What's left & Blogiversary

The harvest of 2017 is in the barrels, or tanks, fermenting. Soon the first of the bernache, that fizzy semi-alcoholic grape juice which is very, very young wine, will make its appearance at markets around the region. The primeur wines (our region's version of Beaujolais Nouveau) will show up toward the end of November. The vine leaves are turning color and starting to drop. All that's left on the vines now are bare bunches, picked clean by the mechanical harvesters.

Through the winter, these vines will be pruned down to a single cane.

We had a nice day on Sunday, doing basically nothing. Except that Tasha and I went to the supermarket (she stayed in the car). I wanted something to grill since the weather was so nice. I thought a piece of salmon would be tasty, or pork chops. Well, the few chops they had didn't look so good. I found  faux filet (what we would call sirloin) on sale, so I got the steaks. There were three good-sized steaks in the package. I grilled one and the other two went into the freezer for another time.

The weather was glorious, but I did no yard work. We're expecting two more days of bright sun and warm weather before fall returns. According to the reports, hurricane Ophelia is far enough out in the Atlantic that it will miss France, except for maybe the western tip of Brittany, but it's heading directly toward Ireland and Britain. The storm should no longer be a hurricane when it hits, but they're saying it will still be a strong storm.

Today is this blog's 12th birthday! It's weird to think that I've been doing this, almost daily, for twelve years. How much longer can it last? Facebook and Twitter and Instagram seem to be the social media fashion these days. But I like the creative control I have with the blog. I'm a old fogey, I guess. I remember thinking that 8-track tapes were cool. Oops. I preferred Beta to VHS. Lost that one, too. I still use paper maps on trips. I'm afraid that if I give a car the opportunity to tell me where to go... it will. I refuse to give up my land-line telephone. I'm uneasy about having a phone that's smarter than me. So there you have it. I continue to blog. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and get the milk bottles out of the icebox.