Thursday, or Thereabouts - September 10, 2015

What day is today?

Why is it that a week away puts one a month behind? When we left for our annual pilgrimage to the land of wine and the Shaw Festival, it was August. And that's how I first entered the date for this post: "Thursday, or Thereabout - August..."

August what? Some head scratching ensued before I discovered how far behind I had fallen. Egads! how does that happen?

We returned home Sunday afternoon having enjoyed 5 idyllic days in Niagara-on-the-Lake...

and then two equally idyllic days with our son and daughter-in-law in Wainfleet, taking in the Marshville Heritage Festival,

 Port Colborne,

Welland

and just hanging out.

But of course after all that bliss comes the laundry, the yardwork, the phone mail, and the email. Oh and then someone has to make supper! No printed menus to peruse, no ice water shimmering in fine glassware, no gleaming cutlery, no executive chef, no one to chop and clean, no servers, eager to please, and no artistry on a plate.

Not even for the dog...

Back home, the car had to be relieved of its burden - 103 bottles of wine. Yup, we brought home a bumper crop from wine country.

Cutting back this year? Apparently not.















I have spent the last two days cataloguing our purchases and I  wish to report that all have been laid to rest in a cool, dark place. One by one they will rise to the table during the coming year, only to be consumed.

And it's place shall know it no more - well until next year.
Cheers!

©2015 April Hoeller

Monday Moanings - August 31, 2015

Whine without the 'H'

It's that time of year again and oh what bliss it brings!

This morning finds my love and I bound for Niagara wine country on our annual pilgrimage in celebration of The Shaw Festival, wine and our life together. These excursions began not long before we were married in 1975 and have continued almost annually since then and always timed around our anniversary.











The planning begins with the arrival of the Shaw brochure. I peruse it off and on for several weeks before finally settling on which plays to see and how to fit them into four days. Then the tickets are booked and the hotel reservations made some time in early May.

This year we're taking in The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to Scriptures (Tony Kushner) - the title alone is almost an act of its own! - The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt (M. Bouchard), The Lady from the Sea (H. Ibsen) and we end with Peter and the Starcatcher (R. Elice). There is nothing like live theatre!










August is for taking stock of the wine cellar. The current inventory reveals that we're down by 94 bottles. How can that be I wonder? Must have been cold winter...

Next I spend a few more hours, reviewing wineries and wines, selecting the ones we will visit and the specific wines we want to taste at each winery. This is a much tougher job than it used to be thirty or so years ago when there were maybe a dozen wineries in Niagara. Today there are 84 according to VQA Ontario.







But we have our favourites, a stable of about 12 (and growing). We cycle through them over the years, visiting 8 or so each season. We are not just tasters but serious buyers who love the smaller wineries. It is not unusual for us to truck home 7+ cases of reds and whites, most of which are only available at the wineries. But this year we are going to cut back...

Yeah, well we say that every year. Here is our record of "cutting back" from past years:

2009: 75 bottles purchased
2010: 69
2011: 74
2012: 91
2013: 88
2014: 95!!!

On the way to Niagara-on-the-Lake today, I'm looking forward to priming the pump with two wineries: Cave Spring Cellars which we missed last year and Henry of Pelham where we've not been in several years.  Tuesday we can be found  checking out the Beamsville Bench appellation with stops at Angel's Gate, Thirty Bench, and one or perhaps two others yet to be decided.

The rest of the week is a mix of theatre and wineries and there's no shortage of cellers around Niagara-on-the-Lake. Oh and I'm looking for somewhere new too.

Already I can smell the grapes and hear the cannon shots that keep the birds away.

And did I mention the food?? Ah well that's pretty special too!

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!



©2015 April Hoeller

Thursday, or Thereabouts - September 12, 2014

It's an "or Thereabouts" kind of day.

Nothing like a few days away to put me weeks behind, or so it seems. We returned home Thursday just after 3pm having enjoyed 5 idyllic days in the land of  Niagara wine and the Shaw Festival. No problem I thought in putting together a post before the end of the day ... ah but then there was the unpacking of the car, the trip to town for a physio appointment, the clean up windfall debris (two large tree branches) brought down by a storm Wednesday night, followed by the phone mail, the email and the laundry.














Oh and then someone had to make supper! No printed menus to peruse, no ice water shimmering in fine glassware, no gleaming cutlery, no executive chef, no one to chop and clean, no servers, eager to please, and no artistry on a plate.

Just me, flash thawing some haddock and rescuing veggies that had made it three-quarters of the way to the compost bin all because the house sitters did not eat them, tossing all in the oven then slapping it on a plate in some ill fated attempt at presentation craft. Well - it tasted good.

And now it's Friday. Afternoon. What began with a lovely leisurely massage was soon morphed into a morning swept away by grocery shopping, a trip to the Zephyr Organics farm for our weekly supply of veggies followed by the unpacking, washing and storage of my acquisitions.

Is it nap time yet? Nope, it's time to get a blog post out!










For the record, and because I know you all are just dying to know, the stock at 7 Niagara wineries has diminished by 95 bottles. My next job is to get them out of the boxes lined up in the hallway, catalogued and tucked away into our inventory. I'm so glad we cut back this year...















©2014 April Hoeller

Monday Moanings - September 8, 2014

Days of Wine and Roses - a Celebration Love and Marriage

We'll leave the moaning to others this week as we bask in the latest offerings from Niagara Wine Country. Our traditional celebration of our years together (now marking #39) began yesterday, when we made our way along the QEW to Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Shaw Festival. We dove right in to the theatre experience - there is nothing like live theatre! - to take in The Mountaintop (K. Hall) in the afternoon and Arms and the Man (G.B. Shaw) in the evening - a very civilized beginning to 5 days of absolute pleasure. Later in the week we take a seat to experience The Charity that Began at Home (St.John Hankin) and When We Are Married (J.B. Priestly).

Today the Shaw is 'dark', and so the entire day is dedicated to wine. We are not just tasters but serious buyers who love the smaller wineries. It is not unusual for us to truck home 7+ cases of reds and whites, most of which are only available at the wineries. But this year we are going to cut back...
Yeah, well we say that every year. Here is our record of "cutting back" from past years:

• 2009: 75 bottles purchased
• 2010: 69
• 2011: 74
• 2012: 91
• 2013: 88

There are four vineyards on our list today, three are our 'old' faves - Angel's Gate, Thirty Bench, and Vineland Estates (I'm looking forward to a lovely lunch at Vineland); one is a new favourite - Kew Vineyards.  I've got the list of wines currently in our cellar; I've got the tasting notes from all the wines to cross our palate; and, I've got a box of crackers for consumption between wineries. Now it's off to a good breakfast then out to the vineyards. I can smell the grapes and hear the cannon shots that keep the birds away. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!

So while my love and I are out among the vineyards today, enjoy some images of past adventures in the grape stomping grounds of Niagara:

©2014 April Hoeller

Monday Moanings - December 30, 2013

Looking back, Moving forward -
a reflection/poem by Joyce Rupp

The Old Year Runs Away from Me

the old year runs away from me.
I hang on to her sleeve
but she shakes my loose.
where does the old year go
when the new year comes?

she slips away into memories,
falls into the crevices of wishes
and ought-to-have-dones.
she waits no longer upon promises,
turns her back on the might-have-been.

the elves of the old year step in,
pack up the struggles, store the joys,
tuck them away in the bulging box
spreading out on the psyche’s floor.

it’s up to the new year now.
I bring a lot to her domain:
expectations, dreams, hopes,
and I place them all before
her strong,  abundant door.

I walk into her untamed territory,
with a meek apprehension
and a vast sense of mystery,
assured by the welcome I receive,

anxious about what is waiting
behind the drawn window shade,
curious about what I will discover
in the hidden folds of her new days.

Taken from Out of the Ordinary ©2000 by Joyce Rupp. Used by permission of Ave Maria Press. All rights reserved.

All photos from several of our annual trips to Niagara Wine Country, where the winemakers can always be counted on to make the best of any year, come what may.