lummi island wine tasting november 15, ’14
This Week’s Breads
Janice brings a basket of fresh-baked bread for sale each Friday afternoon shortly after 4pm. All breads are first come first served.
This week:
— Hearty Country Hearth Bread with toasted pumpkin seeds –mmm, delicious! $5/loaf
—Multi-grain Cranberry Walnut Bread– made with buckwheat and whole wheat flours, dried cranberries and toasted walnuts – turkey sandwich anyone? – yum! $5/loaf
Be sure to stock up this week, cuz no bread for the next TWO WEEKS! Next “Bread Friday” will be Friday December 5th!!
Green Ketch update
The three-foot hole in her side has been repaired, and she has been drawn in higher on the shore somewhat in the shelter of Lovers’ Bluff. It may be some time until engine power is restored, and we have received no updates. We can tell you that she is sitting Very Close to the spot on the beach where the Happy Jack spent many quiet years before being carved up into car-sized chunks and hauled away Somewhere. The Green Ketch (aka “Ning Ning”) is a long way from home and needs a lot of work. So maybe she will just lie here for the winter and then we’ll see.
We worry that, like the old cars that we can’t seem to part with, and which will probably never run again, she could settle into the landscape for a decade or two, waiting for rescue. Still, she’s pretty solid, and we continue to hope her lads will sail her away yet.
Longing for something to Yay about
As nearly as I can tell, what I am calling “yaying” became extinct when I turned about 12, maybe even before, and that was way back in the mid-fifties. Here’s how it worked. It’s early Saturday afternoon, any time of year. A gang of neighborhood kids walks en masse downtown to one of the local movie theaters (there were only four). There was usually a Newsreel, often a Cartoon, and then a main feature, often a Western featuring Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, or even Audie Murphy (the soft-spoken, real-world war hero). And of course there were lots of war movies, also.
Now I know it is hard for the four of you who occasionally read this blog to imagine a world in which TV was still a novelty, and home video players were the stuff of science fiction. The point here is that each Saturday, given the adventurous nature of the films, and given that we were kids and could still allow our imaginations to get us excited, there were always a few scenes in each movie in which the hero, (or the actual Cavalry!) would show up just in the nick of time to save The Girl or the Hapless Scapegoat from the cruel plans of the Bad Guys in general and the Really Bad Guy in particular. Inevitably, each time such a moment arrived (sometimes actually accompanied by a bugler playing “Charge!”) the entire theater would erupt in a deafening “YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!! (click on the image and turn on your sound for a half-hearted imitation of what it was like)
Unfortunately right now feels like one of the Darker Moments in our history, for a lot of reasons, including the recent “Best Election that money could buy,” the Drug Traffickers in Mexico, the Fanatics in the Middle East (yes, including Israel), the bankers owning Everything, Climate Change putting the Entire Future up for grabs, Democrats who act like Republicans, Republicans who act like Idiots…in sum, the World Gone Crazy. So the tiny point of this rant is, yeah, I long for the simple days when here in our Darkest Hour the Cosmic Cavalry would come charging over the hill, bringing with them Justice, Peace, Hope, Community, and Mutual Respect, and we would all stand on our seats and yell with all our hearts, “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!
sad sigh…
November Ducks
Given the small rant above (I’ve been under a lots of stress lately), sometimes the best we can do is take comfort in the small glories of Everyday Life. Most days find us walking the dogs from our place down to Legoe Bay. Most of the year there is a group of Mallards (three pairs) resident in the little slough along Legoe Bay Road south of Tuttle. I don’t know enough about them to know if the same families are year-round residents (please post a comment if you know) or if there is a parade of transients. What I do know is that their life is appealing– a little paddling, a little browsing, a little sticking your head in the water and your tail in toward the sky, a little munching, a little napping…hey, even an occasional spin around the joint on wing! All in all, a pretty good life, and all in all, a pretty good reminder that we are so very lucky to be here in this place and, like our feathered friends, have each other and this lovely pond to swim in.
comforted sigh…
You sing, we pour
It has been very slowly evolving as a “policy.” But like starfish wars, it has been So Slow that unless you see it in ultra slo-mo, it’s hard to tell anything is going on at all. But every once in a while, a musician will stop by the wine shop, and at some point in the conversation will offer to go out to the car and get an instrument and play music for awhile.
It turns out that because of all the hard surfaces in the shop the acoustics are excellent. Of course, this has been clear to all of us for a long time, because generally somewhere between 10 and 14 people in the space the ambient conversational noise level makes conversation impossible. Yes, that’s right, the act of conversation makes conversation impossible. But that’s another story.
The point here is that friend and occasional wine shop visitor Paul came by in late afternoon on Sunday, near the close of Studio Tour, with his lovely Martin D28 guitar (which, I confess, I DO covet!), and offered to play a few tunes. As always, we were delighted, because when everyone is listening and not talking, live music sounds very, very good in our little space. The downside of our acoustic situation is that when ten or more people are talking at once, conversation is essentially impossible! All of this is to say that we encourage performers of all persuasions and talents to bring your stuff by. We are always happy to trade a full tasting for two for a 20 minute performance (longer if you want!).
This Week’s Wine Tasting
Domaine Girard Chardonnay ’12 France $13
Medium to full bodied with fleshy notes of fresh-picked apples and pears; no oak, but spends time on the lees to give it richness; clay soils at a higher elevation impart a delightful freshness.
Renegade Red ’12 Washington $10
Blend of mostly Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Cab Franc; shows lots of red and black fruits, scents of loamy minerality, and fine grained tannins that are matched with balanced acidity.
Atalaya Laya ’12 Spain $10
70% Garnacha and 30% Monastrell; Cassis, blueberry, pungent herbs and mocha aromas lead to an open-knit palateof fresh cherry, dark berry, and a hint of black pepper and a subtle floral note.
Renaudie Tradition ’11 France $16
Côt and Cab Franc; aromas of cherries, blackcurrant, and dark fruit with fine, silky tannins.
William Church Bishop’s Blend ’10 Washington $18
Cab-dominant Bordeaux blend with a splash of Grenache; lush and round with notes of grenadine, black cherry, sweet tobacco and forest spice.
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2072 Granger Way
I don’t know anything about the mallards. I do know that more than 4 people read your blog, so please continue with any rants you feel a need to rant – they are comforting to those of us who haven’t the words but do share the emotion. Sigh. And of course your reminders of the ‘better’ world that surrounds all of us when we look…like mallards and good wine.