Southern Sonoma Country Life

Coming Up Roses

“What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects. 

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”  - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty

West of West Wine Festival - Discover the Best of Sonoma Coast August 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2013

Journey to the edge of the world - without having to leave the county! West Sonoma Coast Vintners like to say that the end is their beginning. It certainly is a spectacular region within which to get lost in the cool climate wonders of Sonoma coastal wines for a few days. Especially if you are a wine connoisseur.

The 3rd annual West of West Wine Festival is certainly one to put on your summer to-do calendar. Centered in Sebastopol, the Festival kicks off with Welcome Dinners at wineries and homes around the county, hosted by member wineries on Friday night, August 2nd.

These dinners, ranging in price from $140 to $200 per person offer a rare and exclusive opportunity to dine with winemakers in their home or winery.

Saturday offers morning seminars, interviews and flight tastings, following by the first of two Grand Tastings on Saturday afternoon and the Whole Hog Feast Celebration in the evening.

After vineyards tours, the Grand Tasting tent reprises on Sunday afternoon for a second opportunity to taste through more than 40 outstanding coastal wines. 

Guests are able to select from the Welcome Dinners line-up: 

BANSHEE: An intimate dinner in the winery's new tasting room in downtown Healdsburg featuring one of area’s top restaurants and an array of Pinots and Chardonnay from its collection.

FAILLA: Join the Failla team for an “Al Fresco” Dinner located in the middle of its Olivet Road vineyard. Sit amongst the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines with friends while enjoying current releases and library wines of Failla, paired with a feast prepared by Chef Gary Penir.

FREEMAN: A global exploration of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. For the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay aficionado, enjoy with an intimate dinner for 16 guests at the beautiful and architecturally acclaimed vineyard home of Ken and Akiko Freeman. This special dinner catered by Chef Christopher Greenwald will be paired with wines from the Freeman portfolio as well as a special sampling of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from world’s best known producers and famed regions.

HALLECK VINEYARD: Sip wines on the deck while gazing across Sonoma County to Mt. St. Helena in distant Napa County. The five-course gourmet dinner will be paired with a selection of Halleck Vineyard wines. The menu will be lovingly prepared and served by the Halleck sons.

JOSEPH PHELPS: Enjoy an intimate celebration of Joseph Phelps 40th Anniversary and the winery's second decade of Sonoma Coast winegrowing at its charming Guest Center in Freestone. Join host Bill Phelps for a multi-course dinner paired with a selection of Phelps finest bottlings.

LITTORAI: An intimate, elegant yet casual dinner and tasting at the Littorai estate winery property with proprietors Heidi and Ted Lemon.

Saturday evening's Whole Hog Feast Dinner at the Barlow Events Center in Sebastopol starts with a pre-dinner reception featuring white and rose wines from the West Sonoma Coast and oysters from Hog Island Oyster Company. 

Afterwards, seating for dinner highlights the best of Sonoma bounty prepared by James Beard finalist Steven Satterfield from Miller Union in Atlanta. Dinner wines will consist of magnums of Pinot noir and Chardonnay supplied by each of the members of the West Sonoma Coast Vintners. Feel free to bring something from your cellar to share if you're attending this memorable dinner. Tickets for this lavish dinner - $275 per person. 

Mix and match which events you'd like to attend at various ticket price costs or treat yourself to an all access Saturday/Sunday pass for $450 (excluding cost of Friday night dinner choice).  Grand Tasting only attendees pay $125 for Saturday's event and $100 on Sunday. 

Oyster Farm Battles On - Drakes Bay Oyster Company Back in Court

Embattled Drakes Bay Oyster Company of West Marin County is back in court Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 following the appellate court having granted an injunction pending appeal of the National Park Service's decision to shut down this historic operation.

In short, the oyster farm will stay open until the court makes a decision on the appeal. Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are set to hear some 40 minutes of arguments from attorneys for the oyster farm's operator Kevin Lunny as well as from the man who ordered the farm's closure last fall, former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

A third-generation ranching family in the Point Reyes area, the Lunny family purchased the threatened (now 80-year-old) oyster farm in 2004 with a commitment to both protecting the health of Drakes estero and abundant wildlife, and reviving a significant business entrenched within the coastal community.

Providing 30 plus jobs for locals and a sustainable food product that supports local businesses, the Lunny's stewardship of the oyster farm produces award-winning oysters.

According to Drakes Bay Oyster Company: "In the course of this decision, NPS misrepresented the law, our contracts with the State of California, and the results of scientific studies. The fight is not over. We are in court to protest this. We need your help to continue." If you would like to add your name to the farm's growing ranks of supporters, click here.

At least two of the three judges in San Francisco must agree for the appeal to continue otherwise the farm's stay of execution will likely be over. An estimated 18 million oysters will have to be taken out of the water and destroyed. The National Parks and Service other critics remain steadfastly intent on closing operations in order to restore the area to pure wilderness, devoid of commercial activity.

Celebrating the Fiftieth Birthday of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire

On May 11th and 12th, 1963, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles presented the first Renaissance Pleasure Faire and May Market.

Culled from nearly six hours of live broadcasting, in celebration of the 50 years since the founding of this iconic Californian cultural event, forty minutes of the pageantry and revelry from the Pleasure Faire has been lovingly edited down from the original reel tape into a commemorative soundscape and generously shared by one of the radio host's and co-founder of the Firesign Theatre, David Ossman.

Phyllis Patterson, a high school history and English teacher, home on maternity leave and her husband, Ron Patterson, a theatrical and whimsical art director at a Hollywood graphics firm were on the forefront of inventive new theater.

The couple invited neighborhood schoolchildren, many the offspring of Hollywood writers, directors and musicians to sign up for innovative new drama and art classes called "Into the Woods." To quote the Renaissance Pleasure Faire history page, there, in the Hills of Hollywood: "they gathered around them a band of merry artists, actors and musicians, and a thrilling concept was conceived."

Curated by the Patterson Family, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire online history page records a rich and significant cultural experience enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of participants and time traveling visitors since that first weekend in May 1963.

Two commemorative books also provide an illuminating insight into this much loved American phenomenon. Though there have been many spin-off events around the United States over the past many decades, there was and will always be only one authentic Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Happy Half Century RPF.

Small Steps, Big Impact - 2013 350 Home and Garden Challenge

 

Sonoma County Daily Acts group is gearing up for celebrating community May 18th and 19th, aiming for a whopping 3,500 actions over the two-day, annual 350 home garden challenge.

Here's how you can boost numbers and green our county:

• Grow Food - Plant a few backyard veggies or start a community garden

• Save Water - Transform your lawn with native plants or install a greywater system

• Conserve Energy - Hang a clothes line, reduce your use of gas and electricity

• Green Your Ride - Go car free, organize a car pool

• Live Local - Move your money, eat, drink and shop local 

What will you do? Click here to register your green actions. 

Fast (Then Feast) for Rivertown Revival

Being a Rivertown Revival Fan and a frequent Wholefoods Shopper, I've marked my calendar for Wednesday May 15th for a grocery-shop-athon to boost the coffers of one of my favorite Sonoma County annual events. Now, in which aisle will we bump carts?

It's Teacher Appreciation Week - Through May 10th

• “The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life. I wanted to follow Mr. Monte around for the rest of my life, learning everything he wished to share of impart, but I didn't know how to ask.” Pat Conroy

• "In a completely rational society the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else."Lee Iacocca

• "[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” Jim Henson

• “True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.” Nikos Kazantzakis

• “I'm not a teacher: only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as well as you.” George Bernard Shaw

 

 

Ecology of Place - A Kickstarter for Sonoma County Public Garden Art Space

 

 

Southern Sonoma County based award-winning Sculptural Landscape Designer Suzanne Biaggi's latest imagining started its groundbreaking beginnings before complete funding for the myriad of essential materials was fully secured.

"I was been invited by Cornerstone Gardens, partnering with Sonoma Ecology Center to create a public garden at Cornerstone in Sonoma," said passionate creative, Biaggi, whose stunning works have been published numerous times in the nation's top glossy magazines. The project has already been started and is a work in progress. "More funding is needed for the sculptural elements so I'm asking you to help me to complete this important installation," says Biaggi, who has set up a Kickstarter page to boost the coffers in oder for the project to progress at a timely pace. 

"This project represents what I am most passionate about and what inspires me . It highlights the importance of ecological balance to the future of our planet; honors the memory of my brother Phil; provides a place for discovery and contemplation; educates, by example, local restoration of native habitats; and employs universal design allowing the wheel chair experience to be same as the walking one," says the artist.

Here are some highlights of what is happening and is planned for the project entitled ECOLOGY OF PLACE dedicated to Phil Biaggi:

It’s about restoring what was once  there at Cornerstone, on the outside of Sonoma – wetlands, sometimes covered by shells washed up during high tide. "We have already excavated for the wetlands," says Biaggi "roughed out the path and have created the runnel (ribbon of water) that will border and cross the path as it meanders through the garden."

It's also about what is here now –vineyards which will be symbolized by sculptural vines created from aluminum and steel wire.The ever present wind will be seen in the patterns it creates as it passes over sculptural vineyards and activates a sound element – the abstracted voices of Biaggi's brother Phil overlaid with Neil Young -his favorite musician.

I'm both a big fan of Suzanne Biaggi's work and a regular visitor to Cornerstone Gardens, so I'm going to help her kickstart this project. Having put in my few $$s for the recent mural painting on the side of Petaluma's historic Phoenix Theater, it's so invigorating to see what can be accomplished when a lot of people each give a small something to further the arts in our communities. 

This particular of the artist's Garden creations is about discovery and contemplation. A pathway snakes its way through the landscape. The entire garden cannot be seen at one time because plants from the wetlands, hedges, and berms will obscure the view. "One must travel through the garden to discover what lessons and truths it holds and come to one's own conclusions.Custom seating and shade will be provided along the way for one to pause and contemplate.The path is designed for slow navigation and for all to be able to enjoy and participate," says Biaggi. 

"With your help we are going to create a stunning sculptural garden that will inspire and educate thousands of people in the awareness of sustainability and global warming," she says. Sonoma Ecology Center will be leading tours through the installation to demonstrate and teach how one can restore native habitat in their own personal gardens.

 

Happy St.George's Day 2013

Happy St. George's Day to my fellow English readers and Anglophiles, here and there and many other places in between!

The cultured folks at Google have come up with this classic doodle for St. George's Day 2013, depicting the Patron Saint of England dragon slaying. St. George is traced back to the 8th Century. Nothing much has changed in the world, seemingly. We're still slaying dragons.

In the meantime, be sure to celebrate your Englishness today. Share a pot of afternoon tea, a pint at the pub or maybe a Pimms cup if the weather is as warm as it was yesterday. Fish and chips, beans on toast, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie.... 

The Independent newspaper outlines Google's take on this most English of days quite succently, here.

 

Sweet Sonoma County Prom

With temperatures in the sweet 70s and only the slightest of breezes, my friend Michelle's Southern Sonoma Country back yard and afterwards, Petaluma's historic Wickersham Park proved picture perfect for pre-prom shots.

Second of my three sons to graduate high school (early June), 18-year-old Luc selected a vintage-inspired pearls and pink rose corsage for his prom (Queen) date Bella.

We didn't have the pleasure of prom in high school in the UK when I was coming of age, though its an adopted American-style rite of passage that is becoming ever more popular over the pond, in recent years. I think its lovely!