Visitors



This weekend we enjoyed a visit from out-of-town guests. 
J offered to help Jeff trim a couple of dangerous branches off the old apple tree.
They got to wear fancy headgear.  Aren't they cute?  :-)
M helped me clean up all the bits and pieces afterwards.
(The wood!  No tree trimmers were harmed during this production!)

Riff and Keeper had a lovely long walk...then helped me plant a few primroses and move a baby Christmas tree into a bigger pot.  Haha!  They are good gardogeners! 

Later, we drove up to the Geyserville area to check out Francis Ford Coppola's winery digs. 

The place was basically empty.  Nice!
The winery features a lovely big pool, open to the public,
and a fancy restaurant. 
The young lifeguard was bored silly.
The waiters were busy.

They have plenty of Coppola movie memorabilia on display.
Like the Tucker car,
and these skulls from Apocalypse Now...

...and the Godfather's desk and chair. 
(Complete with random young tourist.)

 

The best part of our tour was playing a bunch of bocce ball. 
I won one game.  Yay! 

After we looked at the menu for the Rustic Restaurant at Coppola's we decided to stop in Healdsburg for a sandwich at Oakville Grocery.  Yum!  We also stumbled into the Wild Steelhead Festival in the Healdsburg Town Square.  My friends didn't understand why I bought a baseball cap with a fish on it...but I bet you do.  We rounded out the day with a nice dinner (and a margarita!) at LaRosa Grill.  Lovely weekend, all the way around. 

Our other visitors were predators:


We've had a lot of hawk action this week.
They're noisily staking out territory in the tall redwoods behind our house,
where they frequently nest...
...much to the chagrin of neighboring scrub jays and small rodents.



Juvenile Red-tailed hawk. (I think!)
Beautiful.