Sunflower

Up early this morning to retrieve my car from North Bay Bavarian. Certainly NOT a theme park, in fact a rather grim looking cement block building, but they DID wash my car, inside and out. I don't know if that quite justifies the appalling check we had to write to reclaim it, but it certainly helped. I must admit it felt good to be behind the wheel of my own car as we drove over to the farmhouse.

I've been feeling more than a little bit old and creaky the past few days since falling backward and bruising my bottom quite spectacularly. The sunflower is a volunteer from a stray seed from the bird feeder. It did a lot to lift my spirits to look up into its sunny face. It must be at least 6 feet tall and as big as a dinner plate. Lots of ripe tomatoes too. I never thought I'd get tired of Caprese salad and tomato sauce, and I'm sure that after a long winter of rock hard, useless tomatoes from Chile, my enthusiasm for home grown will have returned.

Back at the farmhouse, OilMan resumed his battle with the gophers so he could get on with his renovation project in the weed patch in front of the vineyard. I did mounds of laundry which we finally decided to take up to the farmhouse, since the repairman couldn't get to our house through the repaving chaos yesterday to fix our dryer.

It was a quick trip though. We're both back in Berkeley as tomorrow we drive to Sacramento for the wedding of our friend's daughter. I would love to be able to opt for the train if it only went anywhere near the distant suburb where the wedding will be.

Ozzie has spent as much time in the car as we have today so, we'll reward him with a walk and a good sniff round the bushes and light posts.