December sun.

Even though, at this time of year, I always think I'd like to experience a white Christmas (snow, icicles, the whole shebang), I have to admit that a cold, but sunny, California December day is rather hard to beat.  There is nothing I like better between Christmas and the New Year celebrations than going for long walks with Vinodog 2.  I know V2 really enjoys our promenades also.
Today was no exception, strolling around V2's favourite off-leash dog area, in Alston Park on the west side of the valley, surrounded on three sides by vineyards (to further entertain me), it was cool, but not cold, and very bright.  V2 and I lingered until the sun began to dip behind the trees.
Although high winds are forecast for tomorrow, New Year's Eve, it still will be dry and sunny.  I am hoping that January 2019 will be like January 2015 when not one drop of rain fell in Napa.  Now that's my type of winter.  Shine on, sun!

Happy 11th Birthday V2!

I can't believe it, Vinodog 2 turns 11 years old today.  Again, I ask, how did that happen?  Tempus fugit, etc.
After a decade of silly birthday hats, I seem to have exhausted the options available to me in the local shops, so I'm recycling a hat this year.  I hope V2 doesn't mind.  Actually, I know she doesn't.  My little fluffy-bundle of fun is more interested in toys, treats, walkies and, the aforementioned, fun.
Happy birthday V2!

Welcome to Vinoland.

I nearly trod on this little fellow this afternoon whilst I was out promenading with Vinodog 2.  Midstride, just as I was about to put my toe down, he darted under the front of my big, cumbersome vineyard-boot-shod foot.  Whoa!  Then, when I bent down to see if Master Sceloporous occidentalis was alright, he didn't display any signs of life.  So, very carefully, I carried the tiny lizard all the way back to Vinoland.
Vinoland's newest addition, to its native western fence lizard population, has now took up residence in the space between two old pieces of concrete and, thankfully, is quite active darting hither and thither.  I hope he likes his new home.  And I hope that all of Vinoland's other lizards like him.

Branching out.

Vinodog 2 and I get a little bored on our regular walk sometimes, so, now and again, we like to branch out and try new routes.  For several months now, we have been ambling, daily, up the hill behind Vinoland.  Well, it's not exactly ambling for me and I'm quite sure V2 finds the extremely steep section at the top a little easier on her four legs than I do on my two.  Phew!
It is on this daily walk that my dog and I just recently became acquainted with Phacelia ramosissima, commonly known as brancing phacelia.  A winsome little weed that is part of the Boraginaceae family (its familiar curving cyme did indeed remind me of fiddlenecks), branching phacelia can be very variable in appearance.  The local phacelia has white flowers, but they can also be blue; it can be prostrate or upright; it can be hairless to very hairy; it can have bell or funnel shaped flowers.  Interestingly, or at least I think it is interesting, like Vitis vinifera, this phacelia species is hermaphroditic.
I have no idea who the tiny interloping insect is.

A rainy January.

Not one drop of rain fell in Napa the entire month of January 2015, but that hasn't been the case this year.  January 2016 is more than making up for the lack of rain last year.  Just because California needs rain it doesn't mean I have to like it, and I don't.  Sigh.  And neither does Vinodog 2.  I generally find that rain cramps one's style; whether that style is wanting to start pruning grapevines, or, simply, wanting to go for walkies.
Undeterred by the inclement weather, V2 and I decided to brave the wind and the rain and take ourselves over to Alston Park for a brisk walk. We both got really wet, and muddy.  And it wasn't that brisk as it took a little extra time to circumnavigate all the streamlets coming out of the hills and vineyards.
There is a little bit of pruning going on here and there around the valley, but not much.  Of all the vineyards around Alston Park, over on the west side of the valley, only one small section of one vineyard has been pre-pruned.  It is early days yet, the pruning-season is only just beginning, but the long range weather forecast is for extended periods of rainy weather.  V2 and I are hoping the meteorologists are wrong.

On the third day of Christmas...

...I felt like I'd consumed far too many calories over the past few days, so I decided to take V2 over to Alston Park, on the west side of the valley, for an off-lead walk.  (Actually, we went over to Alston on Boxing Day also, but I didn't feel quite as, let's say, round two days ago.)  Vinodog 2 had a lot of fun and so did I.
Alston is a nice park that climbs gently up into the western hills a little way.  The views are quite pretty, north and east.  Nowadays most of the park is surrounded by vineyards (don't know whose these vines belong to).  The area looks a lot different from when I first visited the valley.  The mustard is rather abundant in this particular vineyard: everywhere is so green with all this rain we have been having.  The weather was beautiful, it had a nice crispness to it.  Couldn't have asked for better dog-walking weather.  Fun!