Website relaunch & Sylvia's Super Awesome Maker Show!

This is my friend Sylvia in her very first episode of her very own show! I love it and am so excited to know this super awesome girl!

Also exciting is the fact that her dad helped us to relaunch our old website and update it with fresh navigation and graphics and stuff. Congratulations to Super Awesome Sylvia on her amazing maker show success and thanks to the techninja for all the support!

You can check out the new and improved website at www.greenfamilywinery.com

A different path

Did a little playing around with the garden path the other day. Simple things make for a delightful place to drink tea and relax. Rocks are always pretty and flowers make happiness happen.

The unknown awaits us!

Mandala Progress!

Here are some progress shots of the long awaited Mandala garden! It's huge! This "crop circle" is one of our biggest gardening projects yet. Spreading the composted manure in a layer over the whole thing took us many days of hard work but it's finally done and ready to plant in for late summer/fall season. Hooray!

A mountain of fun times.

Looks like a flower!

Hardest part will be figuring out what to plant in it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Zen and the Art of Vineyard Maintenance...

Whew!

Is that the general feeling that comes to mind when I think of the many days it took us (crew of about 3) to "tuck and sucker" the vineyard this year?

Sweaty hard work is fun!

How can a person possibly feel alive until they've wrestled a few hundred grape vines into place?

And...

It rained at a bizarre time of the year.

Actual water from the actual sky

And still hot as all get out.

People might long for the serene quiet of a country vineyard and imagine a country life off the beaten path. One would expect this occupation to be meditative and peaceful and I went into it ready to transcend this world through slow days of steady patience.

tuck. tuck. tuck. ..

But it's not peaceful at all. Tucking vines into trellises with your arms aching and sweat dripping into your eyes and sun baking you to a crisp does not inspire even the slightest moments of nirvana. But it was inspiring, motivating me to think of anything else unrelated to the task at hand. I thought a lot about summer goals, winter goals, travel plans, dreams I'd had, what to eat for dinner, whether or not that was a rattlesnake I just heard, how to get my next-door neighbors to loan me a come-along...

But it's over now, and relaxing on the cool rocks of our beautiful rivers and canyons has never been more appreciated. And if that somehow becomes boring, there's always harvest just around the corner.

Hot Yoga!

A friend recently introduced me to the wonderful world of hot yoga! The same day I started taking classes at a studio in town they were filming a youtube video. This is the video and place I do yoga now. Can you spot Molly and I?

I have to mention that I have taken yoga before with little success. It always seemed so slow and boring. Well hot yoga has been a completely different experience altogether and a total work out! I love it!

This is what I'm doing right now...

Zucchini Bread Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins (optional)

METHOD

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a third at a time. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. Fold in the nuts and dried cranberries or raisins if using.

2 Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour (check for doneness at 50 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Makes 2 loaves.