Sonoma Country Life

The Question is - Didya Downton?

Not only did I wake up this morning feeling blue that Series Two of blockbuster best of British tele in decades, Downton Abbey drew to a belated Christmas cracker of a close last night, I have to confess to spending large portions of the day (well, it is a bank holiday this side of the pond) reading all sorts of reviews and motley assessments of the epic upstairs, downstairs-style period costume drama's outrageous success here in the States.

There's really something very smug-making for a longtime Brit-abroad to be able to relish in the ramblings of incredulous reportings such as yesterday's New York Times Magazine's RIFF, questioning at great length why we're so intent in the masses of indulging in a bygone era that we're actually (supposedly) thankful is gone.

Let's not over analyze Downton Abbey to an early death, for I for one, would be perfectly happy to tune in every bleak mid-Winter for the next few years.

Undoubtedly, it is the strength and collective community of this prime cast of characters who have captured the hearts and imagination of millions upon millions of viewers, here in the U.S as we've agreeably gone along for the ride of an extraordinarily fast-paced, largely dining room, family plot - in impeccable setting.

Last night's season finale served up all of the juiciest prerequisites to keep us coming back - traditional Christmas dinner (downstairs and upstairs), a murder trial, mischief, intrigue, suspense, snowflakes, romance and the Edwardian era's race towards modernity.

The question is, if you didn't Downton, it's time to hit your Netflix Queue and get yourself caught up. There's plenty open-ended plotlines to ponder for Season Three, starting here in the States in January of 2013. In the meantime, my take on Downton Abbey's broad appeal is precisely that of its comfortable routine and sense of place. If someone were to ask which character you'd most identify with, I doubt it would be an issue today of whether it were someone specifically designated to an upstairs or downstairs lot. Our modern lives are so interwoven with running the bases and juggling a multitude of roles, the whole idea of the cards falling in one specific designation of post are, perhaps, not quite as appalling as one might otherwise assume.

Main theme emerging from all the pre-Season Three media chat is the much anticipated shake up in splenndid form in the arrival of one Shirley MacLaine at Downton as classic and inimitable U.S. grandmama. 

Farm and Garden Phase Funded for Casa Grande High School's Innovative New Outdoor Learning Environment

One of the absolute best parts of working with Petaluma Educational Foundation at this time of year is to visit schools all around the city who have been awarded susbstantial Major Impact Grants. At a time when almost all news pertaining to school funding here in California is pretty much guaranteed to be dismal, there's nothing to beat the absolute and encouraging tools of hope for ongoing enhancement of excellence in education, delivered in these PEF Major Impact Grant presentations.

Casa Grande High School's innovative Outdoor Learning Environment - OLE! Farm and Garden Project is on the brink of its first bountiful Spring's planting season thanks to its substantial $5,000 Petaluma Educational Foundation 2012 Major Impact Grant, generously funded by Petaluma Garden Club and CGHS alumni, Sharon and Jim Kimball.

The Farm and Garden Phase of the school's visionary and extensive OLE! Project is designed to engage teenage students in learning healthy nutrition by growing, harvesting and cooking their own foods, as a means to raise academic test scores and lower obesity. Fresh produce grown in the organic farm and garden section of what is shaping up as a state-of-the-art, regional showcase outdoor learning environment, will be purchased by Petaluma City Schools' Food Services Program for use in the school's cafeteria.

One hundred percent of the school's 1,750 student population in grades nine through 12 will benefit from this grant, providing invaluable hand-on, interactive experience at a crucial time in their lives for learning how to make their own healthy lifestyle choices before leaving home.

"The goal of this project is to develop a quarter of an acre garden in the center of Casa Grande High School, bringing a healthy nutritional awareness for all students," said Megan Donner, the school's Culinary Arts Instructor and John Shribbs, Environmental Science Instructor, in the Major Impact Grant Application to PEF, that they co-authored last fall. "The OLE Farm/Garden Phase is part of a larger school wide permaculture renovation of the once fallow quad in the center of the school. This past summer, with community support we were able to break ground, completing the site grading and main pathways, creating the area for the garden, the outdoor kitchen, the amphitheater and two outdoor classrooms."

The program has been carefully designed over the past three years to give all students from all curricula areas the chance to connect with the outdoors, learning about healthy and sustainable environmental practices. When completed, it is expected to be a model for other school districts to learn from and incorporate into their high schools.

This Farm/Garden funded phase will teach sustainable living through soils, local organic farming/growing practices, harvesting and cooking vegetables as seasonal dishes, as well as supplying the school's cafeteria with fresh, organic vegetables.

Members of the Petaluma Garden Club and fellow grant donors, Sharon and Jim Kimball toured the OLE! Project with Donner and Shribbs, this February. The donors were able to see where irrigation for row crops will be installed, with the farm garden expected to be fully up and running and producing vegetables by this fall. "We are so delighted to be co-funding the organic farm/garden in this outstanding project," said Petaluma Garden Club President, Leslie Goodrich. "It is so completely relevant and we look forward to returning for another tour as soon as it is up and running."

Cafeteria staff has started saving compost materials and Green String Farm interns are poised to come on board as farm garden volunteer instructors to further inspire students that growing their own produce is the way forward!

OLE! is intended as a resource for the entire Petaluma community and the school continues to invite participation from all sectors. The grassy amphitheater, which will seat an estimated 150 people, will be available for public use. OLE organizers envision this venue for music, theater, dance, cooking demonstrations, and lectures. OLE will also be a place for outdoor classes for adults and children. For more information, see the Ole! Project Website.

Twenty two Major Impact Grant applications were submitted to PEF, last fall. Of the 22 applications amounting to $283,000 in funding requests, the foundation's highly trained Grant Selection Committee followed a rigorous program (including short list in-person presentations) to evaluate its top choices. In total, 14 Major Impact Grants, including this $5,000 grant for Casa Grande's farm/garden phase of the OLE! Project will have been funded this Spring  totaling $158,000.

Petaluma Educational Foundation continues to make great strides in our community to match corporate and individual partners to specific grant funding opportunities. To find out more about how to connect with PEF in making a major impact in a school in Petaluma, click here.

Artisan Cheese Festival Returns for 6th Annual Sonoma County Spectacular, March 23rd to 25th, 2012

Cheese lovers of the Western world, experts, gourmands and aficionados from farther afield are counting down the days on their calendars until they reconvene for the 6th Annual Artisan Cheese Festival, centered right here in our Southern Sonoma County cheese heartlands of Petaluma from March 23rd through March 25th, 2012. 

If you are planning to attended tours, seminars or the festival's grand marketplace during the three day extravaganza, you'd best get on with booking tickets today.

These are some of the artisan food scene's most sought after tickets, with places on tours and seats in cutting-edge seminars extremely limited. Yes, it does sell out. Every year.

I love that the Artisan Cheese Festival draws lots of the country's most respected food writers, too. No wonder our little corner of wine & cheese country is getting so much national press these days. The secret's out.

In case you can't make it to the festival yourself, I am pleased to say that I will be reporting here from select tours and seminars, this Spring. 

Jordan Pepper's Plein-Aire Paintings To Show at Redwood Cafe

Jordan Pepper is a wonderful Southern Sonoma County philanthropist, businessman and all-around great guy who also happens to paint beautiful pictures of this lovely place in which we live.

Stop by the Redwood Cafe in Cotati on Feburary 19th, 2012 from 4-7 pm for Jordan's next Art Show opening.

For Madame, with Love - An Inspirational Teacher is Mourned

Last February, I talked with outstanding individuals in our Petaluma education system, each with unique perspectives on what it takes to light a fire for exemplary academic accomplishment in an era that might otherwise be mired by doom and gloom of fiscal reality.

“It's all about the passion; life-long interest in increasing personal and academic skills,” said Petaluma High School Teacher of the Year for 2011, Sarah Wadsworth. 

“Outstanding teachers seem to have this instinctual element of optimism, of challenge (for both students and colleagues), of desire to affect other lives. I see it as a great privilege to be a part of an ever-changing fabric; raising the bar in the class can only come from my interest and my devotion and professionally, I run to embrace that challenge every day.”

Sarah, whom I was fortunate to know on a personal level for many years, as well in her capacity as an influential educator of my first two sons, was a celebrated, 26-year teaching veteran at PHS. Her renowned French Program, prom leadership, drama instruction and tennis coaching earned her last year’s award for top of the pops at Petaluma High, scoring maximum votes from colleagues and recognition with fellow regional nominees from the Californian League of High Schools. Tragically, Sarah passed away at St. Mary's Medical Center in Reno, on February 1^st, 2012, aged 51 after suffering a brain aneurysm during a ski trip to Lake Tahoe.

Sarah strongly believed that today’s teaching environment is in need of change in order for students to excel. “Acknowledging what we do well (as teachers) and celebrating achievement increases the likelihood that others will step up to the bar,” she’d told me, in an interview for my South County Notebook column in the Petaluma Argus Courier.

“Ours is currently a profession which lacks the appropriate focus on merit pay, insistence on increased expertise, strong accountability for school community participation and interest; rather many teachers' level of optimism and complicity is low as a result of pay cuts, furlough days, overly full classes,” she’d said, though never waivered in her continued dedication to her chosen vocation, one that had come after an early career in the concert business, with San Francisco’s Bill Graham Presents.

Students were informed of the huge loss to the school community of the extraordinary teacher, coach, mentor and friend best known amongst generations of PHS alumni as “Madame”, with a team of crisis counselors on hand. Therapy dogs were brought in to sooth distraught teens. Social media messages by past and present students alerted innumerable people whose lives she had influenced from her Petaluma classroom, many living across the country, if not the world.

For Sarah had a significant extended community of educators, students and families in Paris and the South of France, where she has taken scores of student groups on extended cultural exchange summer trips over the past two and a half decades.  Born and raised on the East Coast, she was frequent traveler to the Boston area to visit family during school vacations.

“We know that losing Sarah will forever affect our school community,” said PHS administration Marilyn Stratford, Frank Lynch, David Stirrat, and Bennett Holley in an email letter to parents. “We are taking every step we can to be responsive to the needs of our students, their families and our staff. She is as close to irreplaceable as we can imagine, particularly with regard to her strong voice for high standards. We will do well to continue to recognize her passion for reminding students to achieve to their highest potential.”

Sarah was an avid tennis player, skier and well renowned and admired for her sense of style, her trademark heels and a life lived to the full. As well as hundreds, if not by now, a thousand plus past and present student devotees, she leaves behind a much-loved family, husband, Greg, daughter Jordan and son Cole along with a remarkable legacy of teaching excellence:

“In an increasingly shrinking global community where our willingness as Americans to embrace a variety of cultures and languages must increase and flourish, multiple language competency will become essential to young adults' ability to find meaningful, well-paid career positions,” she’d said, in our interview last year. “In terms of a school environment where we stress tolerance and multi cultural understanding, world language is key to this success.”

Petaluma High School now faces an immense challenge in finding the right person to step into Sarah’s shoes to ensure that her program continues and flourishes. Her inspiring legacy is one that lives on to encourage us all to live and work with passion, meaning, focus and joy. Sarah Wadsworth was a teacher amongst teachers. Everyone whose life she touched will miss her dreadfully.

A public memorial has been announced to take place at 1 pm on Saturday, February 11th, 2012, at Petaluma High School's Durst Field.

In lieu of flowers, a fund has been established to ensure the continued education of her children. In honor of Sarah and her lifelong dedication to education, contributions can be made to the Brausen Educational Fund and sent to Redwood Credit Union, P.O. Box 6104, Santa Rosa, CA 95406.

 

 

Save Jack London State Park

Historic homes of famous authors are my thing. I've never visited one I haven't been completely enraptured with, one way or another, including the time in the Lake District where half of my entire extended family back in the UK had ferried across Windermere with me, on a rainy July afternoon, only to find ourselves about five minutes on the wrong side of the cut off time for last entry of the day into Beatrix Potter's 17th Century farmhouse, Hill Top.

To say this was disappointing was an understatement, though we made the best of it by soaking up the spirit of Potter's immortal Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddleduck and friends with a leisurely wander around the cottage garden and literature's most famous vegetable patch, peeking through tiny, old windows for a glimpse into the cozy lakeland home, maintained by the National Trust precisely as Potter had kept it.

There have been other, more well-timed museum home tours on both sides of the Atlantic, quite a few in fact, yet Jack London State Park, right here in Sonoma County, has been one of my most favorites. In part, due to its proximity to home, a scenic and peaceful half hour drive from Petaluma past the vine-studded outskirts of Sonoma, north to lovely, little, tucked-away and timeless Glen Ellen.

When it comes to an accurate and evocative recreation effort in preserving one of the world's best known writer's domestic history, the Valley of the Moon Natural History Association has not one historic home on its hands in Jack London's extraordinary stomping grounds, but three. And that's a large part of the appeal of Jack London State Park.

Depending upon my particular mood and length of time to visit, I've opted for one or two of a trio of choices and occasionally, time and weather permitting, all three :

The Jack London Cottage: his principal home on Beauty Ranch - a wood-framed cottage purchased by London in 1911 along with the Kohler and Frohling winery buildings. Here he wrote most of his later stories and novels.

Restoration of the cottage was completed in 2006 and opened to visitors. For a slide show of the cottage interior, click here.

The House of Happy Walls: Built by London's wife, Charmian in 1919-26, this house is now a museum. Built with Spanish-style roof tiles and walls of field stone, the House of Happy Walls was lived in by Charmian whenever she was not traveling overseas with London or staying with relatives. After her death in 1955 at the age of 84, her will directed that the house be used as a memorial to Jack London and as a museum to house the London collection of photographs and exhibits on his life and adventures.

Most of the furniture in the house was designed by the Londons and custom-built.

The Wolf House Ruins:  London's dream house burned to bare walls on a steamy August night in 1913, just weeks before the couple were due to move in. Haunting though quitely monumental, moss covered ruins stand testament today, to what a truly magnificent home Wolf House would have been.

I took a fern-lined, woodsy, easy to walk solo hike to Wolf House under a mixed forest canopy of  oaks, Madrones, California buckeye, Douglas fir, Coastal Redwoods, Manzanita during a spontaneous Saturday afternoon foray in late January sunshine.

Huge stone walls with window openings and fireplaces stand sentinel to the forest in what would have been the most spectacular private home had it not burned, possibly by a pile of linseed oil rags having spontaneously ignited in the unusual heat of that fateful night.  

Several trail options weave through this stunningly beautiful park, which is now under threat of closure due to crushing State budget cuts. It seems unthinkable that London's most treasured, personal corner of his well traveled world will be gated and sealed off to literary and nature lovers who seek out this tranquil, remarkable place from all over the globe.

My latest visit cooincided with a group of French teenagers who were taking the same trail in ballet pumps and the latest high fashions from over the pond. I loved hearing their enthusiasm and the clicking of cameras as they stood in awe at the feet of the Wolf House ruins.

Jack London's allure lives on for eternity in such a place as this. I half expected him to ride around a bend on the trail on horseback, as I walked back by neighboring vineyards, the only other sight of another single soul, a lone vineyard worker, diligently pruning ancient vines.

The Vally of the Moon Natural History Assocation is an Internal Revenue Service registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to serving Jack London, Annadel and Sugarloaf State Parks. All are under threat of closure. There is hope that with public support, at least one will remain open.

Phil Ochs: There But for the Fortune - A Documentary Must-See for Folk Music, Politics and History Fans

Captivating, historically rich and extremely moving - the 2011-released, feature-length documentary Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune, charting the American artist/activisit, politcal/folk singer songwriter's prolific seven-album career makes for poignant viewing at the ouset of this present-time presidential election year.

This beautifully made film by director Ken Boswer immerses viewers in a well documented era of immense political unrest through scores of archival footage, evocative photos and personal remembrances by Och's close friends, his family, fellow activists and music industry veterans, including the likes of Billy Bragg, Sean Penn, Joan Baez to Pete Seeger. 

Renowned for his sharp wit, sardonic humor and haunting voice, Ochs' hundreds of songs written before his death at age 35, touched on many of the most troubling social and political issues at the heart of the folk and protest song movement in the 60s and early 70s, raising critical questions through lyrics ripped directly from the day to day stuff that filled the pages of the New York Times.

By the time of his death in 1976, the FBI had a dossier on him that was more than 400 pages long, believing Ochs to have had no respect for government policies during a time of war. The Ochs we get to know in this detailed, hour-and-a-half-long film was of the firm belief that he and his music would change the world.

Phil Ochs' lyrics were far more complex than those of mass appeal penned by the more mainstream folk hero of the day, his contemporary, Bob Dylan. It's perhaps not hard to understand how Ochs' passionate and enthralling pursuit of justice would eventually lead to a mental health breakdown that would bring an untimely end to such an inspirational and remarkable musician.

 

 

 

 

 

Stand in the Place Where You Live - Project HERE Snapshots Now on Display At Aqus Cafe

What does it mean to live here in Petaluma, to work, grow, raise families, make art, music, coffee, a community? Project HERE sets out to illustrate the delightful and intriguing nuances behind the life and times that we're living in, together, today.

I haven't met a Project HERE challenge that I haven't thought quite brilliant and this, newly released set of snapshots now hanging on the hallowed walls down at Petaluma's Aqus Cafe is one of the best!

Click here to see more of these terrific, character revealing, little vignettes

Countdown to Upstairs Costume Envy - Downton Abbey Season 2 Starts This Sunday

Watch Downton Abbey, Season 1: The Costumes on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Oh I can hardly wait! Julian Fellowes fabulous Downtown Abbey Season 2 returns to Masterpiece Classics here in the States, this Sunday, January 8th, 2012.

To all our friends and family over the pond who have already oohed, aahed and gripped sofa cushions over costume changes and perils of impending war, don't spoil our fun by telling us how it turns out for servants and socialites upstairs and downstairs or anywhere in between!

I thoroughly enjoyed being gifted the current Countess of Carnavon's Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle, and found it an absorbing account of the illegitimate daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rothschild, who, with an enormous dowry as well as great beauty and charm, became the 5th Countess of Carnavon at aged 19.

Lady Almina and her staff at Highclere (where Downton Abbey was filmed) turned the castle into one of Britain's most outstanding hospitals for seriously injured military officers during World War I. Well worth a read if you are an ardent Downton Abbey fan and would like to go beyond the television drama with the house's rich, layered history.

And by the way, according to the latest Guinness Book of Records, the first season of Downton Abbey was the most watched television series in the world during 2011.

Wheyward Bound - Quite Possibly the Only Cheese Club in California

Proof that we're crazy for cheese, cheese and more cheese here in Sonoma County comes in the form of an end-of-year report from the wonderful folk up at The Beverage People in Santa Rosa, that their new cheese making club, formed at the start of the year, is officially fully-fledged with over 100 wannabe cheesemaker guests having shown up to a dedicated Meetup site.

Thirty five paid members have signed up their $20 annual dues for early access to popular cheesemaking events at what is quite possibly the only Cheesemaking Club in California!

The club, aptly named Wheyward Bound, was formed in January with a first meeting in the Beverage People store classroom, on Piner Road. A year of monthly cheese events involved the touring of cow and coat dairies, with various cheese style tastings, and cheesemaking lessons that evolved as far as homemade cream cheese as well as the inimitable, blue Stilton-style.

An upcoming Beginning Cheesemaking Class is also on offer at The Beverage People on Saturday afternoons, you pick either January 21st, February 18th, March 17th or April 21st, 2012 from 1 pm to 4 pm.

The class, taught by instructors Bob Peak and Nancy Vineyard will detail the procedures for making four kinds of cheese which may include Panir, Fresh Chevre, Brie and Queijo de Vinho.

Expect to help in the processes of cutting curd, draining whey and operating the cheese press. Cheese will be tasted during the demonstration and wine served to the over 21s. Recipes and handouts are included and class fee is $50. Sign up at the Beverage People website or call 707 544 2520.