I often joke that the title to my memoir will be 'My Grandmother Died, and I Went to Heaven'. Because when she left the planet, she left behind the means to get out of Dodge, aka Hayward, and move to Valhalla, aka Sonoma.
Not a day goes by that I don't notice something that reminds me how very lucky I am to be in Sonoma. It starts with the sun streaming in through the blinds partially covering my bedroom window. Then again, I notice the geese honking and gliding through my backyard airspace as I spray a little water on my Society Garlic plants, roses, and irises that adorn my 'first' backyard. There are fruit trees - plum and persimmon - in the 'second' backyard and in backyards three, four and five I have seven beautiful mama lambs grazing in the grass - very efficient lawnmowers for a scenic expanse of land that keeps my view of the hills behind the house uncluttered.
Or maybe it's when I drive to school through vineyards in their varying stages of budbreak, growth, fruit, golden leaves dropping to the ground, to start branches and back again in delicious cycle of wine.
Ok, the kids at school give me a little stress, but then 3:00 arrives and I have time to grade papers, take Buddy for a walk around the plaza, go to the farmer's market on Tuesdays during daylight savings time months, or just enjoy a swim in the pool in backyard number one. I also get to go to KSVY and fulfill a very early dream of being a radio dj! I just logged my 5th year as host of Variations on a Theme - a weekly theme-based musical exploration each week on Sunday mornings. To me it's a meditation, almost like going to church. Sometimes the music reaches a spiritual high that rivals the best sermons.
And then there is the wine. I spend most of my Sunday afternoons in the tasting room at Imagery Estate Winery. I'm not drinking that much, although tasting the wine is part of the routine, but I get to be the happy person behind the bar pouring tastings of some of the most magical wine I have experienced. And the scenery is again, Paradise. It's actually hard to find squalor around here, I'm sure if I dug hard enough, I'd find a little, but why would I do that? I just keep my head up and each day delights.
