Girls’ Night Out

Egads  - I’ve been working, crafting and awash in inspiration and ideas over at Pinterest; all the while neglecting my blog. I’ve a slew of pictures to post over the next few weeks, so let me begin.

A neighbor and I hit Girls Night Out at Ironstone Vineyards – a fundraising event for Santa’s Express. Santa’s Express in Calaveras County provides food, clothing and toys for the disadvantaged; their funding relies entirely on donations. Entry was a new unwrapped toy or $10 (they partner with Toys for Tots). Entry included tickets for six tastes of Ironstone wine or one glass plus hors d’ouvres of cheeses, vegetables and perfectly spiced hummus. In the past, Girls Night Out has benefited the local abused women services – it’s always a truly enjoyable low cost night that benefits a good cause.

We began our evening with an “always fantastic” meal at Grounds (I’ve mentioned before this is one of my favorite restaurants – I start to crave it if I haven’t been there often enough). Terry went for superb mussels with a huge side of sweet potato fries and I their ”always to die for” pasta (this mushrooms, pesto and more). We skipped wine with dinner and opted for the glass at the fundraiser so we wouldn’t be tethered to the tasing bar. Sipping the Viogner while perusing the silent auction and vendor tables is the way to shop.

 

Wines from Newsome Harlow and Twisted Oak (their River of Skulls – 3 consecutive years) were some of the more popular items in the silent auction. In the top photo, you can see the beautiful Christmas quilt that was raffled off – the quilt effectively hiding the crowd at the tasting bar.

Home party consultants from the County comprised a good number the vendor tables – even the sex toy folks were nestled into a corner (“Slumber Party”). Although I’ve been dragged off duty-bound to many friends’ home parties (always purchasing the polite requisite of at least one item – I’m really not a home party kind gal) had not been to a chocolate tasting party.

 

Our local Dove Chocolate party consultant Kim hosted a fantastic table (locals- I saved her card, leave a comment if you need her phone number and I’ll e-mail it to you). I had to keep an eye on it to be able to get a shot when it wasn’t mobbed. The chocolate was truly luscious.

I’d also not heard of home tea parties – a fun idea where they sell flavored tea, scone mixes and such. Mary of Tealightful has both a web and a Facebook page. You could also indulge in a hand treatment, shoulder massage, mulled wine or sangria, more shopping from local jewelry creators, cosmetic lines, clothing vendors, a wonderful heat/cold pack vendor, custom hair accessories, cottage-y memo boards or a fine handcrafted soap, sugar scrub, lip balm vendor. There was so much creativity in that holiday space.

As Terry works at a winery, we had to check out the wine sayings on the T-shirts. She and another friend enjoy the shopping/shoe sayings (the last time I wore cute maryjane slip-ons for a walk about our town of dirt paths robust with full bumpy tree roots – gawking with the camera and not paying attention - I took a truly spectacular flying nosedive, never was a shoe person, now even less so). Given my locale and my penchant for machine embroidery, the phrases are something I collect. Know of the age/wine ones, skip the rude drunk ones, our Bodega Del Sur winery had Bears around a campfire along the lines of “Is it deer Hunter with red and fishermen with white?” If you have any, please share them in the comments. I just might have to stitch them up.

 Ironstone has decorated for the holidays with spectacular outside lighting this year; sorry no shots – it was raining and we made a mad dash for cover. They have indoor woodland and wine themed ornaments and decorations for sale as well.

They reported that 195 ladies and 30 vendors attended and they collected 250 toys and just under $3,000 cash for Santa’s Express.

This post is participating in Unknown Mami’s Sundays in my City. I’d thought I might pop in a few new sunset shots for the photographers in that crowd, but this post is long enough – so later. Hop on over to Unknown Mami if you want to see what other folks around the globe are doing in their neck of the woods.

Sundays in my town Murphy’s California

Sunday and I’m planning the early spring garden. First, a handful of shots of Ironstone vineyards gorgeous wisteria arbor walkway (I have a house eating wisteria - keep starting cuttings and hope to move off the house onto an arbor). In winter you can see the bones of the structure.

The blooming shots are simply from my BlackBerry, taken in May.

Now’s the time to order or purchase your winter bulbs (for those of us north of the equator).

If you’re in a warm climate – you need to refrigerate tulips and a few others before planting. Even those of you in apartments can pick up a sack of Paperwhites to force in pretty little pots as extras for holiday presents – you could do it now for a Thanksgiving hostess gift. They only take 4 to 6 weeks from planting to bloom. Instructions for forcing bulbs are at Van Engelen, a bulb wholesaler with a great selection. Amaryllis are also simply stunning and easily bloom the first year when forced; plan 6 to 12 weeks for them.

In California, bags of bulbs have been showing up in stores this week. Depending on where you are, remember that tulips are like truffles to pigs for every squirrel and  rodent in the area (folks plant in cages if it’s an issue, I’m developing a love of daffodils – it’s easier). Many tulips naturalize in zones five or colder. For Northern Californians, Daffodils, Narcissus, Paperweights are poisonous, generally left alone and naturalize well. That’s why I’ve created posts with daffodil pictures (one) (and two) to motivate me.

On a side note, did log in through Safari and my new blog theme appears okay there and here. No resolution yet on Internet Explorer with Vista issue. If you’re leaving a comment, please let me know if the header looks okay or if you see a duplication of the title.

This post is participating in Sundays in My City @Unknown Mami, Our World Tuesday, Straight out of the Camera ,Weekend Walkabout, and The Tablescaper.

 

Sunny Sundays in the Sierras

 So, what do you do on Sundays in your neck of the woods? Here in the Sierra foothills we taste wines with friends, enjoy our fabulous restaurants and shops, stroll our historic gold rush era towns or partake of any number of hikes and outdoor activities.  Sharing a few glimpses from my sunny (yea!) meandering travels for Sundays in my City.

I’d promised (here and here) to continue to post the frogs that adorn Calaveras County in honor of Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County“. Here’s Angel’s Camp fire department.

 

While out at Ironstone Vineyards capturing shots of daffodil varieties, I also caught a few of the grounds and gardens. We’re having a blessedly sunny crisp and clear weekend – so perfect for wandering their manicured paths.

Planning your weekends away? Sunday, May 22 is our Calaveras Country Fair & Frog Jumps (you can enter with a locally captured – and at the end of day released - supplied frog). If you like dressing up –  don Victorian costumes and join Columbia’s Easter parade and if you’ve never seen a Fireman’s Muster – well, it’s a fun event of contests and activities not to be missed. I’ll see if I can find a date for Murphys, Columbia’s is April 30^th and May 1^st. I’d never seen one before moving out here and they are totally a kick! If you’ve not seen one, scroll down the page here to see some great photos. Of course, for any of these, stay in Murphys to enjoy the best restaurants and accommodations.

Be sure to check out Sundays in my City  and see what others around the globe do in their neck of the woods on their day off. This post is also participating in the parties linked below.

Daffodil Dilemmas

 

Narcissus Bell Song

So, after deleting the blurred and the horrible, here I sit with 188 pictures of Ironstone’s gardens and their daffodils (it’s a good time to visit folks). What to do, what to do. Work and life has interfered with my ability to keep up with Sundays in my City as much as I’d like. From this hoard I could compose a few posts and be set for the near-term. I’d like to post a picture of one of each of the different daffodil types that I captured. Although my new(ish) home is not yet landscaped, my gardening obsession is fed by growing things in pots. Gardeners have differing passions; there are some whose excesses are triggered by the genus narcissus. 

Narcissus Modern Art

A friend in the Santa Cruz Mountains was one of these addicts. At the time, I didn’t appreciate her fixation or her insistence that nothing would grow for her throughout the summer. She’d scour the web and gardening catalogs for different varieties, backpack her toddler and go planting them across her hillsides. Now that I live in a similar environment with scorching dry summers and hungry foraging wildlife – I understand. Poisonous spring bulbs like narcissus are so rewarding in the face of all those summer disasters. I haven’t given up my attempts to grow something, anything, over the summer. But each spring in my mountain home finds me more determined to be crawling the hillsides populating my environment with the beautiful bulbs that actually adore the climate here.

Narcissus Flower Record

No worries, working on a satellite, the passages of time involved in uploading too many photos is not something I’ll undertake. Even so, my dilemmas around how to post pictures I want to share are difficult to resolve. What makes the most sense is what WordPress calls the static page – pages you see on the header bar other than home and these blog entries. I’d sprinkle this post with a few photos and link to a gallery on that page. Come fall I’d have a record on which to base my orders and something other gardeners can peruse. The issue I believe with static pages is that search engines don’t seem to find them. WordPress static pages don’t have categories or tags. Someone looking for a photo of narcissus Modern Art, may not be able to find mine. Yet I don’t want to do multiple posts on narcissus and, without effort to the contrary, this post will turn into a dissertation. Imperfect as it is, I’ll just do one post with all the individual photos. See previous post, Differing Daffodils, to view a sampling of what’s available.

Narcissus Dick Wilden

As far as suppliers, the big box stores offer reliable performers in varying tones. You should be able to find yellow, white and pink varieties easily. However, if you’re bitten by the addiction, you may want to check out Dutch Gardens, John Scheepers or Van Engelen Inc (the wholesale side of Scheepers, they tell me their website will be updated mid May with the fall catalog out in June). I’ve also heard good things about Brent and Becky’s bulbs, but I’ve not used them. Some websites take fall offerings down until the season for ordering; you have to wait for mark your calendar to check daffodils in late summer.

Professor Einstein seemed to be a favorite of the folks at Ironstone – it was everywhere you turn. It’s in the truck bed – so big, bright and clean – looks as though it can’t be real. Certainly striking. As we get a lot of rain through daffodil season, mid size height and smaller blooms enable the flowers to recover more easily from the battering. Thinking I may have to fill two pots for a protected front porch spot as Einstein is certainly a punch of cheer for those dreary days.

Ironstone Vineyard's Daffodils

Narcissus Kedron

The other thing you won’t be able to tell from the photographs is the substantial size (they are huge) of Holland Sensation and Mareika.  These may be perfect for a few places on the hillside as their size will make them more visible from a distance. However, the first order I’m placing is for Kedron as that orange on orange is a nice counterpoint to the yellows, whites and pinks I have. 

Just so you know daffodil is the common name for narcissus; some folks use the name jonquil for the same flower.

This post is participating in the Gallery of Favorites at Alea’s Leftovers.

Narcissus Pink Charm

Welcomed Warmth and the Sun’s Dance

Welcomed warmth wrapped its nourishment to our depths while the sun’s danced a song across our mountains. We’ve had a beautiful, sunny week during which I was determined to get some shots for Sundays in my town. But, the best laid plans as they say, other commitments kept me from getting out until today. Whereupon I overcompensated and simply snapped too many shots of various areas in and about town.  So, I’ve narrowed to pics of the various birds that hang out at Ironstone Vineyards with a few shots of the grounds interspersed. The landscape design of the grounds is stunning – it was pure genius and executed impeccably.

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