spring things

In Minnesota, we used to joke that some time around May the weather went directly from winter to summer. Well, it wasn't really a joke - more of a fact. In Santa Barbara, I think the weather goes from "winter" (ie the time when the nights are cool and there *might* be rain), to "summer" (ie the time when there's definitely no rain at all and there *might* be fog). To be fair, that's kind of a non-complaint, given the general sunniness of this place, but for the last few weeks it's the kind of mix we've had.

A couple Mondays ago, Joey and I took off to wine country for an afternoon. I now have Mondays off at work, and the sun was out, we'd heard of a really good winery we'd somehow never been to before, and since Monday is a pretty low-traffic day for wine-tasting generally, we seized the opportunity. We visited Foley and Melville wineries, and thoroughly enjoyed what we found! The day was perfectly gorgeous, and because we went on the late side of things, we were finishing our tasting at Melville just as they were closing the tasting room. This meant that we got a couple extra pours of some delicious wines, and a lot of juicy inside info from the ladies behind the bar. It was good fun. Here are a couple shots:



We've also been tending our garden, which is a wonderfully time-consuming hobby; very relaxing after a day at work and a trafficky commute. Things are just starting to flourish. Our swiss chard is glorious, our brussels sprouts plants are ginormous and the little sprouts are peeking out, and we've got new little pepper, strawberry, corn, tomato, bean and squash plants, as well as all the herbs and seasonings our little hearts desire. Now if only we could win the Underground Battle of the Gophers, everything would be perfect :) Here are some images of the bounty.

The chard:
Corn, strawberries and marigolds:
Gorgeous lettuce greens:
The dominating brussels sprout plants:
(With a close-up of the little brussels sprouts growing off the stalk):
Blossoming Pride of Gibraltar flowers:

Me, doing watering duty in the sun:
Joey, doing watering duty in the fog:

The whole plot:
And for those who'd like more visuals, the full garden slideshow: