Driving to Portland on Friday afternoon... Highway 12 at sunset...

feliz navidad

Bodhi doesn't appear to be amused by this as much as we were...

Punch Downs

Pictures of David and Andy doing 'Punch Downs' at Tamarack Cellars. A punching down is done to keep the fermenting wine and skins mixed up during red wine fermentation. As the wine ferments, the skins rise to the top of the tank and form a thick "cap." It's important to break up the cap a few times a day to increase the extraction of color and flavor, and to prevent the cap from drying out and/or developing bacterial problems. A punch down means the cap was manually pushed back into the fermenting wine using an instrument that looks like a huge potato masher.

Just another morning in Walla Walla...

squirrel hunting in the garden...

fire pit and moon and stars...

The fire pit at Waters Winery...

wedding & celebration

Last night we drove out to Waters Winery for a celebration with lovely Muriel and Dreux, who eloped over the summer, and who wanted to share an evening with friends and family to mark the happy occasion. 

origami cranes

There's a lunch place just off of Main Street called Glaze, and the whole of one side of it is covered in a beautiful origami cranes mural. Love it.

neighborhood horses

the front porch

wheel lines

These field-long sprinklers - called 'wheel lines' - dot the landscape of Walla Walla. I like their silhouettes against the skyline.

dream home

We've stumbled across our dream house. Not only is the main building a gorgeous home (built in 1885), but the lot has an additional, adjacent 800+ square foot store front, perfect for a tasting room (or a coffee shop, depending on which one of us you talk to). It's downtown, just off of 4th Avenue, and we're going to go and take a look at it. Why not...

jim german bar

You can find the Jim German Bar in Waitsburg, a small town (population 1,217), twenty minutes east of Walla Walla. Run by Jim and his wife, Claire, it's a cosy little place that serves up arguably the best cocktails in Eastern Washington. It could, quite possibly, be one of the best kept secrets of the West. Jim is a chemist, an artisan. He worked as a bartender for years, before opening his own place in 2010. The place is a hidden gem. 

harvest moon

Last night we climbed into the convertible and drove Highway 12 to Waitsburg, for the Jim German Bar experience. It was one of the most incredibly beautiful evenings I have ever seen. A full harvest moon over the cut wheat fields, warm air blowing my hair every which way, a blazing sunset behind us and the Zach Brown Band playing on the radio...

Drive until the city lights

Dissolve into a country sky

Just me and you

Lay underneath the harvest moon

Do all the things that lovers do

Just me and you

[photo credit]

sunday brunch

I'd heard about the infamous Sunday brunches in the Rudnick household, long before I ever moved to Walla Walla. They call them 'church' and I was ecstatic to be brought into the fold. Toni made champagne cocktails with peach slices and raspberries and bagels with lox, capers, spring onions and wafer thin slices of lemon. She then ramped up some Sheryl Crow and Paul Simon tunes, while Sam read the Sunday New York Times. Heaven. Am fully embracing the tradition.

friendly old town

What a week. We arrived in Walla Walla last Wednesday afternoon, from Tahoe, after traveling through parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. We are staying at the beautiful home of Sam and Toni Rudnick, on Sturm Avenue... complete with huge garden, hot tub and state-of-the-art barbecue. It is so beautiful here, and I am taken aback by the landscape. Golden hills rolling for as far as the eye can see, and the most breath-taking sunsets. I am slowly becoming acquainted with the place, and am really taken with what I've been seeing and experiencing. It's a friendly old town, for sure.