Lost Opportunities

We went in search of pots today in which OilMan and David can plant their hops. Placed beside the arbor that is yet to be built, the hops will grow up from the pots to the top of the arbor. I figure the blip opportunity will come when we try to get these huge pots from the back of our car, through a field and into their final resting place on the upper terrace.

We saw a bunch of turkey vultures this morning, sitting in a tree warming their wings, but they flew off as soon as the dogs realized they were up there and vice-versa. Vultures are much like crows in that they are very social and clearly communicate with one another. Whereas the crows seem to be holding board meetings, the vultures seem to be warming up and getting started, just like our old Peet's group.

There is an old church near my Pilates class, but they had taken down their sign announcing that Sunday would be a "Jazz Mass". It amused me to think of a religious institution featuring "the music of the devil"--no doubt they will do it again, and I'll have another chance.

With four heavy pots in the back of the car, we took the scenic route home--lots of crumbling old barns, splendid new vineyards, winery buildings and grazing horses, but OilMan was not about to stop.

I finally settled for a rather mediocre shot, taken from a moving car, of the mustard fields behind the vineyards of Matanzas Creek Winery. I know there is a reason why wineries plant mustard in or near their vineyards, but I will have to find out what it is. At this time of year, the mustard blossoms before anything else, and the blazing yellow fields liven up the landscape. Matanzas also has beautiful fields of lavender which bloom in April and May. They harvest it in June and sell all kinds of wonderful lavender products--culinary lavender, lavender stalks, lavender oil, soap and tea, to name a few. It's a lovely place to visit.