Photography, Travel, Gardening
Jet-Setting to Napa, Bees in my Garden, and Succulent Blooms
A week in photos
We had a bit of an adventure last weekend. We belong to a food and wine group and the whole group was invited to attend a special dinner celebrating the legendary wine maker, Richard Peterson’s, 90th birthday and his seventy years of making wine.
The event was to be held at another wine maker’s residence in Napa, California, and a friend of ours, who was also planning to attend, invited us to ride along in his partner’s private jet. It’s not everyday that you get to ride in a private jet — so we brought along some nice champagne for everyone. I have always loved flying, but this takes it to a new level.
Enchantment was in the air that evening. We dined alfresco, under a wisteria-clad patio cover, and were invited to meander around the extensive gardens, which backed up to rows of grapevines.
As you can see, we tasted a LOT of wine, some of it from Dr. Peterson’s private cellar. The highlight of the night was a flight of 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1972 Beaulieu Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Georges de Latour Private Reserve, Napa Valley.
It’s pretty rare to taste wine that old. It was exceptional. And the stories that Dr. Peterson shared about each vintage were even better. The 1968 was my favorite vintage.
I have to admit that I had a bit of garden envy — most especially for this greenhouse full of orchids. I’ve always wanted a green house.
Daisies erupted from the sides of the pathways.
And a Japanese garden beckoned from beyond the house.
Alas, the evening was over all-too-soon and we flew home the next day.
Back in my own garden, the bees are buzzing everywhere. Their favorites though are the fuzzy borage and the lavender.
The succulent blooms are starting to wind down, but they sure do put on a show — each individual flower opens up one at a time from the base of the arching bloom to the very tippy top.
And even when they’re not blooming, I think that succulents are little gems in the garden.
I was also honored last week to be interviewed about writing, and about medium.com. I have to confess that I was a bit nervous about being interviewed, and we had to do a few takes. But it was a fun experience.
My dear friend, Rebecca Fulton Rendon, who interviewed me, has a great YouTube channel called The Mamalorian Way where she shares all sorts of tips about money, entrepreneurship and life from the eyes of a mother and wife.
She wanted to know a little more about medium.com and how it all worked. We talked about the wonderful tribe of writers I’ve met here, about how consistency in any creative endeavor helps you to grow and about how to get started in making connections and gaining readers on the platform.
If you’d like to watch the video, you can click on the link below. You’ll get a little peek at Mr. Emerson meandering through the garden behind me too!
I hope that you enjoyed this week in photos. As always, I thank you Dennett for creating this SNAPSHOTS “week in photos” challenge. It’s always so fun to share about the week and to read about so many other photographers’ weeks around the world.
You might want to check out a few of the others who participate:
Dennett Anne Bonfert Eileen Vorbach Lisa Bolin Tracy Aston David Wade Chambers Mia Verita Kim Zuch Barbara Radisavljevic LensAfield Barbara Dalton Sasha Meyer Susan Alison Diana Lotti Barbara Dalton K. Barrett June Nguyen Juan O. Aguilera
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).
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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.