Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Ceanothus "Ray Hartman" and Ceanothus "Julia Phelps" (February 19-22, 2012)

I belatedly note that the first flowers opened on the large "Ray Hartman" ceanothus near the kitchen window on February 19 and that the first flowers on the "Julia Phelps" ceanothus opened yesterday, February 22. "Ray Hartman" is pictured above, "Julia Phelps" below. The "Ray Hartman" is trained up as a small tree. The plant bloomed on February 10 in 2011 and on February 22 in 2010, calculating years of 377 days and 353 days, which average to exactly 365 days. I don't seem to have a complete set of records for "Julia Phelps." The blossoms I note today are on a newer plant near the beehive.

Beekeeping: Time for a Belated Honey Harvest (February 22, 2012)

It was unseasonably warm today. I took the opportunity to open up the beehive for the first time in quite some time. It was filling with honey when I last looked, sometime in late October, perhaps, but there was enough empty space in many of the frames that I only extracted about 25lbs of honey in the autumn. There has been little activity around the entrance to the hive in recent weeks, so I've been a bit worried about my charges, but, if what I saw today is any indication, they've been--I hate to say it, but, busy as bees....

I took off a complete shallow super of ten frames, which should yield enough honey for friends and family for a while, and I suspect there is a second super that could be extracted as well. I expect to be busy tomorrow, if work permits such pastoral duties as honey extraction.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--"Flavor King" Pluot

The first buds on our "Flavor King" pluot opened the day before yesterday, on February 19. There has been so little rain this year that I'm hoping we'll actually get an appreciable crop this year. In the past two years it rained heavily while this and our other plum and pluot trees were in bloom, which resulted in a tiny crop. We'll see. The plant bloomed on February 5 in 2009, february 15 in 2010, February 13 in 2011, and February 19 this year, calculating years of 375, 363, and 371 days, for an average so far of about 370 days, somewhat longer than an actual year, but I suspect this will average downward over time.

Miscellaneous: Bizarre

I spare myself the endless drivel of TV commentary about the ongoing GOP presidential contest, by having no TV service. Nevertheless, a fair amount of news trickles down to me from various sources. Two recent bits of news strike me as especially bizarre.

Newt Gingrich attempts to belittle Mitt Romney for his ability to speak French. Rick Santorum criticizes President Obama, saying Obama's political agenda "...is not a theology based on the Bible." Huh? Shouldn't we be praising Romney for the added perspective his bilingualism may give him? Shouldn't we be praising Obama for not basing his priorities on ideas set out in a book of ancient myths?

Found Art: Pebbles and Sand (February 18, 2012)

Pebbles and tracings of the water flow they helped to create. Ephemeral art, found art. Near San Simeon, California, at the start of 2012.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Yellow Daffodils (February 13, 2012)

I belatedly report that the first bud on one of the yellow daffodils in the garden opened the day before yesterday, February 13. Before long, there will be clusters of them in bloom around the garden. Our two-toned white and apricot-colored daffodils always bloom later.

The yellow daffodils opened in 2011 on February 2. The first bloom date was February 5 in 2010 and February 5 also in 2009, for years of 365, 362, and 376 days. In other words, the daffodils are rather late this year--although the average year calculated by the daffodils is about 368 days, only slightly longer than a calendar year.

Rain: Rain Through February 13, 2012

Today was clear and sunny, if cold, but we've had another 0.3 inches of rain since last reporting. That brings our 2011-2012 rainy season total to 13.5 inches, which is more than 10 inches below the average for February 13 historically in Santa Rosa (just under 23.8 inches). More rain, please.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2007 Domaine Maby Lirac "La Fermade"

If you're like me, you think of a typical southern Rhône red overflowing with the scent of violets (the good ones, anyway) when you hear the name Lirac. I can't remember coming across a white Lirac before, but I knew that it existed (the rules allow Clairette Blanc, Grenache Blanc, and Bourbelenc, as well as Ugni Blanc, Pipoul, Marsanne, Rousanne, and Viognier, the first three of these being the principal grapes). I found a bottle in the newer Santa Rosa Whole Foods (at Coddingtown Mall) recently and decided to try it tonight. I must admit I was partially persuaded by a sticker showing that this wine won a Gold Medal at the 2008 Concours des Vins, at Orange--an honor it seems to have deserved. Brief tasting notes follow.

A very pale, clear, slightly green-tinged wine. The initial impression on the nose is a fresh sappiness, with a certain waxiness in the background. There was something that reminded me of pencil shavings and there were floral hints as well--but rather restrained flowers--hawthorne perhaps or pear blossom. Overall, a fresh, attractive, delicate but fairly characterful nose. Seemed a bit closed at first on the palate but then quietly burst with sweetness that was followed quickly by citrusy flavors and then by something sweet again. Has a certain bitterness as well, that nicely offsets the fruit. I've had well made Soave that tastes like this. Very good length. Really lingers and seems to keep flitting back and forth between fruity sweetness and a delicate acidity as it slowly fades on the tongue. Delicious. Recommended. Reasonably priced at $9.99 a bottle. I'm likely to go back for more of this.

2010 Altovinum "Evodia" Calatayud Old Vines Garnacha

Tonight I tasted a wine from Spain's Calatayud DO, in the western part of the Zaragoza province of Aragón. The area is heavily planted with Garnacha (Grenache), among other varieties. This "Evodia" is made from old vines, some as old as 100 years, according to the label. The vineyards in the area are generally at high elevations on stony soil. This particular wine was grown on slate soils. Brief tasting notes follow.

A very pretty, deep ruby red. This is a young wine, but it doesn't have the brash purple-red color of many young wines. Herbal scents on the nose--not sage, but something along those lines. Wood and vanilla. Red berries--not quite strawberries, not quite red raspberries. Red currants, perhaps? Something suggestive of bitters, or root bark. With a little time, it began to smell jammy, suggesting fig jam. Later I noticed some smoky, flinty scents. Nice, rich attack on the palate. Full, fruit sweetness. Jam, but interlaced with licorice. Remarkably sweet. Given the sweet fruitiness and the somewhat medicinal flavors of roots and bark, you might be forgiven for mistaking this for vermouth. Very light, very soft tannins. Moderate to low acidity. Immediately appealing, with seductive fruit making the wine all too easy to drink too much of, but ultimately not very well balanced. Worth trying at least once, however, if you like wines that are all fruit. This will certainly appeal to some palates. Fairly reasonably priced at $9.99 a bottle, at Whole Foods, Santa Rosa (Coddingtown Store).

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Daphne Odorata (February 6, 2012)

The first flowers opened on the fragrant daphne Daphne odorata, under the coral bark maple behind the house yesterday, February 6--quite late for this plant, which bloomed in January in each of the three previous years, on January 23 in 2011, January 18 in 2010, and January 20 in 2009, for years of 363, 370, and 379 days, averaging to 370 days.

Rain: Rain Overnight (February 7, 2012)

I heard the sound of rain last night as I fell asleep--the steady, quiet dribbling sound of a gutter on the far side of the house. This morning, I found 0.55 inches in the rain gauge. It's still raining, but that brings our 2011-2012 rainy season total to 13.00 inches--better, but still well below where we should be at this time of year (nearly 22.5 inches). Let it rain....

[Update: It did rain a little more. We got an additional 0.2 inches, bringing the total to 13.2 inches.]

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pink Flowering Japanese Plum Prunus Blireiana (February 2, 2012)

Our double pink flowering plum tree (Prunus blireiana) started blooming today, February 2. Only one or two flowers have opened, but it will soon be in full bloom if the warmish weather holds.  The plum bloomed on February 17 in 2009, but I can't find a record for 2010. The tree bloomed on February 4 in 2011. Thus, it's calculated a year of 363 days.

Birds I'm Watching: Kinglet Feet (February 1, 2012)

Recently I've been photographing a lot of birds for use on my birding website. I was recently looking at photographs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and I've begun to notice that there is a very big variation in the color of the feet of these birds. Some have feet about the same color as their legs, some have feet that are strikingly yellow. No one I've asked seems to think the color indicates anything especially useful about the birds. They ascribe it to individual variation. I continue to wonder about kinglet feet.... Compare the feet of the bird above and the bird below. Hmmmm......

For information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Razor Wire, Barbed Wire (January 27, 2012)

Razor wire and barbed wire, tools of exclusion or incarceration, would seem remote from art, but I liked the rhythms formed here by the overlapping coils of razor wire and by the barbed wire and wall behind them. Art is where you find it.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pink Flowering Japanese Plum Prunus Mume (January 23, 2012)

I belatedly report that our pink Japanese plum has started blooming. The first bloom appears to have opened on about January 22, although I didn't notice the flowers until a day or two after that. The tree bloomed on January 19 in 2011, yielding a year of 368 days. I don't seem to have earlier records for this flower, probably because the tree is still small.

Music I'm Listening To: Santa Rosa Symphony, Jeffrey Kahane Playing and Conducting Mozart, Rachmaninoff (January 22, 2012)

What a pleasure to see and hear Jeffrey Kahane with the Santa Rosa Symphony again. Kahane is making guest appearances in a series of three concerts playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3, conducting both pieces as well. I attended yesterday's performance (Sunday, January 22).

Kahane gave a delightfully lively and crisp performance of the Mozart, I thought, adding to the fun by playing an expansive cadenza of his own composition. I thought the symphony players were in fine form, with the woodwinds a standout, particularly the flute and the bassoons. The audience was very appreciative. Some in the crowd waved enthusiastically to Kahane after the performance, as if to say "We've missed you."

The choice of a large 20th century symphony for the second half of the program following the Mozart concerto was not an obviously logical one, but I trust Kahane had his reasons. I just wish I could ask him what they were. I can't really say much about the piece as I'd never heard it before, and it's not music that immediately grabs you. It gave the impression of being rather too full of ideas not fully developed or linked, but I suspect that apparent fault is as much a reflection of my ignorance as it is of anything else. Having said that, it seemed to veer from the pastoral to the grandiose and back again, sounding here like something quite modern, there like something more traditional, and in one or two places rather like generic film score music. Nevertheless, there were some interesting textures and some unusual percussion effects, and the musicians showed the same concentration they exhibited playing the Mozart. Kahane seems always to get the best from the Santa Rosa players (although there were a lot of unfamiliar faces among the musicians this time). Again the reception was warm. Kahane and the orchestra received a second standing ovation. As the audience began to leave, the conductor hopped onto the podium and began an encore.

As if to provide an antidote to the unfamiliar Rachmaninoff piece, Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony began to play the overture to Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss II, a piece the audience was better able to warm up to. It was well played and enthusiastically played and the crowd left quite pleased. The concert was worth it just for the Mozart, but the Strauss was a fun and unexpected way to end the afternoon. I hope we see Mr. Kahane often in the new Green Music Center. We do miss him.

Photo of Jeffrey Kahane courtesy of the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Rain: More Rain Overnight (January 22-23, 2012)

More rain overnight (accompanied by lightning and thunder) added 2.55 more inches to our total for the 2011-2012 rainy season, bringing us to 11.45 inches. The historical average for January 23 in Santa Rosa is 16.67 inches. Thus, while we've made up a lot with the nearly seven inches we've had in the past week, we are still 5.22 inches behind where we should be. Still, the vegetation looks fresh and alive in a way it hasn't for many weeks. Things are looking up.

Books I'm Reading: Eiffel's Tower, by Jill Jonnes (January 22, 2012)

I found Jill Jonnes's Eiffel's Tower (Penguin Books, 2010) both a pleasure and a disappointment--but a disappointment that reflects my own misplaced expectations not any real fault in the book. I had imagined a more technical piece, something along the lines of David Mccullough's The Great Bridge, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Eiffel's Tower is as much (or more) about the exposition the tower was built for than about the tower itself (with a strong emphasis on the doings of such people as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison, Whistler, Gauguin, Van Gogh, James Gordon Bennett, publisher of The New York Herald, and, of course, Gustave Eiffel). There was very little about the actual tower in most of the second half of the book. I should have paid more attention to Jonnes's subtitle: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris's Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World's Fair That Introduced It.

Having said all that, I very much enjoyed Jonnes's clear, well-paced narrative--I don't mind a good digression or two. I hadn't known that Buffalo Bill's show, complete with dozens of native American performers, had been in Paris during the 1889 Exposition Universelle, or what a sensation the show had been. (Annie Oakley was especially popular. Enamored of game hunting, the French aristocracy, in particular, admired anyone good with a gun). I hadn't realized that Eiffel had mostly been a builder of bridges before he designed his famous tower. His bridge works range from Europe to Vietnam to Chile and Peru. I hadn't known about the troubles caused by the lower level elevators, which seem to have stemmed mostly from repeated tweaking of the curvature of the tower's legs, each tweak necessitating an adjustment in the design of the elevators.

The elevators remain impressive today. My own first ascent of the tower remains most vividly in my mind because of the way the large cars travel along the legs, moving at a considerable angle off the vertical, a kind of motion not usually associated with elevators, and they move at a good clip, making a great deal of noise. Eiffel's insistence on elevators that ran along the legs of the tower was required by his desire to avoid having to use a central vertical shaft for the lift equipment, which would have ruined the effect created by the great open space between the four legs of the structure.

When I was an exchange student in Japan in the late 1970s, I remember going up to the top of Tokyo Tower, which is based on the Eiffel Tower but with just such a central elevator shaft. I found it amusing that the Japanese were so proud of their tower. At the upper viewing platform there was a large panel with statistics comparing Tokyo Tower with the Eiffel Tower. The latter is 984 feet high and made of  about 7,300 tons of metal held together by 2.5 million rivets. It was completed by about 300 workmen in two years, two months, and five days, between 1887 and 1889. The Japanese version is 107 feet taller (at 1,091 feet). It was built by around 400 workers in about one year, five and a half months, completed on October 14, 1958. It weighs only about 4,000 tons--considerably less than the Eiffel Tower, despite being taller--and that has long been the principal Japanese claim to its superiority. What Tokyo Tower's boosters always seem to forget is that Eiffel and his team built their tower nearly 70 years earlier with no precedent to rely on, they did it using less technically advanced metals, and they achieved their results infinitely more elegantly. I've always thought Tokyo Tower rather ugly, precisely because of the central elevator shaft; there is no open space under Tokyo Tower to enjoy. It has none of the lightness of Eiffel's design. Still, it serves its purpose, mainly as a broadcasting tower, and it was surpassed as the tallest structure in Japan only recently, with the completion of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

Eiffel's Tower paints a wonderful picture of the Exposition, its centerpiece (the Tower), and of the world's reaction to these as France celebrated the 100th anniversary of its great revolution and sought to proclaim its technological prowess in an industrializing world. The book makes it clear just how strong the structure's spell on the world was--even before its completion--a spell that remains unbroken today. Although I had hoped for more about the technical aspects of the Eiffel Tower's construction, the panoramic view of life Jonnes gives us from the perspective of the Tower is ultimately engrossing. By the end of the book, which coincides with the end of the great exposition, I felt a twinge of melancholy, as if I had been at the Exposition, had witnessed its most compelling sights, and, with regret, watched its final closing. Recommended.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2005 Interlude Twin Creek Vineyard Napa Valley Barbera

I picked up a bottle of the 2004 Interlude Twin Creek Vineyard Barbera a few days ago at Grocery Outlet, and I liked it very much. I went back to get more, but it was gone. Instead, I bought half a case of the 2005 vintage on the strength of the 2004. Tonight I opened the first bottle of the 2005, hoping it was as good. Brief tasting notes follow.

A medium garnet, the wine looked older than it actually is, but it was nicely fragrant, suggestive of something floral--gardenias almost, although not nearly as strongly and sweetly scented as the flower. Suggestions of cranberries. There were leathery scents in the background. Although this is a very alcoholic wine, at 14.9%, the nose was not especially suggestive of alcohol. Chocolatey and a bit hot on the palate, however. Still, fairly good length, soft tannins, delicate acidity, and with an interesting mid-palate bite. Hints of dark cherries, perhaps. A nice lingering bitterness on the finish. Decent everyday wine. Paired well with lamb chops and a side dish of sautéed mushrooms (eryngii--also known as king oyster mushrooms, among many other things--and shiitake) with bok choy. Reasonably priced at Grocery Outlet at $5.99 a bottle. I may go back for more, although I think the 2004 had a bit more presence.

Rain: Finally Some Rain (January 20, 2012)

It began raining last night. It continued all through Friday the 20th and into the night. This morning, the morning of the 21st, the rain gauge has 3.7 inches in it, which is great news. That brings our total for the 2011-2012 rainy season to 8.75 inches. While that's an improvement and the plants in the garden are visibly refreshed, the historical average for January 21 in Santa Rosa is 19.34 inches, which puts us more than ten inches behind normal. December 2011 was one of the driest Decembers in Santa Rosa history. Average annual rainfall here is normally just under 32 inches. Let us hope that February and March are wet.

[Update: Yesterday, Saturday the 21st, was mostly clear, but it began raining again overnight and it's been pouring this morning, Sunday the 22nd. As of around 10:00AM we had added another 0.15 inches, bringing the total to 8.9 inches, but that will surely go up if it keeps raining like this.]

Art I'm Looking At: San Francisco Fine Print Fair 2012

Once a year, usually at the end of January or first week of February, some of the best fine print dealers in the country come to San Francisco's Fort Mason Center to show and sell fine prints and drawings. The quality of the offerings is consistently very high. The show this year will be Saturday, January 28, and Sunday, January 29. There is a preview on the preceding Friday evening (6-9PM, with a $20 admission charge, including wine and hors d'oeuvres), but the fair is free on Saturday and Sunday (10-6 on Saturday, 11-5 on Sunday). I'm looking forward to it. I plan to be there on Saturday morning. I'll try not to buy anything and will succumb only if I feel that I absolutely must--in which case, it will have been the right thing to do.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--White Flowering Japanese Plum Prunus Mume (January 15, 2012)

January 14 brought the first blossoms of 2012 on the white flowering Japanese plum in the side garden. This is Prunus mume, a wonderfully fragrant plum that can make half the garden smell like spring. It's usually among the first plants to flower in the new year. Last year, in 2011, it bloomed earlier than usual, on January 4. Thus, the tree calculated a longish year of 376 days. It bloomed on January 21 in 2009 and on January 19 in 2010, for years of 350 days and 363 days. So far, a year as viewed by this particular tree, has averaged 363 days--a little short of an actual year.

Found Art: Liquidambar Seed Pods, Santa Rosa (January 16, 2012)

I recently saw these seed pods on a liquidambar, or sweet gum, tree. They reminded me very much of some of the photographs of Karl Blossfeldt. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Places I'm Visiting: The Green Music Center (January 2012)

Last Sunday I visited the new Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, on the Sonoma State University campus. Subscribers to the Santa Rosa Symphony are being given the opportunity to see the place and state their seat preference for upcoming seasons (not that I expect anyone but the wealthy and well connected to get what they want). For reasons I still don't understand, the new hall is about 160 seats smaller than the old Luther Burbank Center for the Arts (or the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts) that it will replace. Would it really have destroyed the acoustics to have made the place 10 feet wider to add a couple more rows of seats? Shouldn't the new building have been more capacious, if anything? Surely there was a solution that would have delivered great sound without making it harder to get good seats. I've been a subscriber for going on 12 years now. I had a seat dead center, about two thirds of the way back, which was perfect (in the new hall, a seat a little further back and therefore a little higher would seem to be ideal). As I don't have the means to make large donations, I suspect my new seat will be a disappointment. We'll see.

That said, the sound seems likely to be superb, and it certainly seems to be even, with no dead spots. It sounds good just about anywhere you listen from, even from the upper balconies--although the sight lines are not very good from the side balcony seats. There is a clarity to the sound that is already apparent from listening to some of the performers that were playing on stage while I visited, allowing patrons to get a feel for the space.

The new concert hall is undeniably beautiful. All clad in satiny wood of various grains and colors, you simply want to reach out and touch everything. On the downside, there is a somewhat cramped feel to the place, particularly in those side balcony areas. I think they will be difficult for some of the more elderly people in the audiences to navigate (and the symphony concerts are attended by a mostly elderly crowd, unfortunately). The rise of the main floor is quite gradual. I suspect shorter people will be disappointed, especially in the center orchestra section toward the front. Perhaps most worrisome, the stairways are all made of the same beautiful woods that cover the floors--beautiful to look at, but treacherous; even I had trouble in places seeing the edges of the stairs. The wood strips run parallel to the stairs and, depending on the angle of the light, the sea of parallel seams can create an illusion of a single flat space. This seems like an accident waiting to happen. I'd be willing to bet that either a guest falls or, before that, someone involved in management will see that some sort of material needs to be added to the edges of the steps to provide a visual aid. Let's hope it's the latter.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2007 Pizzato Vale dos Vinhedos Chardonnay (January 11, 2012)

Today I tasted the 2007 Pizzato Vale dos Vinhedos Chardonnay from Brazil. I can't remember seeing Brazilian wines on the shelves of stores here before, and this is the first Brazilian wine I've tasted, but the Pizzato Chardonnay appears to have a fairly long history. Brief tasting notes follow.

Very pale straw color. Not nearly as deeply hued as most Chardonnays. Fairly distant on the nose, but with sappy scents and something waxy. Knowing nothing about this wine, I might have guessed it a Semillon from the scent. Not much suggestion of oak, if any. On the palate, deceptively light at first, but it had something suggestive of a Pinot Blanc--a certain restrained richness offset with delicate acidity on a respectably long finish. Hints of pineapple. Reminiscent of one of those good Italian white wines that seems insubstantial at first but gradually grows on you. This is subtle and interesting--far more interesting than I expected it to be. Not your typical Chardonnay. I suspect wine drinkers used to California Chardonnay won't get this, but it seems well made and I found it enjoyable. Very attractively priced at only $4.99 a bottle at Grocery Outlet in Santa Rosa. It normally sells for around $18 a bottle. Having said all that, in the course of a meal it began to seem a trifle flat. It could have used a little more acidity to keep it interesting. If you try this, I'd recommend drinking it immediately. I suspect the 2007 wine has appeared discounted at Grocery Outlet recently because Brazilian wine is not that well known among average consumers in the US and because newer vintages are available.  I'd be interested to sample this wine in fresher vintages. Still, worth a try at least.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Cyclamen Coum

As in past years, the tiny cyclamen Cyclamen coum has become the first flower to bloom in the garden in the new year--today, January 8. The plant bloomed on January 8 also in 2009. It bloomed on January 3 in 2010. In 2011, it bloomed early, on December 23, 2010--not actually into 2011. This year, it's back on schedule, so to speak. Cyclamen coum has thus calculated a long year of  381 days, following a short 352-day year last year and a 360-day year the year before. The average since I began checking has been 364.5 days, almost exactly a calendar year--supporting my supposition when I started this project that years calculated by plants from first bloom to first bloom are likely to average to a calendar year over time, even if there are aberrant years.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2001 Chateau Julien "Private Reserve" Monterey County Merlot

Tonight I tasted the 2001 Chateau Julien "Private Reserve" Monterey County Merlot. I knew nothing about Chateau Julien and I have little experience with Monterey County Merlot. I chose this wine simply because it was inexpensive and--being called a "Private Reserve"--I was hoping it was solid enough in its youth to have stood up to the 11 years it's been in bottle. Brief tasting notes follow.

Pretty to look at. Moderately deeply hued, but not at all a dark, inky wine. Garnet-tinged edges. Showing its age. Herbal on the nose, suggesting red vermouth or bitters. Not a lot of fruit scent, but attractive nevertheless--although I suspect many wine drinkers used to young California wines would find the nose rather foreign. Distant suggestions of licorice. Something reminiscent of sun-dried tomatoes. With time, gained some floral scents. Overall, rather delicate on the nose. My first impression on the palate was disappointment, but the wine got better as I lingered over it. It would be easy to dismiss this as past its prime--which it is. Clearly it's tired. There's only moderate fruit left and the attack seems weak--but it has its charms. For example, there are some good plummy flavors on the mid-palate and the finish is long enough and just complex enough to keep things interesting, despite a lack of real body and presence. In particular, the finish has an attractive nuttiness, a hint of sweetness, and delicate tannins that I enjoyed. If you like your wines bold, brash, fruity, and alcoholic, skip this one, but, if you like the sort of flavors typical of mature wines, you might give it a try. At only $5.99 a bottle at Grocery Outlet in Santa Rosa, I'm not complaining. The current vintage (2008) sells for $42 a bottle on the winery's website. I was just in Monterey last week. I wish I'd known. I might have visited the winery to try some of this producer's more recent efforts. (Although, the fact this is for sale at Grocery Outlet, heavily discounted, may say more about the storage of this particular batch of wine rather than the wine itself.)

Places I'm Visiting: Carmel, Monterey, San Simeon (December 29, 2011-January 1, 2012)

On a short year-end trip to Carmel, Monterey, and San Simeon I visited the Hearst Castle for the first time in many years. The tours are set up in a much better way now than they once were. You can visit one or more of a few sets of rooms with a tour guide and then you're left free to walk around the gardens and visit the indoor pool at leisure. When I last went to San Simeon you could see the pool only on specific tours and you were never set free in the gardens. I took the Grand Rooms Tour, which lets you see the main living room, the dining room, the billiards room, and the theater. Other tours take you through the more private rooms in the house. One goes through the kitchen and other work rooms in the house.

There is much beautiful art in the house. I noticed a very nice altarpiece in the living room, but wasn't able to ask the guide about it. There were some good persian tiles, and a great deal of interesting furniture and architectural detail, much of it shipped over from Europe. Aside from the above-mentioned altarpiece, though, there aren't a lot of paintings in the house, which is a bit strange. Hearst's taste ran to the grandiose and it seems to have been best indulged by acquiring sculpture and buying pieces of buildings. I can't think of another man so wealthy that didn't accumulate a lot of paintings.

There's a great deal of sculpture in the gardens. Some of it beautiful, some of it in comical bad taste. The collections are very uneven. I wonder how much of Hearst's art collection consisted of things he liked, how much consisted of objects he bought because he could afford to and was advised to by others? I liked the lions on a large stone fountain in the gardens (top). A guard told me the fountain was Italian. Although it's topped with a replica of Donatello's David in Florence, the fountain looked more Spanish to me. The young woman with her arms raised at left is an example of one of the more kitschy works in the gardens. As they say, there's no accounting for taste.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that the indoor Roman Pool is among the highlights of the castle. The entire place is decorated with gold and lapis tiles. The gold tiles are clear glass with gold leaf infused into them. Many of the mosaics show sea creatures. The gold patterns at the bottom of the pool are intended to evoke a starry night sky. The handrails at the pool exits and the posts supporting the distinctive lamps are made of lightly veined Vermont marble. The statues around the pool are modern copies of Greek and Roman originals made for Hearst in Italy. The pool is directly below a number of tennis courts with glass panels set into them that light the pool from above. One of the guards told me that architect Julia Morgan advised Hearst not to proceed with such a plan as it would surely leak and damage the ceiling, which it has. It remains a very special space nevertheless.

Birds I'm Watching: Carmel, Monterey, San Simeon (December 29, 2011-January 1, 2012)

On a short trip at year-end, showing around friends visiting from Japan, I went to Carmel, Monterey, and San Simeon, going to the Hearst Castle for the first time in many years.

I got up early to do a little bird watching each morning. I enjoyed seeing Heermann's Gulls at all three locations, in both breeding and non-breeding plumage. These are birds that have already left our area (Sonoma County) for the year and that rarely show up there in breeding plumage with their snowy white heads, scarlet bills, charcoal backs, and jet black legs. These are among the most beautiful of the gulls.

At the Best Western Hotel a few miles from San Simeon, I took an early walk on the beach and was rewarded with one of those memorable birding moments: At one point I could see two Wrentits, a Song Sparrow, a Lincoln's Sparrow, a Hermit Thrush, a Snowy Egret, a Spotted Sandpiper, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a Say's Phoebe, and a Black Phoebe without turning my head. The Say's Phoebe posed for me (left). Other birds I saw included Least Sandpipers, Marbled Godwits, a lone Black-bellied Plover, the Heermann's Gulls, American Crow, and American Pipit. One strange sight was numerous Great Egrets apparently standing on the water, well offshore. They were actually standing on kelp mats, hunting for fish. I've never seen Great Egrets out at sea before.

For information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: San Francisco Show Window (January 2, 2012)

I was in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. Oddly, Union Square was completely closed off and nothing was going on. I enjoyed looking at some of the store windows, though. I particularly liked this one. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.