Rain: Another 1.6 Inches (Feb. 17-19, 2011)

Since last reporting, we've added another 1.6 inches to our total rainfall for the 2010-2011 rainy season (which will end on June 30, 2011). The total now stands at 22.40 inches at my location. The historical average for February 18 is 22.50 inches in Santa Rosa, so we are now right in line with what has been normal over the years. Normal annual rainfall for Santa Rosa is just over 31 inches.

[Update: overnight on the 18th and in the morning of the 19th added another 0.5 inches of rain, bringing the total as of noon February 19 to 22.90 inches.]

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Santa Rosa Plum, "Flavor King" Pluot, "Pink Snowflakes" Rhododendron

A number of plants have come into bloom in the garden in the past couple of days: the Santa Rosa Plum I planted two years ago as a pollinator for the pluots, the "Flavor King" Pluot, and the "Pink Snowflakes" rhododendron. The pluot Dapple Dandy" is now in full bloom as well.

"Flavor King" began to bloom on February 13, the Santa Rosa plum on February 14, and "Pink Snowflakes" today (February 16). The Santa Rosa plum is in the first photo, the pluot "Flavor King" in the second. "Pink Snowflakes" is below. The Santa Rosa plum calculated a year of 356 days this year, 364 days last year. "Flavor King" calculated a year of 363 days this year, 375 days last year. "Pink Snowflakes" calculated a year of 357 days this year, 367 days last year. Interestingly these six data points average to just under 364 days, very close to an actual year.

Miscellaneous: Notes of Coca (February 5, 2011)

Another unfortunate sign at my local Whole Foods.... I think that should be "Notes of cocoa." Then again, this is coffee from Peru. Maybe they DID mean notes of coca?

Rain: Rain Forecast for the Whole Week (Feb. 14-16, 2011)

The forecast is for rain this entire week. It started yesterday, Valentine's day, and rained most of the day. This morning it seems to have stopped, but more is on the way, judging from the clouds. Yesterday and overnight we added 0.95 inches, bringing our total so far for the 2010-201 rainy season to 19.40 inches, somewhat below the historical average for February 15 of 21.78 inches in Santa Rosa. Normal annual rainfall for Santa Rosa is just over 31 inches. The season goes through June 30.

[Update: Overnight on the 16th, a fairly vigorous storm blew in and dropped another 1.4 inches at our location, bringing our 2010-2011 total to 20.8 inches. That leaves us about an inch below normal, but I suspect we'll catch up quickly.]

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: "Ray Hartman" Ceanothus (2011)

The first blossoms on the large "Ray Hartman" ceanothus in the side garden opened yesterday, February 10. The plant grows very successfully trained as a small tree. Only a few flower clusters have opened so far, but in a week or two, it will be at its peak, covered in dusky blue, fragrant flower heads. I wish the tree bloomed longer than it does, but for a brief period each year, it's dazzling. The plant bloomed on February 22 in 2010, thus it has calculated a year of 353 days.

Found Art: Street Markings, Santa Rosa, (February 10, 2011)

More street markings. These are on Mayette Ave., in Santa Rosa, where numberless cracks in the surface of the roadway have been repaired with thick ribbons of asphalt. These that I've photographed happen to be near a crumbling crosswalk in two shades of yellow. I liked the tire marks, too. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Plants I'm Growing: Ribes Aureum (Golden Flowering Currant) 2011

The first buds broke yesterday (February 9) on the large golden flowering currant bush out by the beehive. Only a few have opened--prompted by a sudden wave of warmth; it was in the upper 60s here today, the high 70s a few days ago, setting new records for Santa Rosa and many cities in the area. Soon the plant will be a mass of yellow. The bees love these flowers.

This plant bloomed on February 15 in 2010 and February 2 in 2009, calculating a very long year of 378 days last year and a short year of 359 days this time around. The two years average to 368.5 days. 

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Prunus Blireiana, Pluot "Dapple Dandy"

Our double pink-flowering plum tree (Prunus blireana) and the pluot "Dapple Dandy" started blooming the day before yesterday, February 4. The flowers were coaxed out by suddenly warmer weather--it got up to 80 degrees in Santa Rosa today and it was in the mid-70s yesterday. The pink plum bloomed on February 17 in 2009, but I can't find a record for 2010. Relative to 2009, however, the plant has bloomed somewhat early. I'm still not sure what "normal" is.

"Dapple Dandy" bloomed on February 15 in 2010, for a year of 354 days. The tree first bloomed on February 5 in 2009, for a year of 355 days. I hope the rains will hold off during the bloom period this year. It's been several years since the tree has produced a decent crop of fruit.

Music I'm listening to: Chee-Yun, Alisa Weilerstein, and Jeremy Denk, with Marek Janowski Conducting the San Francisco Symphony

Last night, Friday February 4, I attended a San Francisco Symphony concert featuring Chee-Yun, Alisa Weilerstein, and Jeremy Denk as soloists, with Marek Janowski conducting an all-Beethoven program that opened with the Symphony No.1 followed by the Triple Concerto, and, after intermission, the Symphony No. 2.

I hate to complain, but the concert last night was rather uneven, I thought. As is so often the case at concerts (although not usually in San Francisco), the first piece on the program gave the impression that the performers weren't quite warmed up. I suppose it was competently played, but there wasn't much excitement to it. I'm afraid I felt much the same way about the Triple Concerto, which ought to have been the centerpiece of the program. No oomph, and Weilerstein seemed to be unsure about where her entrances were, despite having the score in front of her. All three of the soloists used scores. I guess that's OK, but it's a bit unusual--not that I could remember the solo part to Yankee Doodle.

Part of the problem was the odd dead spot that I'm increasingly convinced really does exist at Davies Symphony Hall. I was in seat Y107, just under the overhang of the balcony. At other concerts sitting in this area (most recently Gil Shaham and Itzhak Perlman) I've noticed that the sound is very muddy, and especially in the lower registers of the various instruments. It appears most marked when a solo instrument is playing over the orchestra.

This is particularly unfortunate in the case of the Triple Concerto. Chee-Yun's violin was usually crisp and had presence, the piano was audible throughout, but Weilerstein's cello, especially when she was playing on the lower two strings, seemed to disappear at times--as if she were miming, her fingers and bow moving but producing no sound. Too often, she was simply inaudible. That was disconcerting, to say the least, but it was especially disappointing in the many sections of the concerto that involve a conversation among the three solo instruments: The cello wasn't talking. I wonder if others in the audience had the same impression? [I just looked back at my most recent previous posts that touch on this problem: At the Gil Shaham concert, I was in Y107--the same seat. At the Perlman concert, I was in seat 107, two rows back, in AA107. Clearly there's a pattern here.] Chee-yun looked lovely in a magenta gown, Weilerstein wore a dress of a pretty amethyst color.

The performance of the Syphony No. 2, however, was excellent. The conductor and musicians seemed finally to have connected, and we were treated to a lively, nuanced performance of Beethoven's second symphony, which seems to me an altogether more self-assured, more interesting composition than his first. The woodwind section was a stand-out, as it usually is at the San Francisco Symphony.

Photo of Davies Symphony Hall courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.

Birds I'm Watching: Bodega Bay (Feb. 5, 2011)

I joined a Madrone Audubon group today for a day of birding at Bodega Bay--and there were a lot of birds around. The group saw nearly 80 species. I saw 63 of those:

Common loon, Red-throated Loon, Pacific loon, Clark's Grebe, Western Grebe, Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, Brandt's Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Brant, Cackling goose, Canada goose, Bufflehead, Canvasback, Gadwall, Common Goldeneye, Mallard, Red-breasted Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, Eurasian Wigeon, Coot, California Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Herring Gull, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Thayer's Gull, Western Gull, Forster's Tern, Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Marbled Godwit, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling, Surfbird, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Black Turnstone, Ruddy Turnstone, Whimbrel, Willet, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Kingfisher, Pigeon, Black Phoebe, Crow, Raven, Scrub Jay, Bewick's Wren, Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler (mostly Myrtle), Brewer's Blackbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, and House Sparrow.

Not bad for a single day's birding. I got some excellent looks at the Red-throated Loon (photo), but the highlight was the Long-tailed Duck, a life bird for me.

For more information about Bodega Bay and bird watching in Sonoma County generally, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Rhododendron "Noyo Dream," Yellow Daffodils (2011)

First blooms today on the Rhododendron "Noyo Dream." The plant bloomed in 2010 on February 7 and in 2009 on Februray 25, which makes this seem quite early. The plant has thus calculated a year of 360 days this year following a year of only 347 days in the preceding year. These average to 353.5 days, still a short year.

The first yellow daffodils opened today as well. The first yellow daffodil bloomed on February 5, in 2010, for a year of 362 days, much closer to a calendar year.

Food I'm Eating: The Olive Project (January 2011)

There are two olive trees in my garden. One I planted, the other was here when I arrived. The one that came from a nursery bears no fruit. The one already here was a mere bush ten years ago. Somehow it turned into a tree while I wasn't paying attention. It's now about 30 feet high and this year, for the first time I can remember, it's heavily laden with small purplish black fruits--olives. The optimists of the world say that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. Given fresh olives, I decided I should make olive oil or proper olives for eating. Making olive oil requires equipment that I don't have and large quantities of olives reduce to rather small amounts of oil, it seems, so curing the olives for eating made more sense. Having made that decision, I had to admit to myself that I had no idea how to transform a terribly bitter, astringent, fresh olive (ever bit into a fresh olive?) into one of those tasty salty orbs we all know and love.

I did have some idea, actually. Rightly or wrongly, I seemed to think that making olives involved lye and salt, but I wasn't exactly sure. Not that long ago, I would have headed to the library at this point, but I turned instead to the Internet and learned there are four principal ways to make olives--more if you count some of the variations. Fresh olives can simply be soaked for weeks in water. With daily changes of the water, bitter components leach out of the fruit to yield an edible product. But that seemed too simple. No romance in that.

At the other extreme is the method involving lye. Essentially, lye accelerates the result that water achieves--removal of the bitter components (mostly phenolic compounds and the glycoside oleuropein, according to Wikipedia). Somehow lye seems as unromantic as plain water, though--and dangerous to boot--so I rejected that idea. The other two methods rely on salt. Fresh olives can be simply packed dry in salt for long periods or they can be soaked in brine. As this last method seemed easiest, I opted to try brine-curing the small black olives the tree in the garden produces.

After picking several pounds of olives, I went back to the Internet and more carefully read the directions I'd found for making brine-cured olives. I was a bit annoyed at myself when I read that the skin of each olive must be broken. I wouldn't have picked so many if I had imagined making an incision in the side of each of the 800 small olives I had to process, but it turned out to be relatively easy work, taking only about an hour.

I made a brine solution of 1/4 cup salt to one quart of water and dumped it over the olives, which I had washed once (enough brine to ensure that all the olives were submerged). I covered the container and set it aside. Yesterday, after three days (stirring the solution and the olives once a day), the cover suddenly popped off. The olives had started fermenting. I hadn't read anything about fermentation or allowing gases to escape, so I assumed fermentation was not a good thing and added more salt in the hope of stopping it. Reading more today, I see that it's normal and the container is not supposed to be tightly sealed. In any case, the fermentation seems to have slowed. There is less bubbling going on. I'm not sure that has anything to do with the extra salt or not. I have no idea whether the water is now too salty, but I'll be changing it in a couple of days anyway. My recipe says that curing the olives will take about six weeks (with the brine renewed once a week). Already the olives are more palatable than they were fresh, so, I'm optimistic. Now, it's just a waiting game..... Stay tuned.

[Update: The Olive Project--Continued]

Rain: Half an Inch Overnight (Jan. 30, 2011)

Clear, cold, and sunny this morning, but we had 0.5 inches of rain overnight. Last night's rain was the first after a dry spell of a little more than two weeks. The dry spell was a nice respite from the seemingly incessant rain of the preceding weeks, but long enough to get people worried about too little rain again this year. The experts say that a mid-winter lull is not uncommon, though, and I expect it will rain quite a bit more before long. So far, we've had 18.45 inches at this location (my house) in the 2010-2011 rainy season. The historical average for January 30 in Santa Rosa is 18.04 inches. We remain above average--although by a fairly slim margin now--but other locations in Santa Rosa have reported about two inches more than we have had. Normal annual rainfall for Santa Rosa is just over 31 inches. The official 2010-2011 season lasts until June 30, 2011.

Art I'm Looking At: San Francisco Fine Print Fair (January 29-30, 2011)

Once a year, usually at the end of January or first week of February, some of the best fine print dealers in the country converge on San Francisco's Fort Mason Center to show and sell prints and drawings. The quality of the offerings is consistently very high. You can find just about anything--from old masters to contemporary work by local artists, work ranging from under $100 to tens of thousands of dollars. One of my favorite among the local artists is David Kelso, who appears to live and work in Oakland. He makes prints using traditional methods--mostly etching and aquatint--but layered in complex and unusual ways (the first photo is one of his works). I always enjoy seeing the show, even if I don't buy anything. The show is going on again today, January 30th, from 11:00AM to  5:00PM.

Birds I'm watching: Spring Lake (Jan. 26, 2011)

I took a quick walk around Spring Lake yesterday. Although I did see my first Fox sparrow of the new year, there was nothing unusual. Still, a walk around the lake is always pleasant. The highlight was this Pied-billed grebe that popped up in front of me out of the glassy, still water.

For more information about Spring Lake and bird watching in Sonoma County generally, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Sewer Lid and Parking Lot Blue, Santa Rosa, (January 25, 2011)

Where I live, parking spaces reserved for handicapped drivers are marked in blue, a fairly unusual color for pavement markings (most are yellow or white, occasionally they are red). This is a fragment of the blue marking a handicapped space that happens to be atop a sewer inlet. Found art.


For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Miscellaneous: Funny Crackers

I came across this display at Whole Foods this morning. An ordinary stack of cracker boxes. The boxes read "Assorted Entertainment Crackers." Then I read the sign.

Do they tell jokes?

Music I'm Listening to: Sharon Isbin and the Santa Rosa Symphony

Today I attended the matinee performance of the Santa Rosa Symphony's concert set with soloist Sharon Isbin. On the program were Suomalainen Tango, by Pablo Ortiz, Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Piazzola's Tangazo, and Symphony No. 4, by Carlos Chavez--mostly unfamiliar music, all with a latin flavor. The Symphony was conducted by guest conductor Enrique Diemecke.

Once again, an energetic, enthusiastic guest conductor has given us a glimpse of what the Santa Rosa Symphony is capable of at its best. Although the concert on Sunday was uneven, its best moments were good indeed. The concert opened with Suomalainen Tango. I suspect I would have enjoyed this a great deal if the ensemble had been awake. I don't mean to be harsh, but throughout the piece I got the impression that the performers and the conductor were failing to communicate--I had that feeling you get when a film soundtrack is out of synch with the lips of the actors. Diemecke kept asking for volume and sweep that he wasn't getting and the players didn't seem to get the feel of the rhythms of the piece.

I had just the opposite impression when listening to the final work on the program, the Chavez Symphony No. 4--a piece that seemed to straddle the romantic and the modern; suddenly, the Santa Rosa Symphony was alive. Dynamics, tension, and timing all seemed right, but the music was rather more abstract and less engaging than the Ortiz--which is not to say I didn't enjoy it. It was a pleasure to see the conductor getting so much out of the performers, but it's often hard to fully take in an extended work like this on first hearing. I'd like to hear the Chavez again.

Piazzolo's Tangazo was interesting for its stark contrasts. The piece opens quite darkly, without a hint of the title's promised tango, only to suddenly break into the sort of strongly rhythmic music that makes you want to get up and dance in the aisle. The recognizably tango section is marked by the use of unusual percussion and extended techniques in the strings (such as bowing behind the bridge and sharp, fast glissandi), all to good effect--and sometimes startling enough to provoke a few giggles. Adding to the fun was the conductor's rather physical style, using his whole body, not just his arms. In places he seemed to be dancing to the music he was helping to create. He ended each piece (and began each of his appearances on the podium) by throwing his arms wide open in a flamboyant "ta-da!" gesture the crowd clearly enjoyed. The performers seemed to enjoy it as well. When called to stand for acknowledgment, several of the musicians threw the gesture back at him, much to the delight of the audience. After a somewhat melancholy, lyrical middle section, the music drifted back through more traditional tango rhythms before regaining the dark flavor of the opening. Well done all around.

Sharon Isbin was the reason most people were at the concert, of course. Every seat was filled (something I've never seen before at the Luther Burbank--I mean, Wells Fargo--Center for the Arts), and I noticed that a few people left at intermission, after the performance of the Rodrigo. Isbin's playing was beautiful, particularly in the slow middle movement. At times it sounded as though she was playing a lute and at others a harp. Although the clipped, precise, muted style the conductor chose for the accompaniment gave a somewhat less lush overall effect than it seems to me this piece should have, all in all the Santa Rosa Symphony handled it very well, I thought.

Isbin played an encore from her Grammy Award-wining CD Journey to the New World, with Joan Baez and Mark O'Connor (Sony Classical 88697-45456-2), Andrew York's "Andecy." Oddly, Ms. Isbin did not get a full standing ovation. In Santa Rosa you can cough with a little bit of style and get the entire audience on its feet. No reflection on the performance: I got the impression that Isbin's presence brought out a more-than-usually geriatric crowd with a fair number of people elderly enough that they couldn't stand up. Sad, but true. Where are our young music lovers?

Photos of Enrique Diemecke and Sharon Isbin courtesy of the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Daphne Odorata, Candytuft (2011)

Somewhat belatedly I report that the first buds on the big Daphne under the coral bark maple tree opened recently--on January 21, to be exact. Soon the entire bush will be covered in the tightly clustered white blossoms blushed with pink and smelling of citrus and perfume. This is probably the most fragrant plant in the garden. It's a slow grower and finicky, but this one seems to be happy. A second bush planted last year appears to be coming along well (in bud, but not yet blooming), but it's toppling and needs to be staked; night creatures have been scraping at the earth at its base--probably raccoons or skunks, looking for food.

Daphne odorata bloomed on January 18 in 2010 for a year of 368 days. The plant bloomed on January 20 in 2009 (a year of 363 days). So far, Daphne has calculated an average year of 366.5 days--very close to an actual year. I imagine people of long ago who lived closer to the land and paid attention to these things didn't really miss calendars. The signs of the passing of time are everywhere.

I note also first blooms on the Candytuft (Iberis) in the garden--although this one's very hard to call. There are about five of these in the yard and they all bloom at slightly different times and over a long period. The first flowers open slowly and sporadically. It's hard to say exactly when the plant first comes into bloom. A month from now, the little bushes will be covered in starkly white flowers of very cheerful appearance--nice to have when the weather is still cold. Taking today (January 23) as the first day of bloom, however, the plant has calculated a year of 367 days (I chose January 21 as the first day of bloom in 2010) and a year of 364 days in the preceding year (first blooms were on January 22 in 2009). The average year so far is thus 365.5 days according to Iberis--again, very close to a calendar year.

Found Art: White-washed Graffiti, Santa Rosa, January 22, 2011)

High on a wall above an abandoned building I found this patch of graffiti, white-washed, but barely covered. The sun was just about to disappear under the horizon. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Books I'm Reading: Desperate Passage

Having just returned from a few days skiing at Lake Tahoe near Donner Lake and having several times in the past seen the lake that bears the Donner name and known it was associated with the ill-fated emigrants, I decided this time to find out exactly what happened to them. At a local bookstore I picked up a copy of Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West (Oxford University Press, 2008). Carefully researched and based mostly on the primary sources, the book is a well-written history of the 1846 tragedy. It has an extensive bibliography and an excellent index (too often missing). At the same time, Desperate Passage  has the feel of a page-turner; I read the book in two sittings. I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't put it down.

In a nutshell, the group suffered its horrible fate primarily for two reasons. First, its leaders chose to take an untried "short-cut" that turned out to be entirely unsuitable for wagon traffic over the mountains that separate California from the deserts of Nevada; it ended up costing them a month or more rather than saving time. Second, the group got a late start on what was supposed to have been a four-month journey across the continent and suffered many delays along the way (aside from the problem with the so-called shortcut). A late arrival risked snow and entrapment in the Sierras even on the established routes into California. Unsurprisingly, the Donners and the families traveling with them became snowbound before they could cross the mountain range and into California. About eighty people were trapped (many of them children). Thirty-six of them died.

Rarick follows the crossing of the continent starting at Independence, Missouri, the entrapment in snow by Donner Lake (then known as Truckee Lake) near the California-Nevada border, the ordeal of months of starvation and cannibalism, and the rescue of the survivors--which was as perilous (or more so) than most of the crossing--all in heartbreaking detail. The sections on cannibalism are gruesome, but fascinating. Rarick discusses the course it took in the case of the Donner Party but also touches on the history of cannibalism in extreme situations more generally and he even manages to get in data that give a good idea of how starvation affects the human body--and the mind--without allowing the momentum of the story to wane. Although the author maintains a somewhat detached tone that neither sensationalizes nor downplays the trials the group lived through, the portraits of the people involved--both those trapped and their rescuers--are vivid.  If I remember correctly, Thomas Hardy once said that a good story should deal with the experiences of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The tale of the Donner Party certainly fits that bill.

On a personal note, I realized as I was reading that I followed almost exactly the same route across the United States as the Donner Party (although in the opposite direction) when in the summer of 2009 I felt compelled to hop in my car and drive to Ohio. I crossed into the Lake Tahoe area from the California side; drove across Nevada (much of the way along the course of the Humboldt River); crossed the Ruby Mountains in Utah and south of the Great Salt Lake*; I followed the Platte River, by Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff in Nebraska (prominent landmarks for wagon trains); and passed through Independence, Missouri, the jumping off point for most of the wagons that headed west. It was a very long trip even in an automobile. That I traveled old roads is not that surprising, I suppose; in France, the highways are often built on top of Roman roads; the US highway system often follows the routes of the westward-moving pioneers and the overland express services that flourished before the telegraph. Still, it all seemed a bit eerie.

In a recent post about the skiing, I uploaded a photograph of Donner Lake taken from Donner Pass, the point at which most of the survivors eventually made it out of their little hell. While writing about my trip in the summer of 2009, I posted a few comments about the Scott's Bluff area, although at that time ignorant of the connection with the Donners.

*Come to think of it, I passed north of the Salt Lake on the way east. I did the section south of the Salt Lake on my return trip, going the same direction the Donner Party headed.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Cabernets/Petite Sirah

Tonight I tasted the 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Proprietary Red. The wine is from a producer and wine growing area I know little about, but I see from Internet research that the San Antonio Valley is at the southernmost end of Monterey County at a fairly high elevation in the Santa Lucia range, not far from the ocean, which provides the warm days and cool nights wine grapes respond to so well. Wine growing in the area goes back to the Spanish period and Mission San Antonio. The wine is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Petite Syrah. Brief tasting notes follow.

Medium-deep purple-red. Oak, vanilla, tobacco, and leather predominant on the nose. Good tannin, concentrated. Still seems quite young, especially at first. Only moderately fruity and fairly soft (in the sense of not being at all sharp or acidic). Decent length. Fruit seems masked at first. Some chocolate flavors on the finish. Later, the tannins softened markedly and some nice cherry flavors developed. Not especially profound, and the wine still seems young, with veiled fruit, but a decent bottle that seems likely to continue to improve for a few years. Might be worth laying down a bottle or two if you can find it at the Grocery Outlet price (see below). If you drink this now, I recommend decanting it and allowing it some time exposed to air before pouring. Reasonably priced at $7.99 a bottle at Grocery Outlet in Santa Rosa. The wine sells for $18.50 a bottle at the winery.

I write about many subjects. Use the labels at right above to explore this blog. For more wine reviews, use the Wines I'm Drinking label. 

Found Art: Lichen in the Sierra Nevada (January 18, 2011)

While skiing at Sugar Bowl and Tahoe Donner over the long weekend, I encountered wonderful lichens on the rocks and trees at over 8,000 feet. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Places I'm Visiting: Skiing at Lake Tahoe (January 18, 2011)

Got back from skiing last night at Lake Tahoe. It was unseasonably warm, the snow slushy, the sun merciless. It was fun nevertheless. I got in two good days of skiing. Went to Sugar Bowl for the first time. I rather liked it. I'd like to ski there again. There's a lot of the upper intermediate/expert terrain I like and it's less expensive than places like Squaw Valley.

The resort is a stone's throw from Donner Lake and the Donner Pass. On the way home, we stopped at the monument marking one of the Donner Party camps. Above the monument and the lake, at the summit of the pass, is an excellent view of the area that trapped the group. After rescue, the survivors climbed up the rocks that were at my feet when I took the photo below. A fabulous sunset followed this. At a local bookstore, I picked up a copy of Desperate Passage (Ethan Rarick, Oxford University Press, 2008), which looks like a good account of the tragedy. On the wall of my mother's house there hangs a small drawing of a bird in a red frame by Tamsin Donner--a direct descendant of the original Tamzene Donner, wife of George Donner, one of the leaders of the ill-fated group.

[Update: After writing this post, I read and reviewed Ethan Rarick's excellent book about the Donner Party and its ordeal, Desperate Passage.]

Miscellaneous: Rain (Jan. 13, 2011)

It drizzled most of the day today, but there were some periods of heavy rainfall as well. In total, we got 0.45 inches. That brings the 2010-2011 rainy season total to 17.95 inches at our location. The historical average for January 13 in Santa Rosa is 14.88 inches. We remain well above average. More rain appears to be on the way.

Found Art: Shadows at the De Young (January 11, 2011)

Another photo from the backlog in my iPhone. These were overlapping shadows around a pedestal at the de Young Museum, in San Francisco, created by multiple spotlights illuminating a sculpture. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Wines I'm Drinking: Six Inexpensive Wines from Spain (Jan. 2011)

Trader Joe's has quite a few inexpensive Spanish wines at the moment. I wanted to know if any of them are good values, so I picked six to taste blind. There were two stand-outs--one costing a mere $3.99, the other only $4.99. These are not great wines by any means, but they're solid everyday wines at very attractive prices. The wines I tasted were all made from Tempranillo or Garnacha (the local name for Grenache), or from a blend of the two grapes. With one exception--a Rioja wine--they were from Calatayud, Carineña, or Yecla, all south and east of Rioja (Yecla considerably to the south). The wines were very young, all from 2009, with one exception (2008). The most expensive was only $5.99. Brief tasting notes follow.

• 2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
• 2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
• 2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo

2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
According to the labels, this wine and the following three were all made by the same producer, despite the different brand names. They are quite different wines, however. The Condesa de Sarabella was a medium red with a hint of garnet in it, the palest of the six wines. It had an attractive nose, suggestive of cranberries and vanilla and under-ripe plums. Later it began to suggest something smoky along with coffee, and roasted grain. Later still, the nose began to shift in the direction of leather. On the palate, the wine was rather tart, but not unappealing, although there wasn't a lot of fruit apparent at first. Despite some grainy tannins on the mid-palate, the wine overall seemed light, short, and tart. With a little time, it gained more balance. While it remained rather too sour for my taste, it at least gained some redeeming fruitiness and a little more structure after sitting for about an hour. Acceptable everyday wine and not the worst of the lot (initially this seemed fairly interesting, but over time some of the other wines opened enough to eclipse my initial impressions of this one; see below), but I probably wouldn't buy this again. Reasonably priced at $4.99 at Trader Joe's Santa Rosa.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
This was my favorite wine of the group initially, by a small margin (at first, all the wines seemed rather disappointingly thin and sour), but this really improved as it got some air. By the end of the tasting (and tasting the wines again the following day), it had blossomed, acquiring tasty black cherry flavors and a depth not at first apparent. The wine was a comparatively deep blackish purple-red. It had some floral scents and hints of vanilla at first, but was less fruity on the nose than the wine above, and, although  there were some nice coffee, chocolate, and plum notes soon afterward, the wine seemed quite closed at first. Tasting the wine, it had a bright, fruity attack, and there were some attractive coffee flavors on a moderately long, slightly astringent finish. The La Granja Tempranillo/Garnacha had noticeably more body than the above wine. Again, this wine changed most dramatically with air and time in the glass. In the end, I thought it the best of the group. Light and a trifle tart, but not without some complexity. Recommended for everyday drinking. If you buy it, consider keeping a few bottles back for a couple of years. If you drink it now, decant it and let it sit at least an hour or so before you try it. Look for the bi-colored (red and black) zebra on the label. (Don't ask me.)  $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
Much the same as the above wine in terms of color, but rather more distant on the nose than either of the first two wines. A hint of cucumbers, perhaps? Tannic, masked fruit on the palate. Seems short, thin, and tart. Not very interesting. Slightly astringent finish. With time, the wine gained a little fruity sweetness, but ultimately seemed unacceptably light. Not recommended. This wine has a pig on the label. (Don't ask me.) $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
A medium to deep purple-red, this wine was fairly nondescript on the nose, but what I did detect was different from any of the other wines. The initial impression was cola, but there were also light vanilla and wood scents and something vaguely suggestive of citrus. The wine was light and quite tart on the palate, with no real grip. It was rather short and had a slightly bitter finish. Although it gained a bit of presence with some time and air exposure, it remained quite tart and seemingly insubstantial even after standing open for several hours. Not recommended. $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
A medium to deep purple-red, with light berry scents on the nose. Again, quite closed at first, although there were some suggestions of wood and vanilla. Despite the rather distant nose, the wine had markedly more fruitiness on the nose than either of the above two wines, with hints of cola and chocolate as well. Moderate length with light, fine-grained tannins. With a little time and air exposure, this wine began to show some earthiness. Something about it put me in mind of roots and fresh soil. Later there were hints of chocolate. Overall, not a bad wine. Quite acceptable for everyday drinking. Although this is the most expensive of the six wines, at $5.99, it's not overpriced. Like some of the other wines in this group, I suspect this would repay a bit of cellaring, but I preferred both the La Granja 360 Tempranillo/Garnacha and the following wine.

2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo
A medium-dark red with considerably less purple in it than most of the other wines. Light, floral scents. There was something perfumed about the nose. There were hints of paper, wood, and white pepper. Overall, the nose was fairly closed, but it opened up appreciably with time. Initially, the wine had some rather woody flavors, suggesting something medicinal—which is not to say unattractive. Moderate to good length and with more fruity sweetness and less acidity than most of the other wines in this group. In other words, this had rather more balance. Over time, the balance seemed to improve further, with the tannins becoming more forward, giving the wine noticeably more grip than it had at first. I enjoyed this one from the outset, and it continued to improve. Ultimately, it was my second-favorite wine of the evening. It has a rather more European flavor profile than many American wine consumers are likely to find attractive, I suspect—the tannins are more prominent, the fruit more subtle and less ripe than a typical California wine, for example—but this had a poise lacking in most of the others. Recommended for everyday drinking. Again, however, I highly recommend decanting this wine or cellaring it for a bit or it's likely to seem rather hard and ungenerous. Give it time. All of the six wines were markedly better after air exposure, lending support to the notion that inexpensive wines often benefit most from decanting. A very good value at only $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

Found Art: Playground Art (January 9, 2011)

Going through the photos on my iPhone this morning (three years of photos), I found a number that I never got around to posting. This is more found art from the playground of my son's school last year. Beautiful.

If you like this sort of thing, I've recently created a new blog that brings together all my Found Art postings of the past three years in a single location. I call it Serendipitous Art. I will continue to post Found Art entries on this blog as well.

Birds I'm watching: Lake Ralphine, Spring Lake (Jan. 8, 2011)

Having recently decided it prudent to get more exercise, I'm now attempting to take a walk of at least half an hour a day every day. This morning I went birding around Lake Ralphine and then walked the perimeter of Spring Lake. You see, I thought I'd kill two....never mind.

Lake Ralphine had its usual winter mergansers (I counted 36) and about half as many ring-billed gulls (pictured above). There was nothing uncommon, although I did see an orange-crowned warbler, which is unusual at this time of year. Other birds I saw were: Bufflehead, Ruddy duck, Double-crested cormorant, Great egret, Snowy egret, Black-crowned night heron, Coots, Belted kingfisher, a female scaup, and Crows.

At Spring Lake, I saw 37 species--not especially good for Spring Lake, but not bad. Most interesting was another Orange-crowned warbler. I also saw a nice Lincoln's sparrow--first one I've seen in quite a while--and the Osprey. Otherwise, I noted: Canada goose, Mallard, Bufflehead, Common merganser, Ruddy duck, California quail, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great egret, Snowy egret, Turkey vulture, Osprey, Sora, Common moorhen, Coots, Ring-billed gull, Mourning dove, Anna's hummingbird, Acorn woodpecker, Nuttall's woodpecker, Northern flicker, Black phoebe, Scrub jay, Crow, Western bluebird, Raven, Oak titmouse, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Robins, Yellow-rumped warblers, Spotted towhee, California towhee, Golden-crowned sparrow, Dark-eye junco, and House finch.

For more information about Spring Lake Park, Lake Ralphine, and bird watching in Sonoma County generally, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Metal Patterns, Richmond (January 5, 2010)

While in Richmond during the year-end holidays I found in a parking lot one of those thick iron plates used to cover holes in the ground during road construction. It was scratched, weathered, and worn. It was rusted in places. The whole had an interesting effect. Found art.