VINES AND STEEL

A VIEW WITH A ROOM

(Paso Robles Appellation)  Aside from the generally excellent wine, a visit to the Denner Winery is enjoyable because of the excellent view.

Approaching from Vineyard you are taken in by the

interaction of steel, vineyard setting and artistry of

architecture.

When owner Ron Denner built his tasting room, he hired San Luis Obispo Architect John R. Mitchell.
Mitchell created a spectacular building, with equally spectacular views.
Denner is a excellent spot to watch the play between
structure and nature, steel and vines.

Even the skies over the vineyard are framed by

the modern structure.

Cheers!
See you down the trail.

THE PALM-A CLASS OF ITS OWN

A CENTRAL COAST CLASSIC

A favorite logo T-shirt is the Palm. 
I love the design and the theatre.

 On Palm in San Luis Obispo, the Palm Theatre
is locally owned and the first solar powered movie 
theatre in the US.

It is a favorite of long time SLO and Central Coast 
residents and rapidly became ours.  
It features independent, foreign, documentary and quality films.

Like a good art house, it has its own personality 
and cool staff. 
It has "attitude."

You find personal touches that 

lend to its charm.
Ticket prices are great and the 
concession prices have to be the best anywhere.
BTW, the popcorn IS the best.

Dim the lights and lets start the show.

See you down the trail.

THE PICNIC IN A VINEYARD

FRIENDS FEAST IN THE VINEYARD

Moveable Feast # 12

Windward Vineyard 
Our friends dining group THE MOVEABLE FEAST
tried something new.  Instead of an evening meal
at a friends home, we opted for a Picnic in a Vineyard.

Sheltered from the 91 degree temperature

by the shade of the WINDWARD Lathe House the feast friends and guests enjoyed a delicious afternoon.
The challenge was no stove, oven or heating plate
and cooler items only.
It worked!!!

 Fresh bread, thyme & garlic butter

balsamic vinegar & olive oil

calamata olives

 Smokehouse albacore

 Brochettes of melon, prosciutto & mozzarella with fresh basil vinaigrette

 fusili pasta salad

lentil & quiona salad

 mushroom tarte

 tomato tarte

Italian nut tort with cream

Italian Ricotta Cake

 pan forte candy

 anticipation

 Windward Pinot Noir

 wine shepherd Marc Goldberg meets the feasters

 Great food and friendship in the shade of the lathe house
and a beautiful vineyard view.
We even got in a game of boccie.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :)

DIFFERENT STREAMS OF TIME

We are constantly reminded of the almost

schizophrenic tone of our age of communication.

We rely on satellites in more ways that most of us know

yet we can not be sure when or where they may fall.

We love the convenience of social media

but must worry about the implications.

Here's a clip from Reader Supported News

What Facebook Really Wants

Nicholas Thompson, The New Yorker 
Nicholas Thompson writes: "The more our online lives take place on Facebook, the more we depend on the choices of the people who run the company - what they think about privacy, how they think we should be able to organize our friends, what they tell advertisers (and governments) about what we do and what we buy. We'll rely on whom they choose as partners to give us news and music. Real issues are at stake, in other words - not just the size of photos and whether you can poke."
READ MORE

And there is another good weekend read here

in this link to a thoughtful and provocative article by Nat Hentoff.  What freedoms have we lost or are

in danger of loosing when our desire for safety,

security and technology combine?

BUT THEN-

there is the technological reach into the past

that was not imaginable in our youth

when things were more simple.

Or were they?

Thanks to Moto, my "mad archivist" for 

finding this ditty.

Enjoy

See you down the trail.

HEART BREAKING

LOSING EMMY 

 Those of you who follow this blog know
we adopted two kittens after the loss of Ziggy
our black cat of 16 years.
Well, we lost Emmy on Thursday.
We suspected she was not well.  She had been
lethargic and loosing weight.
She had Feline Infectious Peritonitis an
incurable virus with a nasty pathophysiology.
The vet said the most compassionate thing to do
was to put her to sleep.  We bid a tearful farewell to a very sweet little  gal.
Emmy was an extremely affectionate and cuddly kitten.
She' loved to cuddle and purr and felt no compunction
about jumping right up into your lap and crawling to your shoulder or neck.

EMMY WAS EVEN A LEG CLIMBER

The vet said often kittens with
FIP are the most affectionate.
It is as though they want all the cuddling they can
have because they may know their time is short.
FIP hits kittens the hardest.  The suspicion
is she inherited it from her mother and carried it when she was adopted.
Frightening however is the vet's statement that it is
highly contagious.  We worry now for our old Nesta
and our kitten Luke.
We hope for the best.

 Luke is a pretty laid back character

 until he begins to stalk like a jungle ocelot

We hope he remains healthy.
We also worry about all of the other kittens
at the HART shelter.
Keep them in your hearts.
See you down the trail.

GOOD NEWS IN WINE COUNTRY

PASO SHINES

IN ALL SEASONS

Living in the Paso Robles Appellation has its

obvious advantages, but it also has made us

partisans, or provincials.  

We love the beauty of the area, certainly

enjoy the outstanding wine and

we love to share it with friends.

We are also excited when the wine

or the image of area wins awards.

As is the case in the Wine Spectator video contest that you can read about by linking here.

The producer/director is Dina Mande of Juice.

Though it is not my favorite of her work

here's a link to her most recent video which is 

a lot of fun.

After watching this on YouTube, you 

can also access her award winning video

plus her other work.

Congrats to Dina, Christopher Taranato and cheers to all

in the Paso wine district.

See you down the trail.

ABSOLUTE

FREEDOM & COMMUNICATION
On first amendment issues, I am an absolutist.
Congress can not make laws prohibiting the
freedom of religion, speech, press or the right to assemble
to petition government for a redress of grievances.
If Congress can not prohibit those freedoms,
then no one, certainly not a commercial enterprise,
can.  Which makes what appears to be a Yahoo based
censorship program wrong. It is maddening and frustrating
in this age when we rely on communication platforms.
There is every indication that is what Yahoo was doing
with people who were trying to communicate from
the Wall Street protest demonstrations.
Here is video of what appears to be Yahoo's censorship.

Here's background on the story.
Look for updates on the story.
In this cyber age when speech and communiclation
are relayed via information platforms, we need to be
vigilant that our freedoms remain intact and 
are not encroached upon by powerful commercial
interests, who in essence control mediums of communication.
Reference an earlier post here on the new form of 
thought police. 
These are challenging times and we must not allow
disregard or lack of care to undermine what is much
too valuable to a representative democracy. 
DAY BOOK
JUST SNACKIN' AND NAPPIN'

See you down the Trail.