Lummi Island Wine Tasting September 1 ’12 Studio Tour
OMD, Drydock!… a brief rant
When I was a child, summer was Magical, seeming to last and last, challenging your ability to come up with things to do. Another bike ride to the ball field for a pickup game, a walk to the store for a soda, another novel from the library and maybe the latest serial in the (I am really dating myself here) Saturday Evening Post, the perfect magazine for summer.
So it is always a bit of a shock when Labor Day rolls around again, and I have the feeling, “Wait, wait, how can this be, I’m just getting ready to enjoy the summer!” But there you are, and here we are, and it is the end of August and the beginning of September, and on Lummi Island that means two things: Artists’ Studio Tour and annual Drydock for our ferry, the Whatcom Chief.
Only a few years ago Drydock wasn’t such a big deal. First, the boat wouldn’t leave service until the Sunday after Labor Day, giving Islanders and visitors a whole week to sort out their plans, travels, and cars to best coordinate their lives with the limitations of the passenger ferry. Now there is only One Day between Labor Day and the departure of the car ferry, which mashes together the Labor Day Weekend visitors with the ferry loads of people juggling their Island cars and Mainland cars to least disadvantage during drydock. As all Islanders know, this is now further complicated by the ever-shrinking parking capacity on the mainland. All I’m saying is that this time of year, this particular weekend on this particular Island, a lot of people have to be wondering…“What Are They Thinking???!!!!”
Studio Tour
Well the good news is that it’s time for another Studio Tour, and that means lots of visitors on the Island, and lots of great art from 10-6 on both Saturday and Sunday. This year there are 26 artists at 15 different venues. You can pick up a map with details at the Islander Store. We will be hosting three of the artists at the Gallery. If there is a theme that unites the styles of these three artists, it is something like “Just give me some random pieces of (cloth/junk/wood) and I (Kathy/Ryan/Gerry) will make something interesting out of them.” These are talented and creative people; please be sure to stop by and see their work! (click on images below for larger versions)
Kathy Elston returns after her very successful show on Memorial Day weekend with her mixed media
“fantasy dolls” that derive from her many years of textile exploration and her interests in myth, poetry, literature, and nature.
Ryan Wildstar returns with several new multimedia constructions that defy the traditional categories of art.
Gerry Schroeder fills out the ticket with an array of very creative woodcraft, including memory boxes, walking sticks, and weed pots (isn’t that redundant?).
September Wine Workshops: Sign up now!
Okay, given that it IS Drydock, and we would all like to find entertainment right here on the Island so we don’t have to deal with the passenger ferry and the parking and cetera, what CAN you do with your time? Well, one possibility is to sign up for one or more of Ryan’s Wine Tasting workshops. (see flyer for details). These workshops are modeled after the very popular series he did last fall, which many of you attended and enjoyed enough to take his wine tasting tour in France a few months ago: both educational and fun!
Domaine Moulinier
One of the highlights of our trip to France last fall, and for the group that went with Ryan in June, was a visit to Domaine Moulinier in St. Chinian. The winery is in its fifth and sixth generations with retiring winemaker Guy Moulinier (we had a great time trying to understand each other while he gave us a tour of the winery) and his son Stephane who now makes most of the wines. In the winery are astonishing displays of fossils and artifacts dug up in the past hundred years in their vineyards, including dinosaur eggs and bones and stone tools of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon hominids. Their collection rivals anything you would see in a museum, really amazing.
The important thing here is that we now have in stock a small amount of the Moulinier rose and their “Tradition” red wine. We hope to get more in the future; for now call or email to reserve some.
This week’s wines:
You wouldn’t think it would be that complicated to choose the wines for the weekend. However this year it is complicated by the fact that for the first time ever we are committed to staying on the Island for all of Drydock. We are not leaving a car on the mainland. We have no plan for what happens if we Really Have to Get To Town. Rather, we have stocked up on the necessities for Survival, including of course a great deal of wine to tide us all over.
Therefore, all I can tell you is that we will have our usual tasting format, generous sample pours of Four Wines for Five Bucks. These will include most likely a white wine, a rose, and two reds. If it is really hot, maybe more focus on white/rose, and if it is chilly, maybe more reds. So the wines may vary through the weekend depending on when you drop by. Sooo, now that I think about it, you might want to drop by a number of times!
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2072 Granger Way