One week later...

...same bud, different angle, but this time there is most definitely little leafy bits sticking out the of aforementioned bud.  Tiny teeth, itty-bitty hydathodes, teeny-weeny spongy mesophyll - all unmistakably grapevine leaf  tissue.
Budbreak is upon us!

In praise of photosynthesis.

As I look out, from where I sit, at the verdancy that is Vinoland's grapevines, I can't help but wonder at the small miracle that is photosynthesis.  Sure, I mostly understand the soil chemistry that provides the mineral nutrients that aid in the production of plant materials such as cambium, leaves and fruit.  I get the importance of water - for all living things.  And I can actually feel the energy from the sun - in the form of sensible heat as I raise my face to the sky - so I grasp the role of light energy in the synthesis of raw materials into elaborated compounds.  Still, it never ceases to amaze me that the mass of plant material that I can see out in the vineyard seemingly sprang, almost impossibly, from my pruned and skeletal dormant winter vines.
Perhaps it is the not so lowly plant cell, or an ensemble of cells that form as tissue to perform specific functions, that I should be lauding instead: Cells that provide the intricate, physical structure of the vine and perform complex, chemical transformations within the vine.  For instance, the vascular system of the vine which provides mechanical structure, but whose chief function is to conduct mineral nutrients, water and compounds throughout the entire plant.  Or the tightly packed party-in-a-plant palisade cells whose gathering loci (calling all chloroplasts) are the primary site of photosynthesis.  And let's not forget the spongy mesophyll, the primary leaf tissue.  Well, actually I just like it's name: say it after me, spon-gy mes-o-phyll.
In the late afternoon sun, this Syrah vine is not baring its teeth in a malicious way.  Instead, the leaf blade is showing off its hydathodes - specialised secretory tissues that purge toxins from the vine - and is smiling right along with me, in praise of photosynthesis.
Aren't grapevines great?