Southern Sonoma Country Life

Cop up Time- Who Left the Carmen Miranda Outfit?

I'm lovin' it, but I have absolutely no idea who left the Carmen Miranda outfit on the infamous little red bench this afternoon while I was out shopping for tomorrow's 18th birthday/pre-graduation bash.

Is there an anticipation that I might actually don aforesaid outfit for the occasion of my oldest offspring's official coming of age?  I might be up for this, but he might be scarred for life by the banana-headset-bonanza, so would appreciate you coming forward in some sort of statement as to what the general expectations of such a doorstep delivery might be?!

 

Have you made a pit-stop at Petaluma's newly opened, retro soda fountain/ice cream parlor in the totally transformed downtown vintage storefront that was Deaf Dog Coffee shop?

Stopped in at Lala's Creamery with the Friday evening burrito bunch for something sweet for afters and partook of a lick or two of the homemade chocolate mint chip and probably at least half of the Italian husband's rum and raisin (my new favorite). What a fantastic addition to our downtown. It was busy, too, which is an encouraging sign as we all keep a close eye on the economic upturn. Still, I guess there will always be a market for good ice cream, just like there is always a market for chocolate. And wine!

Locavore Lamb - SoCo's Williams Ranches

Would you want to roam the golden summer pastures of Sonoma County in a thick, woolly one-piece? No, neither would I, making it almost palpable to feel the relief of a newly shorn coat on these contented SoCo sheep!

Thanks to Maria at American Ag Credit for sharing these great shots with me and putting me in touch with Rex and Kerry Williams, Sonoma County Fair's 2008 Rancher's of the Year and first generation sheep farmers out in the West Country.

With 300 ewes grazing in both Sebastopol and the Santa Rosa area, the Williams provide grazing services for a wildlife preserve, wetland and areas surrounding water storage property. They also raise purebred Dorset and Southdown sheep, selling breeding sheep and project lambs to 4-H and FFA youth.

With two, active 4-H offspring of their own, Rex and Kerry squeeze in time to be 4-H leaders and members of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, the county's Purebred Sheep Breeders Association and California Wool Growers Association.

If you think you are busy, consider the added fact that on top of producing first-class, local lamb to Bay Area customers, Rex also puts in a full eight hours in his regular day job int he wine industry!

"We sell our lamb (and goat) direct to customers, and restaurants through out the Bay Area, folks should just contact us directly at lamb@williamsranches.com or 707/322-3326," says Kerry Williams, in between her party planning this week for her eighth grader's promotion. Now that's what I call a FULL sonoma country life! And I hope to take Kerry up on her offer for a farm tour sometime later this summer or fall.

Stick Your Hand Under the Mattress for the Haus Fortuna Half Year Sale

Okay, we all know that there's a credit crunch impacting our shopping instincts, but if you do have a few dog-eared dollars stuffed under your mattress, there's a cavalcade of fabulous half-price finds in hand crafted Italian ceramics and gourmet table/kitchenware on sale at Petaluma's treasure-trove, Haus Fortuna, down in the Theater District this Saturday (May 30th, 2009).

Best deals with deepest discounts are from ten in the morning on Saturday, until two in the afternoon. If you're not an early bird, you can scoop a 35% savings the rest of the weekend.

Perfect for your summer's parties, gorgeous, handpainted platters, jugs, imported Italian napkins and tablecloths, music, chocolates, dishtowels, wine glasses. La Dolce Vita at half the regular price! Haus Fortuna is located at 111 2nd Street, Petaluma, CA  94952 Telephone: 707.283.0166 or check out
www.hausfortuna.com

Saturday, May 30    
10AM- 2PM    50%
2PM- 8 PM     35%

Sunday, May 31      
12PM- 5PM    35%

Prince Harry Names British Garden Near World Trade Center

Meanwhile (for those who read my post on the D-Day attendance debate), England's Queen Elizabeth II is dipping into her personal coffers to come up with funds to cover the cost of her dashing grandson's first official overseas visit representing the royal family in New York this week.

Third in line to the throne, bonnie Prince Harry is set to stop by the World Trade Center site to formally name the British Garden in downtown's Hanover Square, honoring  67 British victims of the September 11 terror attack.

Youngest son of the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Harry has a bit of a reputation on the other side of the pond for his party-hearty nature, though his British army deployment to Afghanistan has made amends for much of his well publicized, otherwise normally youthful antics and will no doubt have prepared him to a certain degree for the nature of this particular visit.

For Harry will meet with family members of four people who died in the World Trade Center attacks, along with New York Gov. David Paterson and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials, before touring the Manhattan Veterans Affairs medical Center's prosthetics department and post-traumatic stress disorder clinic.

Twenty-one-year-old British soldier, Joe Townsend is accompanying Prince Harry on this visit. Townsend stepped on a Taliban anti-tank mine last year, losing both legs in the explosion.

Harry plays the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Governors Island in New York Harbor, on Saturday, facing off off against Argentinian polo player Nacho Figueras. The high-profile match is a benefit for American Friends of Sentebale, a U.S.-based charity supporting impoverished children in Lesotho, Africa. A documentary film called "The Forgotten Kingdom" was produced by Harry in that same region of Africa.

Joined by Sentebale's co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, the Prince is also scheduled to visit a community organization called the Harlem Children's Zone.

Widely thought of as sharing Diana's sense of spirit and fun, it will be interesting to see how much of her extraordinary compassion emerges in Harry's trip to New York.  

Petaluma Gap Vineyard Tour This Sunday

Meet the Growers, See the Vineyards and Wineries of the Petaluma Gap micro region. This Sunday - May, 31, 2009. Members: FREE. Non-members: $10/per person.

9:00 a.m.                                                                 
McEvoy Ranch Vineyard                                       
Host: Samantha Dorsey                                 
5935 Red Hill Road                                 
Petaluma                                                                      

10.00 a.m.
Corda Vineyard
Host: Mark Pasternak
845 Chileno Valley Road
Petaluma

11.00 a.m.
Springhill Ranch and Vineyard
Karen and Chris London, owners
1910 Springhill Road
Petaluma

You will be walking in the vineyards, so dress appropriately with some sturdy shoes and a hat.

These tours are intended for educational purposes and are not necessarily a “wine tasting” event.

Please contact Teela Ridgeway (707.529-6248) or Jeff Maddux (707.479.8976) if you have questions. 
On the day of the event, due to location, cell phone service is limited or non-existent.

Read Tom Wark's excellent blog on the Petaluma Gap in this week's Fermentation Blog

Kiss Me Goodbye Sgt. Major

Took a phone call this morning from my mother, in the UK. Now don't assume that she's a raving royalist. Though she is most certainly a patriotic and loves nothing more than a good old red,white and blue Great British celebration such as the upcoming 65th anniversary of D-Day, when World War II was won.

Mum really had her knickers in a twist today, and I don't think she'd mind me telling you. For it's currently transpiring all over the British tabloids that French Pres Sakozy decided, in his wisdom, not to press the Queen or any member of the royal family for that matter, or even the British PM, Gordon Brown, into making an exception to last year's decision not to spend any more public funds in costly civic attendance until the 100th anniversary of this major world event.

With the Brits saving their pennies publicly, this apparently cleared the way for an official invitation to the White House for Obama (everyone knows we can't stop spending here in the States) to make a big (and worthy, I will add) appearance alongside the dwindling corps of aging veterans who will gather on the five beaches of Northern France to commemorate the day the war was won. Major photo op for Sakozy and Obama, but the poor old Brits have quite rightly been left feeling like they are out in the cold.

Gordon Brown is now going, whether he's paying for it out of the public pocket, or not. And quite right, too. An absence of British leadership alongside the allies would be a crying shame and a shun to the thousands of British troops who gave their lives along that monumental coastal blood bath. Hollywood might like to give the impression that it was all about the American war effort, and it most certainly was significant in magnitude, but let's not forget about the valient English men and women who were in it from the beginning (that's 1939 in UK history text books) all the way through to that triumphant June day in 1944.

Leave it to Obama to inadvertantly get them all in a tiz in Europe. Everyone wants a bit of Barack in the picture this year, after all. And I don't blame them. I trust we can leave it up to the big guy to get the politics cleared up at Dunkirk.

Bottom of the Ninth

My dear friend, author of Bottom of the Ninth wrote a staggeringly great post on parenting of teens today. It's so darn good that I'm linking you directly to Suzanne's post.

The run up to end of the school year is a tumultuous time in any home inhabiting student life form, be it bracing for the onslaught of busy, pre-K kids, home for the hot summer months without a single playgroup in sight, the endlessly needing-to-be entertained elementary school set, grumpy pre-teens or fully-fledged, partially-liberated young adults enjoying a hotel-like attitude to clean laundry, occasional meals and a bed to come home to!

Susanne is a fabulous Mom, the type of American/Italian mamma who has never missed a game, makes lasagna from scratch, responsibly monitors her sons' social networking antics, puts her sporty offspring's many needs and material requirements way above those of her own, dreams of a still illusive trip to Italy, nurtures and nudges and knows when to put her foot down. She's also a family therapist and college instructor on the subject. Which ought to mean that parenting comes easy, right? Read Suzanne's heart rendering post and it'll put your own parenting struggles into some perspective.

Redefining American Rites of Passage

Back in the early 1900s, a prom was really only an uncomplicated tea dance where high school seniors were decked out in their Sunday best.

Flash forward into the 1920s and 1930s and prom had gathered momentum to be known as a lavish class banquet complete with evening attire and dancing.

As the average American became more affluent, in the 1950s, proms ramped up the glitz to become increasingly extravagant and elaborate.

Today, the high school gym is still considered an acceptable setting for sophomore dances,though junior and senior proms have typically relocated to grand hotel ballrooms and posh country clubs. Teens (and their paying parents), we might agree, surely lost the plot on how important it was to have the best dress, the flashiest transportation, not to mention the hair, the nails, the accessories, the tux rental.

We've all heard that prom traditions are starting to relax. At least here in Northern California, where the fashion scene is casual for all but the most formal of events. Though as the mother of a graduating high school senior guy, I'm looking at a pair of black jeans in yesterday's sun-dappled photo, and a convenient ensemble of outfitting garnished from his ample closet. I'd undoubtedly have a very different take on the Prom bill if I were the parent of any one of his accompanying belles of the ball!  

But the fact that they left for the city in a parent-loaned Prius was a sign of the times. Rites of passage are as important today as they ever were, but the American perspective on individual style and expression in the way we celebrate is a big indication of the shifting values in shelving the excessive of former generations.

Everest adds to Sudden Invasion of Indian Restaurants in Petaluma!

You can take a Brit out of the UK, but you can't so easily get him to ditch his desire for great Indian food. Imagine, if you will, uprooting yourself from Northern Cal and starting an equally delightful new life somewhere in the pastoral surrounds of rural England. Now try to find a good Mexican restaurant. Or a bag of tortillas in the village store. Slim pickings.

And so the sudden and long anticipated, veritable explosion of Indian restaurants now on the scene here in Southern Sonoma County has been met with such a resounding cry of joy amidst the ex-pat circle, that Friday nights have taken on a whole new meaning for many.

Yes, it's British curry night for those who like a nice, spicy Chicken Vindaloo, or a spot of Tikka Massala for their supper at the start of the weekend. And a few bottles of Kingfisher, Indian Pale Ale. Oh, don't forget the Naan breads and samosas.

Latest to launch down near the riverfront here in Petaluma, in the old Cucina Paradiso (good karma) locale, is Everest Indian Restaurant, offering a taste of India, Nepal and Tibet.

Road tested the place last weekend with Mr Bing (regular readers will remember the master of the West Petaluma annual cherry picking crew?) pictured above with a bevy of British curry fans (and those who can put up with such wanton ex-patriotism)!

Food was good and given that there was a rather large group of us, service was efficient and friendly. Top marks go to the Naan bread, which was unanimously agreed upon to be the best in the area. And now that we have at least four Indian/Himalayan style eateries here in otherwise, almost entirely Mexican/Italian/Asian centered Southern SoCo, it's just going to keep on getting better in the curry department as the benchmark has something to base itself on.