A Side Trip to Sonoma

I recently made a whirl-wind trip to New York/New Jersey (I just returned this past Tuesday). I spent a week in New Jersey with my parents. There I rummaged through the remnants of my possessions in the storage unit, sorting through stuff one last time, making the decision what I would keep, what would ship to Hawai'i, and what would become garage sale items. Then it was a week commuting back and forth to New York, visiting with people I work with, doing a bit of shopping, and the highlight and main reason for scheduling the trip when I did, was to see the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA. If you can find images online, I highly suggest checking it out because the exhibit was incredible, and the man is a genius!!!

To end the trip back to Hawai'i I made a side trip to Sonoma to visit my friend Kathy Miller, accompanied by our mutual friend Marinda Stewart. It was then three days of wine and olive oil tastings, chocolate, strawberries, artisan cheeses and wonderful, creative conversation. My camera didn't come out until Sonoma, and here are some pics that I took.

This is a tree in a very eclectic garden, antique and artist center. It is covered with blue plastic christmas balls. I love how the sky has such a lavender hue compared to the balls.

These were taken on Kathy's property. This is a shot of the studio... studio??? I could live there!!

Wisteria outside the main house.

If you enlarge this photo you can really see the wonderful texture in the fence post and the rusty barbed wire (rust is one of my favorite finishes -- real or faux).

These are 100+ year old grape vines. These twisted shapes -- very Tim Burton -- remind me of the invasion of man-eating plants in the original "The Day of the Triffids".