Happy St. David's Day: 2019.

It is March 1st (or Mawrth 1af, if you're Welsh).  Happy St. David's Day!
There are quite a few patches of daffodils flowering around Vinoland.  Unfortunately, with all the wind and rain that the Napa Valley has been experiencing lately, they are looking a bit worse for wear.  They still appear cheery, however, and I smile as they catch my eye whilst pruning.  Again, Happy St. David's Day whether you are of Welsh extraction, or not.
Bore da!

Happy St. George's Day, 2018.

In honour of England's patron saint, St. George, last night I imbibed in a Georgian wine.  (That's the country of Georgia, not the U.S. state.)  It seemed appropriate, as St. George is also Georgia's patron saint.
The 2015 Tbilvino Qvevris, made from the Rkatsiteli grape, is a wine produced in the traditional method that Georgian's have employed for God knows how long.  Some say 8,000 years.  The juice, skins, seeds and even some stems are fermented and aged together in amphora-like terracotta pots, qvevri, that are buried in the ground for up to six months.  The resulting orange, or amber, wine is quite tannic due to the extended skin contact.
The wine?  My WhiffsNotes are; a deep, deep gold in colour; not much on the nose, a bit of pear perhaps; thought I could taste the clay, probably the power of suggestion, and there was a creamy/honeyed element; low, low acid.  An unusual wine, but a wine style that I have been wanting to taste for decades.
I have been fascinated by the thought of trying a Georgian wine since 1989, when I remember watching Hugh Johnson's series on the history of wine, Vintage.  The first episode began in Georgia - the birthplace of Vitis vinifera.  The image that has stuck in my mind all these years, besides the grey, muddy Georgian day, was Hugh being served wine, ladled with a hollowed out gourd, right from a qvevri buried in the ground (think mud).  Hugh tastes the wine and then says, "It's like nothing I've ever tasted before, really."  I'd have to agree with him.
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. George's Day, 2017.

Who is this international dog of mystery?  It's just my faithful Vinodog 2 celebrating St. George's Day.  Yes, today is the Feast of Saint George, so V2 and I are dressed appropriately for the occasion.  And I've been singing Jerusalem all day.
I wish I had timed my holiday a little bit better, so that I could have celebrated St. George's Day in England this year.  Unfortunately, I departed "England's pleasant pastures..." 48 hours too soon.  Perhaps next year.
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends and any dog who loves England as much as I do.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, 2017.

Vinodog 2 wants to wish everybody a very festive, but safe, St. Patrick's Day.  But really, it is just an excuse for her to put on another pair of silly glasses, secure in the knowledge that I will then post her photograph on Vinsanity.
In addition, Vinodog 2 also wanted to share with you all one of her favourite Irish sayings, "May the cat eat you and may the devil eat the cat." Whatever the bejesus that means!
Diddly, diddly, diddly, diddly...

Dewi Sant: 2017.

Happy St. David's Day from Vinoland.
Vinodog 2 is posing with fake daffodils. Why, might one ask?  Well, as usual, the daffodils are nearly finished blooming in our little corner of California, and when they were nice and fresh the rain and wind battered them to the ground. It was very upsetting to me.  Have I mentioned that I really don't like rain?  I think I have.  So, fake daffodils it is for this 2017 St. David's Day.
I hope everyone who is of Welsh extraction takes a little time today to celebrate their patron saint.
Bore da!

Happy St. George's Day, 2016.

Charles Churchill (1731-1764), an English poet and satirist, (who, incidentally, was born on Vine Street, Westminster), wrote, "Be England what she will.  With all her faults, she is my country still."
Of course, I happen to be of the opinion that England doesn't have many faults.
Oh, and a happy 400th birthday to William Shakespeare!
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.
[Addendum: 23rd April 2016 was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.]

Dewi Sant: 2016.

Happy St. David's Day!
The threat of a full on El Niño year for California was apparently just that, a threat.  There has been quite a bit of rain this winter, but not the amount that was forecast: February's weather was simply spectacular. Temperatures in the the mid-70s all month were very springlike, just gorgeous.  (We have not had the need for any type of heating in Vinoland for the past 11 days.) Consequently, Vinoland's daffodils all flowered early this winter and it was hard for me to find a perfect bloom to photograph - hence the rather bedraggled, dog-eared daffodil represented here on today's post.  There possibly could have been a better specimen just outside Vinoland's gates, but I didn't want to venture that far in my pyjamas.  Wouldn't want to frighten the neighbours so early in the morning, would I?  Nope.
Bore da!

Happy St. George's Day, 2015.

There'll always be an England,
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me.  Ross Parker.
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. David's Day: 2015.

Happy St. David's Day!
The daffodils are nearly finished blooming in Vinoland, it's been a very mild winter.  The daffodil in the photograph has grown from a bulb, one of many, that I planted around Vinodog 1's grave last November.  I love that the vetch tendril is grasping the blade of grass, a weedy-embrace in remembrance of my old girl.
Bore da!

Happy St. George's Day, 2014.

 "There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other.  That word is England."  Sir Winston Curchill.
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. George's Day, 2013.

Horatio Nelson once said, "England expects that every man will do his duty."  Vinogirl expects every Englishman, and woman, to do their duty today and drink a glass of wine in celebration of our patron saint.
Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. Andrew's Day.

I thought ahead (unusual for me) and photographed this Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) this past August, as I knew I wouldn't find one blooming in California in November.  More commonly known as Spear thistle in auld Caledonia, this spiky weed is the national symbol of the lugubrious land located at the northernmost reaches of Great Britain.  It's wild and quite beautiful up there.
If you are so inclined, pour yourself a wee dram of scotch and toast Andrew, Patron Saint of Scotland.  I myself will be toasting him with something made from the grape, not grain.
And so concludes my year of blogs dedicated to the Patron Saints of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.  Amen!

Happy St. George's Day, 2012.

Vinogirl: British by birth, English by the grace of God.

Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I didn't think it fair that I should ignore the Patron Saint of Ireland when I had already feted the Patron Saint of Wales, St. David.  And, it's not as if I'm going to ignore St. George now is it?  I suppose that means I'll also have tip my hat to St. Andrew in November.

Americans love St. Patrick's Day.  I don't get it.  I grew up veritably surrounded by people of Irish descent in Liverpool, and I've got to say, not a whole lot of attention was paid to it as a holiday. Personally, the closest I ever got to celebrating on Paddy's Day (and by close, I literally mean proximity) was when, as a teenager, I accidentally bumped into an  inebriated old dear, complete with shamrock festooned lapel, exiting the Irish Centre on Mount Pleasant in Liverpool city centre.
However you feel about St. Patrick's Day, I hope you have a good one. I'm off to have a glass of Sauvignon blanc. Diddly, diddly, diddly, diddly...

Dewi Sant: 2012.

Happy St. David's Day!

Daffodils are blooming all over Vinoland right now.  They're so cheerful looking I can't help but smile upon seeing them.

Bore da!

Happy St. George's Day, 2011.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

~

Is there any better way to honour our patron saint other than drinking a chilled glass of a pleasantly crisp, white English wine in the English countryside? I think not.

Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Happy St. George's Day, 2010.

I traveled among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;

Nor England! did I know till then

What love I bore to thee.
~

Happy St. George's Day to my family, friends, and anyone who loves England as much as I do.

Paddy's Day in the vineyard.

It's not exactly shamrock, but the Buttercup oxalis (Oxalis pes-caprae) that is blooming in the vineyard right now is about the closest I am going to get to the real thing, (it's actually described as having "shamrock like leaves" so it will have to suffice). I like most weeds that voluntarily decide to populate the vineyard: they do after all eventually become organic matter that benefits soil health. In summer nothing grows here, everything is parched and dry, so I enjoy the pretty flowers and foliage of certain weeds in the spring whilst I can. There are only a few truly noxious weeds that need to be removed before they get established in great numbers.
Being from Liverpool, and not entirely understanding why Americans are so obsessed with St. Patrick's Day, I thought I'd do my little bit to honour a few great-grandparents who are indeed, if only inadvertently, responsible for a great-granddaughter who gets to enjoy an agreeable yellow-flowered weed growing wild in a Californian vineyard on a bright, sunny day in March.
Personally, the 23rd of April is the day for me, so stay tuned.

Dewi Sant.

Happy St. David's Day to all whether you have any Welsh heritage or not.
The daffodils in Vinoland are almost past their best so it was a little difficult to find one to photograph. But I wandered around, in a lonely sort of way, until I came upon a host of golden narcissi beneath the trees at the front of the house.
Bore da!