Bill's Blog

Fire and Fantasy

January 14, 2012

Madison, State Capital of Wisconsin, has one of the nicest State Capital buildings I have come across...

In the daylight...
(at the bottom of the image you can see some of the controversy surrounding the Governor)

In the early evening..

and just after dark...

During the day, you can walk through the building from one end to the other,
with no security in sight
(an amazing thing in these days and times).

Surrounding the capital building are

guys keeping a close watch on things,

beautifully restored old buildings,

and fancy embellishments on the buildings
(I'm sure they have a formal name, I just don't know what it is)

The days I was there Wisconsin was experiencing a heat-wave: temperatures got into the 50's. The local citizenry treated it like a warm Spring day: t-shirts, short dresses and even the occasional pair of shorts.

I, on the other hand, was more sensibly dressed with a heavy coat, gloves and a warm hat.

January 7-8, 2012

Sign of an overly- documented society...

Ummm, guys, it is a charger for a camera battery:
Plug in charger
Insert battery
When light goes out, remove battery

Is all this REALLY necessary?
(this is only page 1 of 2 pages!)

Tres Sabores

Tres Sabores is a small Rutherford winery that makes excellent Organic Certified wines... and is one of the most beautiful places in the world to spend the night. They have one room they rent out and we were lucky enough to be given the gift of an overnight there.

This is the quiet time of the year at the vineyards: the grapes have been picked and processed, the new growth hasn't started yet and the pruning is a bit of a ways away.

Staying overnight gives you something that, unless you live at a winery or vineyard, very few people see: Sunrise with the grapes. 

The sheep are turned out just before sunrise to graze amongst the vines

Did I mention they rent one room? They do that mainly because... there is only ONE room: an extremely nice "one room apartment" located on one end of the wine building that doubles as the Tasting Reception during the day. Very private, very nice: a perfect place to decompress and forget, for a little while, the craziness of our world.

December 27-28, 2011

Thank-you, Julie: it was perfect!