Life has slowed down rather considerably since getting back from our travels. We've done a couple of rambles, seen a few concerts, and now we have the ever lively rohangypsy staying with us. As I type, she and raayat are at the Proms for a performance of Mahler 9 and I'm headed off to yoga shortly. Not really a Mahler fan myself, but very glad that the two of ( Read more... )

Perhaps I should be keeping count of how many times I use this title ( Read more... )

must come to an end, my Mom's trip included. We had an absolute blast though. The weather was awesome, though a good bit warmer than Mom was expecting when she packed. Fair enough, it was the warmest week we've had since last summer, but it made for spending our days outside a really nice thing. Didn't quite stick to the original plan, but it ( Read more... )

( Weather meme from Ms. Bees )

Taken from one of my many wine newsletters, a mini-story of wine and dealing with a pest. Who knew that Texas and France went so far back? Never mind that for most of us, the closest we'll get to pre-phylloxera wines are those from original root-stock later taken to South America. I doubt I'll ever be of sufficient wine stature to ever qualify ( Read more... )

From the 30 Second Wine Advisor's letter today. I just couldn't resist ( Read more... )

( First of all, a meme (politics) )

Books
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Great book, though not quite as good as Portrait in Sepia. It has the same character set more or less as Sepia, but set two generations earlier. I think Sepia is probably the better novel - it comes out more polished and the use of memory and the creations of are much more elegant. Fortune is good, but ( Read more... )

This is from yesterday's edition of THE 30 SECOND WINE ADVISOR concerning how to combat cork taint through the humble plastic sandwhich bag. Since we're all budding oenophiles, I thought I'd link to it here for your wine enjoyment.

( Read more... )

Today after dinner, raayat and I cracked open a dessert wine to go with a very basic English goat cheese we picked up on a whim yesterday. So here's our thoughts:

Chateau Bouscasse - Pacherenc du Vic Bilh Brumaire (November) 1999From the web: Harvested in November, and matured for two years in oak barriques, the extra-ripe, sugar-concentrated petit ( Read more... )