My apologies . . .

 . . . for not posting last week but somehow I just couldn't get inspired.  I didn't have any nice stories and my husband is gone right now on a 10 day trip and somehow I get more lethargic when he is away.  Plus the Netflix disk came in for our Wii and I got to spend far more time than normal watching movies.  Geez, doesn't that sounds pathetic!  However, just so you don't think I didn't do anything I did get a large patch of dying hebe ripped out in my own yard and replanted with plenty of flowers and a few grasses, now I am impatient for everything to grow.  Which reminds me, I do have a story.

Our property backs a creek and so we have a fair collection of wildlife that wanders through,  in fact, planting is always risky because it might well end up being a deer snack but that's for another time.  So this weekend we had a wild turkey wander through while the cats were outside.  Talk about close encounters of the third kind!  Phineas and Ferb had no idea what to do with this comparatively giant creature and the turkey clearly knew it was in no danger so there was a lot of circling, investigating, quiet observing and maybe even a little posturing, on the part of the turkey of course, but no problems and eventually the turkey strolled on to eat someone else's grass.  It was quite entertaining for me to watch as well.  By the way you can see the afore mentioned hebe in the background.
We did finish bottling the whites last week, that was a great accomplishment.  A full day of Pinot gris and another full one of Seven, and now the bottler gets to rest until fall.  Not however the bottling crew.  The guys are outside replanting a section of bank that the December freeze killed off in a rather strange pattern while trying to dodge the rain and soak up the sun, ahh spring.  The dogs are running around getting gloriously dirty and I need to slink off to the barrel room.  I need to taste all the Chardonnay barrels, only 17 of them so it should go quickly, as well as check the individual pHs.  I also will be pulling samples of all the BeckenRidge Pinot noir barrels to sit down and taste tomorrow morning at home.

As far as the vineyard goes, bud swelling has started and even a few future leaves are starting to distinguish themselves.  So no more FROST!  If we have a frost now we could lose part of this fall's potential crop in a few short hours.  So everyone keep your fingers crossed, especially during the next full moon in about two weeks.