Happy Mother's Day, mum.

It is Mothering Sunday in England, or Mother's Day as it is more commonly known.  And here is my mum, all smiley and young.  In her day, my mother used to be fond of a glass of Merlot, or a nice Rioja, but she doesn't drink much anymore. However, her real poison was Cognac, preferably Martell, although she did have a soft spot for Louis XIII (Rémy Martin), thanks to Thud.
In England, Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent and, as it has its origins in Christianity, is not really related to the American Mother's Day, which is celebrated in May (other than honouring mothers, that is). Of course, I am partial to the English Mother's Day because I am English. But also because it signals that the end of my Lenten fast is now only three weeks away.  All things chocolate be warned.  But, I digress.
Happy Mothering Sunday to all (English) mothers.

Firewood.

It has rained and rained the past two days and there is more to come, sigh. On my way out for a walk with Vinodog 2 this morning, a quick check of Vinoland's rain gauge indicated that 4 inches of the wet stuff had fallen on me (I am taking it personal) in a little over 24 hours.  My weekend has been a disaster as far as pruning is concerned, I only managed to get a small number of Syrah vines pruned.  I feel like I am falling behind on my pruning schedule, so, yes, I am taking this ungodly amount of rainfall personal.  So is Vinomaker.
First thing this morning the sun was actually shining, but just for a little while.  As I was making breakfast I looked out to see if all that rain had had any effect on the creek that runs along the eastern edge of Vinoland. As it happens, I couldn't see the creek because during the night a huge oak tree had fallen across the creek just missing the Pinot grigio vines. On looking closer, I realised that a second tree had fallen, behind the first one, and had just missed crushing a neighbours fence.
Vinomaker is gutted, storm-felled trees are a lot of work.  He has been very busy the past few weeks removing sweet broom, acacia and an out of control bramble patch from the creek area - the last thing he wanted, I am sure, is the amount of chainsawing and chipping that removing these two trees will necessitate.  Me? All that I could think of was how toasty all that firewood will make me feel on a future, cold winter's night.