" 

Ron took one look and said "Just drop it and break it, honey. That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen!"

Go see Ron Morgan.  Take a friend. Prepare to laugh. Take your checkbook, for there will be something you will want to take home (besides the charming and adorable Mr Morgan). 

Where else can you get up close and personal with a world class talent?

Tasting Things

Leslie brought me some Lucini olive oil that was too green and strong for her tastes. I gave her some McEvoy in exchange. We both have a new favorite olive oil, and they're not the same. I prefer the Lucini; she prefers the McEvoy. 

I started thinking about tasting notes. I cancelled my subscription to Cook's Magazine when they said they tasted no difference between real vanilla and the fake stuff made with vanillin. I taste a bitterness in the fake stuff, and it is a simpler composition. It lacks the deep notes, the grace notes, the unfolding fleeting flavors that are almost identifiable then gone. No difference? We differ. My friend Des makes vanilla and it is heavenly. Even the gossip girls notice the difference in the fragrance, and ask about it. They'd like to drink it. Maybe Des will teach us to make it. 

Wine tasters make judgements - wine drinkers slavishly follow them. If you know anything about wine you know who Robert Parker is - a good rating from Robert Parker can make a wine; a bad rating can be devastating. 

Years ago I belonged to the San Francisco Professional Food Society and we tasted things (before tasting was the rage) - tomatoes, coffee, caviar, vodka, champagne...and salt. Salt has changed a lot since then. The French Laundry and Per Se have served plates with 8 or 9 little piles of salt served with a history and geography lesson for each, and pairing recommendations. Eye opening.

 I have more than a dozen kinds of salt in my cupboard. Some of my favorites...

are from Williams Sonoma. Their red salt is great on pork, I love the black on grilled steak, and the chardonnay smoked salt means I can do ribs in the oven and they taste like they've been smoked. I plan to try it on pork chops next.

Some were gifts and I have no idea what's in them...besides salt. 

One of my favorites is the Herb Rub (with lots of salt)  from David Lebovitz. If you don't follow his blog you are in for a treat - he is funny, dry, wry, and doesn't take anything too seriously. I've never met him but he's on the list of people I'd like to have dinner with. Along with Winston Churchill and Eleanor of Acquitaine.

But my favorite - the one I reach for again and again - is this.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know I went to the Ile de Re this summer and fell in love with the place. I get this salt at WIlliams Sonoma. I brought some back from the Ile de Re - if you come for dinner we can taste it. And you do know to sprinkle it over the finished dish, right? Don't waste it in the soup, you will lose the big flakes and the subtle flavor. Sprinkle a few grains on a finished dish and dig in.

The Gardener

There is one on Fourth Street in Berkeley. There is one at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. But my favorite is the one on Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg because it is set in a garden.

It is high style meets whimsey. Practical meets improbable.

On a recent bike ride we stopped by the Healdsburg store, and I found myself imagining their tall pots as a modern-ish fountain (with apologies to the architecture snobs and language police).

I would show you photos but they won't let me, so you'll just have to click the links and look for yourself. But the bike ride -

 was fantastic. Perfect weather, rolling hills, grapes almost ripe, whimsey along the road...

Coppola is a great place for lunch on a hill overlooking the valley - 

...even a flat tire couldn't ruin our day. 

Go. Stay at Hotel Healdsburg. Shop at Susan Graf. Eat at Scopa or Dry Creek Kitchen. Have lunch at Willi's Wine Bar and order the peel and eat shrimp. Have one of the weird and wonderful cocktails at Barn Diva. It's as beautiful as the cycling trips we take to Europe, the food is as good, and it's a lot closer. If only they had ancient hilltop towns built of stone...

Ad Hoc

I hate Ad Hoc committees. My garden club is forming one for strategic planning. Seriously? it's a Garden Club, for Pete's sake, not a multi national corporation. I have started two successful companies. The biggest waste of time? Strategic planning. Makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.

On a brighter note - it's my favorite cookbook. Ad Hoc at Home. After Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc restaurant,  in Yountville. Simpler, faster and less expensive than The French Laundry, the best restaurant in the world. With a really cool web site.

After the fried chicken I wanted something simpler. So I made the Cauliflower Soup. 

 His photo, not mine. I didn't make the crispy florets or the beet chips. I didn't use a vita-mix I used a stick blender. And it was fabulous. And not very complicated. 

I will make it again soon. I may even make the beet chips. Or maybe I'll just make the beet chips...no, that soup was too good. It's a cool rainy day; I'm going to the store for cauliflower and cream.