Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you get to spend time with your love ones today and eat all the mash potatoes, turkey, and cranberry sauce you want! The Renaissance Man and I are heading to my parents house this afternoon and will be partaking in a small family event. It always feels good to be with family this time of year!
As you may recall, for our second wedding anniversary, I gave The Renaissance Man a “fermentation kit.” The Renaissance Man loves to play with food in the kitchen, and so I decided to encourage his creativity! It didn’t take long for the canning supplies to get some use…we ventured out that afternoon and found some perfectly ripe Brooks Plums.
First off, I owe a huge thank you to my fantastic neighbor who sent me a text message to see if I’d be interested in attending a Lavender Wreath Making class at Red Ridge Farms! Our neighbors rock!
Second, I learned so much about lavender at this event!
My friend Julie came to visit me in early August, she was in town caddying for one of her good friends who was playing in the US Women’s Amateur…more on that in an upcoming blog post…
When Julie is in town, we always make time for wine tasting! And this time, one of our destinations was Rex Hill Vineyards. I drive by Rex Hill every single day on my way to and from work, and am slightly embarrassed that it took me almost two years to finally do a wine tasting!? But then again, we have a lot of wineries in the Willamette Valley…
As a kid, my family did a lot of traveling…we never flew places, we always drove…lots and lots of driving.
So as a passenger, I’ve always loved to look out the window and let my imagination run wild with the things I see along the way. We were out wine tasting over Memorial Day Weekend with a car full of friends, and in between wineries I caught myself getting wrapped up in the scenery. It’s hard not to…we live in such a beautiful place!
I did my best to capture these alpacas as we went driving by in the car. Such beautiful creatures out sunning themselves on a lovely day in wine country…country driving is simply the best!
The Renaissance Man has been talking about Maysara Winery for a while now. They’re known in wine country for their Demeter Certified Biodynamic Vineyard, and we just had to go check it out…wine tasting and land management practices, totally intriguing right? We visited over Memorial Day Weekend with a group including our neighbors and some friends from Portland!
On a late Saturday night in mid-December we were coming home from a holiday party in Portland. As we drove down the street toward our home, I asked The Renaissance Man, “Did you check the mail today?” He shook his head no, and so I stopped at the mailbox before heading to our house. Not everyone checks the mail at 11:45pm, but when you’re waiting for a letter from the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Survey (OSBEELS), you make a point to stop at the mailbox.
On our way back from Sunriver on Sunday, The Renaissance Man drove and I happily drifted in and out of my dreams. The combination of warm sun streaming in the window, music on the radio, and exhaustion from a weekend of playing hard made for the perfect nap-time trifecta!
I had really conked out in the car when suddenly, I realized we were bumping down a gravel road toward the Willamette Valley Cheese Company tasting room. I thought I might have been dreaming, but The Renaissance Man had made an executive decision to stop and try out some cheese!
