the weather in the twin cities and a-maz-ing today. we have had the windows open since about 10:30am. the breeze is cool, the sun is bright. it’s awesome. i totally should’ve planned for a visit to a winery today, but, since i’m supposed to be taking it easy this weekend (i had a tooth pulled on thursday for my second — and final — tooth implant), i will relive the memories of a recent visit to a couple wineries with a few good girlfriends.

winehaven, in chisago city, is the second oldest winery in minnesota. it is also the fourth winery that we crossed off of our three rivers wine trail passports.

the tasting was free and pretty delicious! i enjoyed their deer garden blush quite a bit.

i’m a sucker for a cool label!

i wanted to buy more, but i resisted for now and just brought home a bottle of mead to enjoy sometime with jason.

kristi, bertine, vani, and i were heading to one more winery for our winery adventure day. we stopped at romayne’s on main in taylors falls for lunch — and there was a chili cook off (and tasting) going on. we all felt a little overwhelmed and distracted by the chaos here, but the bloody marys and burgers were pretty delicious.

they had a really lovely-looking patio out front that would be awesome to visit in the summer, by the way.

the gals and i headed across the river to chateau st. croix (in wisconsin!) to spend a crowd cut coupon i had purchased (tour/cheese/tastings).

jason and i have visited before, so kristi and vani took the tour (and were in charge of getting the cheese) while bertine and i started tasting wine.

we were actually a little bit late for the tour reservation i had made, so it turned out that vani and kristi had snuck into a completely different tour organized through living social. and they almost had them fooled until it was discovered that there two more people than there were chairs for their reception.

this reminded me of a christmas gift i got from jason’s aunt, renee — a diy wine cork trivet. i am currently saving every wine cork (including the plastic ones) for it, since it could maybe be something decorative for the house instead of just something on which we put hot things. (the majority of the corks i have so far are from apothic red. have you tried that wine? i love it. looking forward to trying the recently released apothic white, too.)

good girlfriends + good wine + mini road trip = an excellent day

iPhone for Christmas? I wanna see how the WordPress app performs… Between the regular camera app, Hipstamatic, and the Vintage Camera app, I already have 150 photos to share. (Yikes!)

Hannie tried on Pop-pop’s glasses.

Then Hannie and I took a photo together (while I tried on Aunt Debbie’s glasses). SMILE!!

Jason and I stopped in Blue Earth, Minnesota, to meet the Jolly Green Giant.

LOL, egg nog.

This afternoon I had a few dozen Thrushes (I think) hanging around outside my office window. Kinda creepy.

So many more photos to share! Why do I take so many?

In theory, having a WordPress app will help me to update more often but I think I’d rather have my photos linked from Flickr instead of uploaded to my blog’s media center. I’m torn. Any iPhone bloggers out there with helpful tips?

it begins with sunrise over minneapolis.

early in the week, i decided i would go spend a saturday harvesting grapes at falconer vineyards in red wing, minnesota, after seeing their facebook post requesting volunteers. i have been wanting to visit the vineyard for a few years and had no other plans for the day. so — i would get a full day of experience. and photos.

it was a sunny morning as i drove i-94 through the twin cities, but as i got near hastings a fog began to settle in.

creepy to be driving over a fog-drenched bridge that’s being worked on and sits above the mississippi river. especially after the bridge collapse of august 2007. it takes a brave minnesotan…

when i arrived at the vineyard, it was chilly and foggy but i was excited! there were about 7 other volunteers at 8:30 a.m., fortifying themselves with pancakes, sausage and coffee.

we were tasked with picking la crescent grapes for the day. these are cold-hardy grapes produced at the university of minnesota and they are delicious!

this is cedar, the winery dog. very lovely and friendly. definitely deserves skritches.

the grapes had been frosted a couple weekends ago, which ends their ripening process. the staff of the vineyard seemed disappointed with these grapes, but i’m sure they’ll still produce a delicious vintage. because they were picked with love and care, you see.

john falconer, the owner of the vineyard, came to visit my picking partner and me as we happened upon this little birds’ nest. he said it’s typically seed-eaters that nest in the grapes.

by the end of the day at 5:30 p.m., we had twice this amount of grapes at least.

for lunch, john and his staff made us many wood-fired pizzas. though the pepperoni was especially delicious, i would like to go back to try the “grapes of wrath” pizza — red grapes on a pizza? must try!

after lunch, i brought my camera out into the field.

i believe these are frontenac — also a umn grape.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pork-chop/6182418428/in/set-72157627749944132/

RODENT-HANCE!

is this a gopher? is my alumni pride showing? (go, gophs!)

just when we thought our fingers might freeze off (around 1:30 p.m.), the sun came out! which felt so, so, so good.

steve and stacie jane provided musical entertainment in the afternoon.

after the long day of harvesting (and being one of the few who stayed from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), john recommended that i take home a bottle of merechal foch. i have never had any of the wines at falconer vineyards, so of course, i accepted. but something wasn’t quite right… i slowly walked out to my car and decided that if there were a spot out in front of the winery, i would stay for a quick tasting.

luckily, there was a spot out front! la crescent, la crescent moon, snowy white, chambourchin, frontenac port… i really wanted to write “yum!” next to each of these wines on my tasting notes.

so yummy.

and it ends with sunset over st. paul.

the vineyard is accepting more volunteers for another harvesting day next saturday, october 1^st. if you enjoy drinking wine, you should definitely go get in touch with some grapes — and stay for a taste!

the word of the day was…

this past valentine’s day, my sweet boyfriend snuck into my house and left a big bouquet of flowers along with a couple groupons that i would like — one was for a visit to chateau st. croix winery & vineyard, which included a tour, a cheese plate, wine tastings, and two souvenir glasses to take home. the winery was across the river in wisconsin, so we decided to make a whole, fun day trip out of it.

we paused in st. croix falls at a scenic overlook since we were a little ahead of “schedule.”

i think this photo is hilarious because it was my idea to look DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN so of course i’m making a stupid face and ruining an otherwise pretty darn cute photo.

i’m now not sure if those (off to the left of the photo) are taylor’s falls or st. croix’s falls.

king of the world! … or at least of this rock.

look at all that lichen.

zooooom!

jason risked his life for this photo. i almost had to leave him behind. (but he had the keys to the car…)

james knox polk: thank you for making wisconsin and for providing a name for a great street to live on (twice).

chateau. lions everywhere. i loved it.

now entering narnia!

our first tastings: 2006 atelier alexander valley zinfandel (the zin) and jaune d’or port (“like drinking a sugar cookie”). both very delicious. i liked most of what we tasted, and i went home with a bottle of the 2009 wild river rose.

oh, now we’re on the tour.

it would be fun to volunteer on bottling day/weekend in september. who wants to join me?

jason got on the floor for this photo, reviewed it, then proclaimed he was a genius. yes, you are, sweetie.

the cheese plate for two. you mean i have to share this?!

jason was even gonna eat the whole plate, too!

super cute bottle. i would’ve bought a bottle if i had a “wine fund” set aside.

knights like us, baby we were born to runnn… to the winery… to drink wine…

this photo was an “accident” but it’s evidence of the face that i make at jason most of the time. it’s my i’m-falling-more-in-love-with-you-right-now face.

dead wine barrel converted into a charcoal grill = totally awesome! can also be used as a smoker.

it was a special festival weekend at the winery, showcasing some of the local artisans and businesses. the sun came out just for us to wander around the booths and take it all in.

at this booth i informed jason of my plan to some day have my own sheep and my own wool-spinning machine. heck yes, i’m gonna make my own yarn. maybe i’ll get a llama, too (that is the yarn used for the hats in the foreground).

i liked the chardonnay and roasted garlic marinade.

meow!

i wanted to steal this puppy.

this is his (her?) “good side.”

see? more lions!

hello, wisconsin.

this is in the bathroom. sort of rude, but sort of funny, too.

vineyard birds.

sign says: “open wine”
i say: “okay, i will!”

then we stopped at this goofy little sculpture park on our way to stillwater.

this is the work area. there was some art in production as we walked around.

jason told me i live here. it doesn’t even have a floor.

there wasn’t any gold leaf left for us.

hey, then we got to stillwater! the river here was really high — the muddy area is where it had been in the last couple weeks.

strawberry/banana malts at leo’s.

obligatory photos of the stillwater lift bridge.

see the water? those steps are supposedly leading down to a lower pedestrian pathway. i will have to imagine…

this photo is mostly to show the streetlamp in the water.

this is the one place on gowalla that i didn’t check in. dang!

all in all, it was a pretty perfect day with my sweetheart — good weather, good scenery, good wine…

thanks so much for the gift, jason. i love you.

Pattern: by Julie Hentz, Lace-Edged Women’s Hat available on Ravelry
Made For: Minnesota Rollergirls Knitting for Charity
Needle: US 6/4 mm
Yarn: Bernat Satin Solids, sea shell
Completed: February 21, 2011

I kept meaning to go check out the monthly group meet-up of the Minnesota Rollergirls at the craft store in my neighborhood, Crafty Planet. I thought I’d be a little star-struck, which is what made me a little hesitant (oh, that social awkwardness) but I finally made it to the meet up last month. I met Konceal N Kari, who showed me the pattern book full of hats and the plentiful pile of yarn with which to knit. Crafty Planet donates all of the yarn for the group.

It’s only a two hour event, but I chose a pretty pink yarn and a slightly challenging pattern for my second attempt at knitting a hat, found a chair, and cast on. I got a couple rows of the lace done before I realized that I had already screwed up, so I used the opportunity to ask for some help from the gal sitting next to me — which got us talking about nothing related to knitting at all. Isn’t it fun to meet new, interesting people? This is why I wanted to go to a crafting group!

When I got home later in the evening, I started it all over and it was fun! I wasn’t necessarily knitting on a deadline, I didn’t have to keep it a secret lest the recipient find out, and I was knitting a hat! I haven’t tried knitting a hat since 2006 or 2007, and when I tried then, it was very much a mushroom-shape.

I love how this hat turned out — delicate and feminine. I dropped it off at yesterday’s meeting, and picked up more yarn for another hat!

View more details on Ravelry.

Side note: if you’re in Minneapolis and interested in knitting hats for charity, Crafty Planet will accept donations at any time.

Additional side note: The Rollergirls only have one more meeting this season, but Crafty Planets hosts a craft-n-chat group on the second and fourth Tuesday nights of the month from 6–9 p.m. I’m definitely planning to go sometime.