Gratitude.

One word: Gratitude.  Actually this word is not necessarily about the wine, but rather the wine's proprietors.  Mountain Tides (MT) is a wine project headed up by Scott Kirkpatrick and his wife Allison Watkins (best photography teacher ever, hence the cool label).  Remarkably, although a very small concern, MT have been offering a 30% discount on their wines since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic if purchased by, or for, a health care worker.  (The discount code is the first thing that comes up on their website.)  Amazing, I don't know how they do it, their wines are so value priced to begin with.  (Simply explained to me, they both have health care workers in their families and they are very appreciative of the sacrifices that doctors and nurses et al., are making during these difficult times.)  Wines with a purpose.
Concentrating on one grape variety Petite Sirah (PS), with which to produce the entire MT line up of wines, Scott and Allison source all of their grapes from more affordable vineyards and grape growing areas (i.e., more accessible fruit pricing than in Napa and Sonoma).  Smart.
The 2019 Carbonic Petite Sirah is a fun wine.  A beautiful ruby hue (packaged in a clear glass bottle), quite light bodied, low in alcohol (11.5%), pepper, cranberry, plum, perfume, earth and with a hint of those unmistakable PS chalky tannins on the finish.  It was suggested that I chill the wine before trying it, so I did, but I much preferred it when it warmed up to room temperature.  The MT Carbonic (yes, like Beaujolais) PS is a fresh take on a wine varietal that people don't often consider trying.  Go try it.
Mountain Tides has gratitude.

Happy Easter, 2013.

Happy Easter to one and all! 
I've never quite gotten into the American fascination with the Easter Bunny (separation of church and state, secularism, I get it), it's eggs and rebirth all the way for me baby!
I thought this photograph, which I took for my darkroom class last year, was sufficiently eggie for an Easter post.  I did a whole series of photographs using my neighbour's chickens and some other props; egg cup, rosemary, carving knife etc...it turned out a lot less weirder than it sounds, honest.  Well, I suppose you would've had to have been there!
Eat chocolate!

2012 Wine Blog Awards.

The organisers of the Wine Blog Awards sent me a finalist logo yesterday to display on Vinsanity - "if you like" they added.  It is again nice to be simply nominated for this fun award, albeit in a different category this time.  Trouble is the voting ends today, the 26th of July. So vote today, if you like.

Another semester is at an end.

I had my photography final tonight.  I was a little nervous that my prints were not going to be good enough, but it turned out that I had nothing to worry about.  Once my images were tacked up onto the classroom wall they made a fairly strong and cohesive storyline - the River Mersey - and were well received.  My fellow students are all pretty good photographers and I was glad that my work was up to their standards.

I don't know yet if I am going to take the next darkroom photography class in the fall semester.  It's hard getting to class two nights a week after work and quite frankly I am running out of ideas.  But instead of worrying about it tonight I decided to just celebrate being out of school with a glass of bubbly...and pretty soon  I wasn't worrying about anything.  For the time being, I'll just enjoy the summer.

Also, thanks to Thud and Monkey for suggesting I take a photograph of this half sunken boat.

Smile!

In a small, personal effort to stimulate the sluggish US economy I decided to buy, as a birthday pressie to myself, a new camera.  I didn't really need a new camera, but a new camera I now have.

The Nikon D3100 is a bit of a step up from the D3000 I have been using for the past 18 months, but it's still just an entry level DSLR. I have a Nikon D50 which is a more serious camera, but more importantly perhaps is the fact that the lenses I use with the D50 are much more serious lenses than the kit lens that the D3100 comes with.  Not being too expensive a DSLR, this is the camera that I am most likely to throw into my handbag and take everywhere with me.  And yes, I am more often than not to be found out in the vineyard with this camera slung about my neck, on the off chance I spy something that may be of interest for me to blog about.  Besides, this camera is very pretty and comes in a snazzy Vinogirl Red.  

Love it!

School's out!

Tonight was my last night of school. My semester of photography classes is at an end and I can now relax on Monday and Wednesday evenings with Vinomaker and the Vinodogs. I don't know if I will take the advanced level class, starting in January, as I am running out of ideas for photographs. Aside from learning photographic techniques and darkroom protocols, I also learned that to be a good photographer you have to have a vivid imagination - and sadly I'm a little lacking in that department. Ho hum! Never mind, Christmas is enough to keep my small brain occupied for the time being.

Black and white grapes.

The current assignment in my darkroom photography class calls for me to create a series of images that are inspired by a published photographer of my choosing. Whilst I would have liked to do a series of photographs of the Vinodogs, a la William Wegman, the reality is that my poor, arthritic Vinodog 1 can no longer be contorted into various poses just to satisfy my photographic aspirations. Instead, I have decided to create a portfolio of botanical images...starting with grapes of course.