NorCal part 2 Wine tasting and Art

 Of course whenever we visit Lakeport and Northern California we schedule in a few visits to our favorite wineries. This weeks choices found us in Geyserville, a very small town hidden along Highway 101 north of Santa Rosa undoubtedly in the heart of well known wineries. The two we visit are small storefront tasting room that have some of the most delightful wines in the area. Peche Mele and Mercury are not your average big store wineries but what they lack in glitz they make up for in fabulous taste and great staff. We are always greeted soundly as one of the family. Our group of six rag tag Lake county hooligans are always given the celebrity treatment. https://www.pechmerlewinery.com/  https://www.mercurywine.com/

As always, if you are open to experience and adventure these trips can offer surprises. Outside the wineries we met a farmer unloading the most beautiful buckets of Cosmos flowers. When talking to him about the flowers,he mentioned that he collected them from his property near the freeway. It suddenly dawned on us as to the location and we had a delightful conversation! For anyone familiar with 101 you will recall the unusual triangle of land along the East side of the road that often has unusual sculptures in it. It in a rural setting,actually in the middle of nowhere. Over the 10 years we’ve been driving that way, we’ve seen many unusual works of art, one or two pieces, and on our way this year we noticed new hedges of flowers and trees along with several new artworks. This week fate answered our questions as to why and who! The farmer we engaged in conversation with owns the land and has allowed the Geyserville Sculpture Walk group to use it as an outdoor gallery. How wonderful to meet him and learn the story. Naturally our drive home included a stop to get a close up view. Here’s a few pictures to share of local artists who are exhibiting their work.

I’m not the best photographer but I’m so happy to have these reminders of how art can and should be for the community. 

As for the rest of the week, we continue to plan our calendars in readiness for the upcoming olive harvest, enjoy dinners together, feeding chickens, and sampling  more of the wine treasures we brought home. The weather has finally started cooling enough that long pants and light sweaters are becoming the uniform of the day while we wait for the olives to start getting a little color. This week I visit with my sewing friends and can’t wait to see and hear of their sewing projects from the past year. 

I am reminded daily how the one of the best things in life are friends who are family.