Here is a photo from Hilton House recently :)

We've been in the midst of 40 days and nights of rain. It may be prophetic. In any case, when it rains a lot in California, things slide and fall from the top of hills to the bottom. Behold!



Now we're getting thunder and lightning. Blub

Five years it took. Five years of looking, thinking, planning, executing, choosing, guessing, hoping, and sometime praying. But the house is built, we and the cat are esconced therein, and Daruma-san has received his other eyeball.

Behold!

Akemashite omodeto gozaimasu.

On a more serious note, here's a pic from Thailand during the tsunami last weekend. No comment is necessary (unless it's been photoshopped.) Scary.

Update: Turns out it probably is of another event; might even be a Tidal Bore. http://www.newsdesigner.com/archives/000398.php

The weather has been a bit unsettled this week, and promises to continue that way through the New Year's weekend. Too bad. No golf.

However, there are a few compensations. For instance, catch this view from our back yard this morning:

We're still exploring the restaurant environment in our new hometown of Walnut Creek, and last night found a true winner. It's not cheap ($40 w/wine), but it's fascinating.



That's the chef, Kelly Degala above. He's Hawaiian, and he runs a loud, exciting, busy exhibition kitchen at Va de Vi on Mt. Diablo Boulevard. We were without reservations, and so were seated at the counter where we could watch the activities.

The deal here is small plates, bigger than h'ors d'oevres, but smaller than entrees. Lots of choices, myriad influences, and a plethora of tastes. We shared a rib-eye steak, shrimp w/peanut sauce, and pork ribs w/plum sauce. Prefaced with lobster bisque and closed with a four-piece dessert sampler. Wow, it was good.

The counter setting also provides for easy friendship with neighbors. Next to us was Giuseppe Cagnoni from Umbria (next door to Tuscany in central Italy) who imports Italian delicacies, including his family's "Etruria" olive oil. He had just delivered a paper bag with Italian white truffles to Kelly and had him put one on a plate to show Mieko. About 3" by 2", it cost $700. Not bad.

Highly recommended by the mystery restaurant guest (me.) We'll try it again with an old college roommate next week, for lunch this time.

Go to http://www.va-de-vi-bistro.com

Wedding Anniversary Day. Here's a photo we found recently showing George and Mieko at the Tonga Room of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The date is December 28, 1966:




We haven't really changed much, have we?

St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Mieko & I were there in 2001 and we shared a plate of fish and chips right here:




Yes, I know that the timing is a bit off, but it looks warm outside, doesn't it?

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy Holiday Season to all from Nut Crik!

Cheers to all the new homes in the Winnacker family!
Here's one from Bromsgrove...(aka MKW's infamous two story brick?)

We could talk about moving, right? It's an exhausting, degrading, unintellectual, boring process. But you knew all that, right? In honor of another traumatic change for the three cats that we have recently been living with, let's look at a satisfied feline:



We'll check in from a new location as soon as possible.

Remember that paper-mache Japanese face that we painted one eye onto about 5 years ago? It's called a daruma. Sort of a promise of good luck in a chosen endeavor. Well, our endeavor was HiltonHouse in Nut Crik, and here is the daruma in place on the window seat, just waiting for his/her second eyeball to be painted in, in less than a week. :-)




And, I just couldn't resist on final photo of the new wind vane. I'm beginning to like that heron:

I just thought that this was a neat padlock photo (hat tip to pbase.com):

OK, back to wine in the foothills. (It's been going down to 25-30F at night up there this week.) (Unusual, but not unheard of.)

Unlike the Napa/Sonoma area, wine tastings in the Gold Country are still free. That's good, and it's good business; makes me want to buy a bottle of wine to take with us.

The smaller wineries are by far the most interesting. Usually just one person serving, often quite knowledgeable, and there are no crowds unless there's a limo or a van out front.

I'm thinking here of Spinetta, Serenidad, Terre Rouge, and Easton. All within 15 minutes of each other off Shenandoah Road in Plymouth. Get a sandwich in town, buy a bottle of wine at the winery, and enjoy a wonderful luncheon picnic. Go now!

Here's a picture of the vineyards on Shenandoah Schoolhouse Road:

Two weeks to go on HiltonHouse, and it looks like maybe we'll be on schedule, although the driveway will lag by about a week. Remember that earlier post about Mieko's cupola? Well, here it is, in place and looking good, although the damned bird appears to have pooped a bit already:



And, even the exterior is beginning to look presentable. If that truck isn't moved pretty soon, I think that I'll claim it.

The other adventure that has occupied our late summer/early autumn has been tripping to Gold Country in search of one of California's new wine centers, the Sierra Foothills. This includes Calaveras, Amador, and El Dorado counties, and they are eye openers.

There's a controversy underway up there, between the big-money operations and the boutique vineyards. Both sides appear to have taken long looks at what's happened to Napa-Sonoma and have reacted, one favorably, the other in horror. Let's illustrate with what's going on in the Shenandoah Valley in and around Plymouth, on Highway 49.




The wineries that are organized around active tourism have lavish layouts, paved parking with bus and RV spaces, on-premises food, and large wine paraphernalia shopping areas. Along with the wine-tasting bars of course. I've enjoyed hot lunches at Villa Toscano and Bella Piazza with Frank Sinatra crooning in the background.

More later. . .

No news on HiltonHouse since October, but that's because most of the activity moved inside until very recently. You know the drill: gypsum board, taping and texturing, painting, cabinets, flooring, plumbing fixtures, electrical. Only the kitchen appliances remain, and then clean up of the interior. The outside is mostly complete, and we're looking forward to exterior landscaping, hardscape and softscape, probably in the Spring.



Very much a horizontal house, wouldn't you say? That's what we wanted. It compares and contrasts with the vertical house that Rudy and Betty will be moving into:



We will miss the magnificent, typical California live oaks.

Next time, I'll post some interior shots, and then we'll be done.

Since we're posting pics of houses, how about this one?
Not quite as momentous as Hilton House, but maybe a bit shinier?

Kinkaku, "Golden Pavilion", in Kyoto.