Sunday, June 27, 2010

The vineyard on a summer Sunday morning

Today will be the warmest day of the year, so far. It certainly has the record for the warmest morning low this year at just over 18ºC (about 65ºF). Our high yesterday was near 30ºC (about 86ºF) and dry. These are very pleasant days and the vegetable garden is loving it. And the vineyard is looking very summery. The growers are plying the rows in their tractors trimming and spraying.

Looking northeast into the sunrise; our house is barely visible in the top center.

We have our first house guests of the season arriving today. Friends from California, who have both been here before, will be the first to stay in the new guest room. You can read about that on Ken's blog if you haven't already. I'm planning to make a quiche that we'll have with pâtés and other things later in the day. It'll be a good day for eating outdoors.

Neatly trimmed rows soak up the morning sun.

If I'm really industrious, I will make some ice cream. We were given a little ice cream maker by a friend who moved and couldn't take everything. It will be the first time I've used it. We used to have one of those old Donvier ice cream makers many years ago. That's the one where you freeze the bowl then hand-crank the mixture. This new one works the same way, except that it has an electric mixer, so there's no hand-cranking.

The flowers are gone and the grapes are forming.

8 comments:

  1. I love that photo of the vines.

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  2. What a perfect day you're having for homemade ice cream. Enjoy!

    BettyAnn

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  3. Walt, appreciating the art of cricket takes time. Cricket, played at its best, at any level can be facinating. My son played for many years, and at one time he had a french student staying with us on an exchange visit. Tom was playing cricket so we took his visitor along too. I think after about an hour he asked 'how much longer'? we told him that the match at schoolboy level would take another 2 hours, but other matches could last for a day, three days or even five days! He thought we were joking......!
    We are pleased that there isn't any tennis today as there is a cricket match against Australia (and we are currently ahead in the series)a Grand Prix, and the England v Germany World Cup game. How much more excitement could we take on the same day?!!!
    I am enjoying the blog...thanks, and keep up the good work

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  4. It sounds like you're both really excited about your sure-to-be-fun-filled day!

    Judy

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  5. Home-made ice cream!! I've only had it once, but it was really great.

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  6. Love the last pic very much! Thanks for sharing :)

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  7. WOW!!!! It's beautiful in the summer time!!! Have a great week!

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  8. jean, it is pretty this time of year.

    bettyann, it was very refreshing!

    gaynor, I knew it! I knew there had to be a cricket match! And footy. Sorry to hear the England lost...

    judy, it was a nice time!

    starman, this was our first try. We now have a list of different flavors we want to attempt.

    vtt, you're welcome!

    leesa, you too!

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