What I learned on my summer vacation, so far . . .

My friend Lisa and I celebrated the solstice by attending a beer tasting at Blanchard's in West Roxbury, for beer is truly the taste of summer. Though we have attended several wine tastings at Blanchards, this was our first beer tasting. It seemed a little strange at first, drinking tiny cups of beer one after the other, and trying to talk seriously about yeast and hops and fermentation . . . but I soon got used to it, and tasted enthusiastically, though I ended up buying only a sampler from my favorite beer-brewers, Smuttynose. Here's what I learned from the guy at the Smuttynose table: the history of the IPAs, and the dog on Brown Dog Ale is named Olive, and belongs to the brewery's owner. www.smuttynose.com


I resumed my Chinese studies this week. My extremely patient teacher, Hongchen Wang, www.newenglandchinese.com met with me to review my study of Mandarin, and develop a plan of study for the future. We decided that learning phrases to use with Lulu will be an excellent focus, so every week I will note things I want to say to her, try to translate them, and then confirm the translations with Hongchen. I've come up with many, many things I want to say: "too hot!" "that's sharp!" "that's dangerous!" "be careful!", "don't make a mess!" "clean up!", "be nice!", "don't hit . . . bite . . .hurt . . . touch", "dirty!", and "put that back!"

I had my first class today in a course called Behind the Scenes at Westport Rivers Winery. www.westportrivers.com In the six class meetings we will find out about growing and harvesting grapes, making wine, vineyard operation . . . plus we get to taste lots of wine! Today we talked about terroir, the sort of gestalt of wine, the interaction of location, climate, soil, grape varieties . . . everyone else in the class is like the people in Sideways--they know all about wine already--but I love being a beginner, and I love being in Westport, and especially on a farm. It's in the genes, y'know, since generations of my family have lived and farmed this lovely landscape. Today, standing in the vineyard, looking down at the Westport River, I felt so comfortable, and so content. I thought to myself, "This really is where I belong." My own terroir. And when I walked back from the vineyard, one of the other women in the class spotted Libby and Lulu playing under the trees (Gail was kind enough--saintly!--to entertain them for the two hours I was in class), and said "Look at those cute little girls!" and I said, "those are MY girls!"--at that moment I felt very happy, and grateful, and blessed indeed. I wish you all a beautiful summer!