Berkeley Farm Girl

Wish you were here!

(I honest to God forgot it was my birthday this morning ... didn't remember till "Oh yeah it's the 14th" at the Really Cool Indian Jewelry Shop that my local friend dragged me to.)

For the first time in I don't know how long, I went up to the Russian River Valley. Used to go wine-tasting and apple-eating and garden-shopping there fairly often but got out of the habit.

It was a glorious day.

Destination was the new-to-them vacation house on the river of two of my EFM buddies in Monte Rio. I once went from Sebastopol to Healdsburg without using the interstate but had not been through Guerneville and Monte Rio before. The change from Apple Orchard land to Redwood Forest Primeval around about Forestville (which also pretty much coincided with my leaving the Old Hangout zone) was stunning.

Trip up was smooth except for the cut roses going oopsy-daisy when, as usual, the traffic on 101 south of Petaluma decided to stop randomly. (The non-perishables for coffee hour, which were in the front seat as well, got pretty wet. Seems to have not affected the baby Goldfish crackers, which all got consumed.) I also managed to avoid the Apple Blossom parade through downtown Sebastopol, although people were getting very ready for it.

Going home I took the less-scenic but speedier expedient of taking Guerneville Road to 101 instead of all the way back down 116.

I had been thinking of booking myself into the Bishop's Ranch for a combo of retreat and Sonoma getaway, but this was nice.

I got back at about ten pm on Thursday night. It's been interesting adjusting back to the fogbelt. It feels unusual to be wearing a jacket (much less long sleeves) and not thinking where's my hat-sunscreen-water bottle-sunglasses. The green isn't as much a shock as normal, as there was a lot of rain in the plain this year in NM, and of course Colorado was amazing for that.

In some ways I'm happy to be back home, out of the heat, back in the wired world; in other ways I'm still wandering around the Western back roads admiring the buttes, the mesas, the plains, the rushing rivers, and above all the mountains and am feeling a bit disoriented back "home". I had this disconnect after the first time I went to NYC; liked the place so much I started to "go native".

I wish I had pix of the many amazing things I saw, but as noted, I left my camera at home (oops). My hosts are talking about a big event in Santa Fe next year or the one after that, so I might get another shot at them, but I also might get a CD of everyone else's eventually.

And I'm annoyed that I can't walk into about any breakfast joint and order "Burrito. Bacon. Green. Beans." I did get a petit jambon from The Fatted Calf at the Farmer's Market, and some spicy salsa at the produce mart, so I might be rolling my own.

Had hoped to ease back into the church thing, but got a call at the last minute to help with coffee hour; it's my new "regular" day, but I had been "off" to recover. Fortunately I don't need to bake anything (although I got a lot of blueberries at the market and my cherries are ripe), as we have leftover cookies from a memorial.